Far Wise in Knowledge Management

There we go again...

A bit more than two years ago we moved to France. Quite an experience, I've learned a lot (and not only the French language!). We met new people, made new friends and discovered parts of this beautiful country. I only wished it would be easier to find a job here...

However, this year we will move again to another country, even to another continent! Our new location will be Canada (Ontario). My boyfriend works a lot with his colleagues in Canada, so the manager asked him, "Why don't you come to work here?". No need to ask this to me, Canada was (and is) always high on my list of countries-to-live. So, there we go again!

Now that we (and the company) made the decision, it sounds to me like a bigger step than moving to France. Especially for family and friends it is much further away, much more expensive to visit. First we (especially I) need to take a look at this part of Canada that I've never visited before, and look for a house to rent. Exiting and scary at the same time!

Besides leaving France, our nice place of living and our new friends, we have to leave our new dog (Cirko) behind . He arrived end of January as a puppy and will become a help dog for a handicapped person when he has grown up. We didn't tell the association  - I'm afraid that they will take away little Cirko the moment they find a new host family. I don't want to think about it!

Remembering names

When I try to remember the name of a person, I usually go (in my mind) along the letters of the alphabet. In most cases there is one letter that catches me or starts ringing a bell. And very often this is the letter of the first name of the person. If not, I have to start over again, or leave it a while. For me it is a very effective method, maybe not the most efficient, but usually effective enough.

My boyfriend teases with my "alphabet method". I asked him what method he uses. He replied that he waits till I've found the name. An  effective ànd efficient method, I think....

Frankwatching best Dutch weblog

Today I read that one of the weblogs that I follow for a very long time, Frankwatching, has won the price of "Best Dutch weblog". Frank, congratulations with this price and the recognition of all the work that you put into your blog! I met Frank a few years ago at an event and it is always nice to meet the person behind a blog, especially someone so enthusiast and modest about his work at the same time. Over the years Frankwatching has grown, Frank is now supported by several co-bloggers, discussing all kinds of digital trends. Bad luck for those who cannot read Dutch!

ICC 3.0

A few days before the ICC-conference started, by coincidence I found out about it on the Internet. A French conference on (among other subjects) knowledge management, in Paris, for free and I had time to go. So what more do I need to subscribe as participant? An opportunity to find out about companies that work in this area and it would be a test for me as well whether my French has improved enough to listen two days to presentations and talk to people. This time my priority was not to hear something new but to listen and talk.
To answer my question about my level of French, I can say it depends very much on the person (the speaker). Let me give a description of what most presentations look like: Take a deep breath. Try to say as much as possible in the time given to you. Then breath out. No slides. And if you have a microphone, wave it somewhere in the direction of your mouth (because you are used to gesturing a lot when you are exited), so it only picks up 10% of what you say.

Okay, I exaggerate and generalise (though my boyfriend's French instructor recognised it very well) and the second day was much better than the first in this respect.  But I was happy I when I understood in general of what the presenter wanted to say, even though I must have missed a lot of details. Slides help a lot, so I can see what is said. And when I know the subject, for example a Web2.0 presentation, I can almost predict what they will say, which makes it a lot easier as well. So, my understanding depends much on the effort of the speaker not to talk too fast, use slides and talk about things I know. Next to this I had a few nice talks with people presenting companies on the "market floor". Some even said that my French is quite good. That is very kind of them,  because I know my French is still limited.

About the conference itself. The way it was set up makes it difficult to draw conclusions. During every slot there were 3 presenters, each had about 10 minutes to talk and then there were questions from the audience. Sometimes these 3 presentations were so different, like 3 different views on one topic. New for me were the topics "intelligence économique (IE)" (how to use information for economic and strategic purposes), "dévéloppement durable" (sustainable development) and its relation to IE. An often-mentioned topic was searching, in information, pictures, video, organisations. On knowledge management and Web2.0 I haven't heared not much news. I didn't take many notes; the combination with listening very carefully was not so easy. I see now that my notes are a mix of French, Dutch and English. My mind must have been mixing all these languages. It might explain why I was dead tired at the end of the day!

