More Than a Bit Confused

Book Review: Human Software: A Life in IT by Richard W. Bown

By the title - Human Software: A Life In I.T. - I was expecting a memoir, the tale of a fellow software engineer negotiating the trials of corporate culture. The back matter, however, promised a "gripping, vivid must-read", a "thriller whodunit page-turner".
It turns out Human Software is a little of both, giving us the Novel Memoir.

The Prologue is in novel style, so I settled in for a novel experience. And was promptly yanked out of it when the jargon began to appear in Chapter One.

We techies, much like any of a number of specialized workers, love our specialized vocabulary of terms and acronyms. It's kind of a secret handshake, something that makes our fellow nerds smile and nod in our shared knowledge, and makes everyone else's eyes glaze over. To be fair, there is a helpful glossary at the back.

Last summer I read Sarah Wynn-Williams' Careless People, a memoir of her time in the Zucker-world of Meta. The fact that it was my "beach read" should tell you all you need to know: it was accessible and easily digestible. It actually read more like a novel than a memoir. But then Ms. Wynn-Williams was in marketing, not IT.

Genre bending is really not uncommon in literature, it's how we got "romantasy". I have to give kudos to Richard Bown, he actually brought a measure of life and humanity to the world of bits and chips. I don't feel like he quite closed the deal here, but he is on the right track. The story he tells here is important, not only to those of us whose lifetime of work is now food for AI, but to everyone on the planet. I hope he persists.

(This reviewer is a recovering software engineer)

Information vs Communication

Book Review: Dialogue Gap by Peter Nixon

"Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" - T.S. Eliot

In Dialogue Gap, Peter Nixon defines communication as the exchange of information, and dialogue as the active sharing of ideas and knowledge. Terminology aside, the idea is that there is a difference between simply relaying information and actually gaining knowledge and wisdom. A surfeit of information -- much of it unreliable or just wrong -- is as close as your computer, tablet, or smart phone. Knowledge and wisdom are not so readily accessible, requiring action and interaction.

At a certain level,Dialogue Gap reads more like a textbook than the standard management "how-to" book, (for example, The Truth About Managing People) so it may put off readers who are used to a more practical than theoretical approach. Admittedly, Nixon can come off a little preachy at times, perhaps forgetting who his target audience may be. But this does not negate the importance and relevance of his message: that in our seemingly endless quest for increasing amounts of information, our ability to communicate (or dialog) is decreasing to a 140 character limit.

"The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through." - Sydney J. Harris

Peter Nixon gives us a prescription for getting through - put down the cell phones, turn off the computer, and TALK. Revolutionary ... and simple. All it takes is a complete change of mindset. Give it a try.

The Evolving Art of Virtual Teamwork

Book Review: Virtual Teamwork: Mastering the Art and Practice of Online Learning and Corporate Collaboration edited by Robert Ubell

Despite the glut of books on social networking (or perhaps because of it) there is a scarcity of peer-reviewed source material on virtual teams. Virtual Teamwork takes an important step toward bridging that gap.

Distance learning and virtual collaboration are here to stay. Team projects are now the norm in most organizations, often across geographical boundaries. In the past ten years I have been involved in three virtual teams for three different employers, as well as being involved in several distance learning efforts. The results have been mixed, but this is an indication of how this sector is evolving, not a question of its validity.

As many organizations are discovering, it is not just about the technology. "Cute cat" tools like Facebook or the divisive Twitter are obviously not a solution for corporate or educational communication. The fact that millions of people use social media does not give it value - millions of people also watch "reality" TV shows. In terms of connectedness, Facebook was over-valued. But just installing Lync or some other flavor of the month messaging tool into the corporate software pool isn't the answer either if no one uses it.

The essays that editor Robert Ubell has gathered covers many of the hurdles that one encounters in virtual teams. Although they are often couched from the perspective of one discipline, the insights can be applied across the spectrum. For instance, the problems that occur in team projects in a university class are not any different than one sees in a corporate environment, and the solutions bear equal weight as well.

While there may not be enough detail for organizational leaders looking for a blueprint ("use software X, it will solve all your problems"), Ubell and his contributors have given us a research based framework to build on. As such, I find Virtual Teamwork an invaluable resource that promotes 'out of the box' thinking towards managing virtual teams and collaborative groups.