Far Wise in Knowledge Management

Blog diners and talks

Is it something bloggers have in common, that they love to talk and to go out for diner? Since the first Blogwalk (my introduction in the bloggers' world) I had some "Blogdiners", often organised by Lilia and Ton (or, at least, they were present at all).

This time Stephanie visited us. She presented about HumLab and showed some of her virtual worlds. Stephanie came to work with Lilia and Anjo on blogtrace, she brought her running shoes (we both are training for a half marathon) but we didn't run together. And later that day there was diner in Enschede city at a Chinese restaurant, with Ton, Elmine, Lilia, Anjo, Henk, Robert, Stephanie and (new to me) Mark. Yes, all bloggers! And still it was fun.

After that, during the long Easter weekend my boyfriend and I drove to a place near Dinant (Belgium) where we stayed in a holiday home with... again a lot of bloggers. Hmmm, now you may think I only spend time with bloggers or, the other way, only bloggers can be my friend, but I can assure you it is not the case. Most of my friends like food or running (or both) and the one's who like food often seem to be a blogger....  Coincidence?

Decison making and the subconscious

I bought Blink: The power of thinking without thinking just before my holidays, to read it during our holiday evenings in Finland. Well, that was the plan, in the end it was my boyfriend (who never reads books) who was reading Blink and I had no choice to read The Da Vinci Code. So I still have to start with Blink, but I already read some related papers and reviews.

The reason I bought the book was because of an example I read about a decision that experts are certain about but cannot explain why. At that time I was reading David DeLong's book Lost knowledge and didn't find enough about this expert's insight in that book. Maybe Blink tells more about it, so was my hope. From the examples my boyfriend told be and an article in NRC last Saturday I begin to doubt if this is what Blink is about, whether I should change my expectations.

Anyway, the article in NRC was interesting, about the conscious and subconscious in decision making. Do we make a decision intuitively or do we do it more rational, weighting advantages and disadvantages. The intuitive part is what Gladweel writes about in Blink. Often following your intuition is better than thinking. This paper in NRC says that it is very often not the case: you can take wrong decisions based on intuition. Question is: when should we reason and in what cases not?

The conclusion is: with complex decisions don't think; with simple decisions think. It sounds contradictory: buy a new house without thinking too much and think well when buying a t-shirt.

The reason can be found in the conscious and subconscious, according to Dijksterhuis who's research is described in the article. The conscious mind only has limited capacity, so with too much information or under time pressure it easily get overloaded (information overload!). On the other hand, the subconscious mind can deal with a lot of information, though it needs some time to process. Dijksterhuis explains that the conscious mind uses shortcuts and rules-of-thumb (leading sometimes to irrational behaviour), while the subconscious mind is more based on knowledge and experience. The eureka-moments are examples of when the subconscious is in action. It usually happens when the conscious mind is switched off, for example when driving a car or taking a shower.

Interesting stuff this, although I have no idea how it helps us in our information overload study, especially there is still so much unknown in this (cognitive) area and we are no experts here. Maybe we could invent a tool to help the subconscious.

Blogevent postponed

In an earlier posting I wrote about NewComm Forum and its event in Paris.  I read now in the CorporateBloggingBlog that the event is postponed. Reason: not enough attendents.  Fredrik Wackå of CorporateBloggingBlog is annoyed by the reactions of the bloggers behind this event. His conclusions:

1. Yes, the market in Europe is behind the US in this matter. So what? As professional communicators, and consultants many of us, the ability to understand the market(s) is vital. How successful would it be for GM to call the car buyers stupid if they don't buy GM's new models? Instead, they speed up product development and deepen their attempts to understand the car buyers.
2. With that said, it is a huge exaggeration to interpret the lack of interest in NewComm Forum as a lack of interest in general. It only shows that the organizers didn't know the market well enough. They're not the first - nor the last - event organizers to make that mistake. No big deal. Good luck next time.
3. I also wish we could gain more momentum in Europe for these ideas. I'm all for preaching the blog gospel. When people want to listen, we will all be here. And they will listen when they need to.