Coupé

Almost one week we were cut off from our fixed telephone line, Internet and television. No, not because we didn't pay the bill, but because we thought it a good idea to change the ADSL provider. This new provider told the old one to cut us off ("coupé" in French) and we had to wait 5 days before we received the new wifi-box. I don't care so much about tv, but for the rest it felt like being cut off from the rest of the world. Luckily I have many books waiting to be read and the weather was nice, so I sat outside in the autumn sun,  reading my book and waiting for the door bell with the post woman to bring this stupid box. The first days I was really annoyed, phoning as angry as I can in French, after having wrestled with the telephone menus that I hardly understand.

Made me think of how dependent we've got on the computer, Internet, telephone and so on. Or is it because I don't so many people around here?

Anyway, I wanted to blog about a French KM-conference I visited beginning October. I admit, I don't blog much these days, but still it feels frustrating the moment I wanted to blog it was not possible.

A perfect mess

"If you don't tidy your room now, I'll do it for you", my mother used to threaten. Reason enough to take action, because if my mother cleaned my room I would never be able to find things back. Or worse, she would throw away something important! It didn't really work, I'm still not good in keeping my place neat; on my desk (actually, in more places in our house) you'll find hugh piles of papers. Most "pilers" say they easily find back what they need, but I have to admit that this is not always my experience. Sometimes I print a report, of which I later find a copy in one of the piles on my desk.

Oh, I did try: arrange, archive, index documents and carefully plan activities. Though, in the end I always return to my old, disorganised habits. That is why I was happy to read the book "A perfect mess" by David H. Freedman (Or, in Dutch: "De wet van de stimulerende wanorde"). We are always taught that being neat and organised is best, however the authors contradict this statement - they argue that arranging takes time. Time we don't win back when we say we find back documents more easily. Reading this, I proudly looked at the mess on my desk.

One thing the authors don't mention is that technology helps people like me being disorganised. Computer disk space is cheap nowadays, so why should I bother throwing away files? I used to clean up the disk when it was nearly full. Now I buy more gigabites and the problem is solved. As well as storing files and e-mail messages in folders - not necessary any longer. Google Desktop will find them for me.

I only have one request: can the Google people invent something that helps me finding things back in my house? Till that time, I'm afraid I will have do some tidying. Not too often of course, because that's a real waste of time.

Paris a city for cyclists?

When I go to the running training, I always go on bike. Nothing special for me, I used to do it like this in Holland and here in France I didn't change my habit. The thing that changed is that people now say to me: "Hey, did you come on bike? You're so sporty", followed with: "But you're Dutch". Which explains it all.

I don't understand why so few people cycle here. Our city R. is relatively flat, apart from one climb in the centre (I admit, it's not an easy climb). Compared to Holland, the weather is better in general: it rains less and in the winter snow is rare, as well as black ice (I hate this!). Besides, there are cycle paths. Not too bad for cycling at all! Still, hardly any other cyclists. Well, yes, I see children cycling, but I thing that they, as soon as they get the age of 18, immediately change the bike for a car -like everybody. And, when the weather is nice, on Sunday a can of race bikers is opened. Sometimes I wonder how it is possible this country has a race like the Tour de France.

However, changes are on their way! After Lyon, Paris will become a real bikers city. At least, according the plans of "Vélib". About 20.000 bikes are placed at 750 locations everywhere in Paris; bikes you can rent to a small amount. So, when you need a bike, you take one from one of the stations and once you have reached your destination you park it in another station. In Lyon, where the same idea is carried out in 2005, it is called a succes.  Paris followed, starting this month and other cities follow the coming years. 

I think it's a great development! And I wonder: will Paris ever become a city for cyclists like Amsterdam?

Your "real" European nationality

In the category "fun, not to be taken too seriously", a test to see which European nationality should you have. Moved from The Netherlands to France, I wondered have I become more French, or am I still typically Dutch? Wrong: I scored as a Belgium. Isn't that exactly between France and Holland? Can't be a coincidence then.

Digital bohemians at BlogWalkEleven

It was nice to be back in Holland, to enjoy the nice weather in Amsterdam, jog in the Vondelpark with my host Martien and talk with people at BlogWalkEleven. Thanks a lot Ton, Sebastian and Lilia for organising this event! It was great to talk to people I know and haven't seen for ages (but it doesn't matter, we keep up to date through the blogging) and meeting new people. Look at the pictures of Elmine to get an idea of the day. Apparently I was not the only one who needed inspiration, reading Ana's (almost poetic) posting:

the blogwalk last friday was my latest best escape from the over and over declared boredom of going to a place where my brain dies every day a little more, in this office at the end of the world, in a very crowded and non touristy area of bucharest

The theme of the Eleventh BlogWalk was "Digital Bohemians". I don't exactly know what they are, have a vague picture. Before the meeting I was afraid that people would have a rather romantic, idealistic view of  digital bohemians and remain in high spheres in discussing it. I was glad that in the morning (more brainstorming) session I didn't need to be afraid. I walked around, chatted here and there, not always directly about theme but interesting anyway, and once in a while I wrote down something on a Post-it Note (Ton took the effort to put them in the wiki). This is the inspiring part of the Open Space Method, as is central in BlogWalks.

More chatting at lunch in the CS Post building, followed by a guided tour through Amsterdam by Bicycle Mark. Maybe we were tired in the afternoon, but in the discussion part I had the feeling the enthusiasm slowed down. Most people, same as I, had no clear picture of a digital bohemian. Sebastian told it came from a (German) book, situated in Berlin, working independent and meeting the world through Internet. Or is it more a mindset, as Gabriela suggests:

I guess this bohemianship is more a state of mind than anything else: flocking together at such unconferences on our own expense seems to be one of the features; having a digital lifestyle, trying to keep in touch with what's going on, being open to try new things are some of the others.

So are we digital bohemians? I think most of us are not, maybe more in our minds than in our daily life, as in the description of the Goethe-Institut. But I certainly believe there is a generation coming that is grown up with the new media (as we are not, we learned to use them, which is not the same) and will work and live in a different way. The way we work is according old, traditional patterns.

As for the BlogWalk, I agree with Ton in his reflections that a BlogWalk doesn't need more structure. Maybe in the discussion we could have used more the Post-it notes to guide the conversation. I didn't have much time to read them that day - besides that, they were the results of an inspiring morning.

Well, keep on walking - I'm off for a run!

Restart at Blogwalk Eleven

A while ago I sent Ton an e-mail, "Ton, I need some inspiration! Can you invite me to BlogWalk Eleven?". It may have sounded like a "Help!", and maybe it was, but at this moment I really like to talk with people about what used to be work-related things (knowledge management, social tools, weblogs, etcetera). Oh, I do read books and blogs to keep up-to-date, and sometimes I write a review for Managementboek, but it is not the same as talking to people.

Here, in France, I know now many people, with whom I can talk about running, the dog, geocaching, gardening, English books, learning French, looking for a job in France, but none of them knows something about the above-mentioned topics. So, what I miss is the combination and I am prepared to travel to Amsterdam, stay with a friend and have (I hope) interesting talks with a lot of people I know: Ton and Elmine, Robert and Lilia, Andy, Frank, Gabriela and many others I (think I) don't know.

The theme of BlogWalk this time is Digital Bohemians. In short:

Digital Bohemiens are (relatively) young people, fully adapted to the digital lifestyle. They see a city as their home, and are connected in European and global networks. They flock to conferences as their meeting places. If we look at this (somewhat exaggerated) portrait of the avant garde of internet users, what can we say about things like:

The tools they use
How they learn and develop themselves
How they support a highly mobile life style
The organisational models and business models that fit these networked individuals

Amsterdam, here I come!