I hope the Blognomics.nl event is more focused and more successful in attracting participants. I think there is a market for blogging events in Europe. Look at the small BlogWalks and the growing number of bloggers, individuals and in business settings. 

Blognomics.nl

Lilia sent me this via e-mail: Blognomics.nl - The mechanics and economics of blogging. It is a Dutch conference on weblogging (the first?), aimed at the industry. It will take place 21st of April in Amsterdam (RAI, same location as KM Europe last year). So, what will you learn at this conference:

1. Learn how to successfully introduce blogging in your organisation.
2. Possibility to meet with known bloggers and providers of blogging tools.
3. Learn to understand the challenges of the present media landscape.
4. Understand how blogs influence on your organisation.
5. Discover commercial possibilities of and from blogging.

I have to admit that I don't know one of the presenters.

Too many choices to make

In Intermediair (Dutch magazine) of last week I read a paper about the choices we have to make; it is comparible to all the information we get and interesting for our information overload study.

Most people think it is good we have so much choice nowadays; the freedom of choice. The authors however warn that many people feel stress and frustration when they have to make a choice. For example, in a supermarket in Amsterdam you can choose from 89 different types of bread. And in fashion, the collections now seem to change 13 times a year (one time each month and Christmas, I think). And there are many more examples of where we have to choose between a lot of options that are offered to us.

What is the reaction of many people to all the choices they need to make? They try to avoid the decision. They take the default option not to choose.

There seem to be two types of personalities when it comes to choosing behaviour: satisfiers and optimisers. The first are lazy when they need to make a choice: good is good enough. The optimisers only want the best and compare all specifications, prices etcetera. They have an increasingly difficult job, because it takes a lot of time to find all the information they need.

The more alternatives there are, the less choices people make, according to the authors. The strange thing is that we want the options, but don't use them. We don't buy the tool with least amount of options, we want the one with the most options.

One of the reasons why we find making a choice is that the strategy we use, comes from times of scarcity. So we have learned to take a chance when it comes, not to choose from all the chances. This relates to information as well, some people are afraid to miss something important and collect so much information that they don't know how to handle it.

On the other hand, people hardly use rational arguments to make a decision. Is it irresponsible to choose for a blue car because you like the colour so much? Most decisions are made unconsciously. So the advice is to choose by feeling.

Finland x-country skiing

I hoped it would be spring in Holland when I came back from Finland. Now it looks like my wish comes true: the sun is shining, no snow, no rain. Finally, yes!

In Finland it was really winter, but that was what we came for. Lots of snow, low temperatures, frozen lakes. Good for cross-country skiing, or "langlaufen" as we call it. Our pictures are on the web, but I'm still too tired to write a report, as the travel agency asked us to do. But in one word it was GREAT!

to be continued...

NewComm Forum Blogzine

This was new to me: the New Communication Forum, which also seems to have a Blogzine. It says:

This bi-monthly online publication is dedicated to exploring new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, (i.e. blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, etc.), the growing phenomena of participatory communications and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business and society at large.

I haven't read anything yet, but a article title like "Bloggers aren't ethical" triggers of course.

I have never heard of this forum, they even have an event not far from here (Paris). Well, I may not be their target group, considering the following text:

.... an intensive new conference series specifically designed to bring journalists and marketing and PR professionals together to learn how to use new media tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and podcasting for media communications, corporate branding, marketing communications, public relations and employee communications initiatives. It will provide you with an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications. Our instructors are leading bloggers, journalists, marketers, PR experts, and senior executives who have pioneered the use of these new tools and technologies. They will share their in-the-trenches experiences as early adopters of these new communications tools.

Cold, colder....

In less than a week my boyfriend and I are going on holiday to Finland for a cross country trekking tour. My boyfriend just sent me the link to his company website with a weather report for Kuopio (that's where we're going): night temperatures of minus 25 and 29 degrees Celsius!!! And I thought it was cold here (minus 7 degrees Celsius). Well, the good thing is that it is sunny at day time.