Robert Coover, the Hypertext Hotel, and Disappearing Trends

Internet wondering and wandering can be marvelous at times; disconnected threads combine to find a home in one's thoughts. However, what is the goal of the wondering wanderer? To find a home in the wanderer's thoughts, or to be able to learn and teach about the experience? Does one need to be a pondering panderer instead? Regardless, let us start with the dual threads:

• The March 14, 2011 issue of The New Yorker.
• The Intellectual Capital Management (ICM).

Thread No. 1--The New Yorker: This begins with opening up the issue to a full page photograph of an angry Kewpie. For most people, this would mean nothing; but for graduates of David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, well I guess yes, a Kewpie is it--our unique team mascot. But, the post isn't about the Kewpie, but about the facing single page short story: "Going for a Beer" by Robert Coover. I was an avid fan of Coover's novel The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.,read his other work (backward and forward), and lost track of him after he published (in 1977) The Public Burning,so was very surprised to see that he was still around and writing, so have now embarked to catch up again.

 Thread No.2--ICM and the ICM Movement: This is not my thread, but as with my exploration of the seven principles of learning and of knowledge journalists, a Google search inspired by my wife's reading and wanting to know who or what was the Intellectual Capital Movement and the ICM Group and the ICM Gathering. Well, I found out some stuff, but it was a bit difficult, as it appears to be a thing of the past. ICM built up steam over the 1980's and 1990's as a discipline for channeling the intellectual capital in corporations and then ratcheted up in the early 2000's as a capital M Movement. And then, it was over.

The Seven Principles of Learning (or the Seven Principles of Learning (or the Seven Principles of Learning))

It is a familiar form of discourse to orient thinking around a number--two for yes and no and black and white and on or off and good and evil and yin and yang; three for trinity; four for nice little spacial boxes built on an x axis and a y axis; etc. One of the classic numbers is, for course, seven: seven days of the week, seven deadly sins, seven sages, and--as none of you knew before now--the seven principles of learning!

The Google winner (Number One, Top of the Charts) on the Seven Principles of Learning comes from the National Research Council and are supposedly based on the "Cognitive Science of How People Learn." As presented on a Utah Valley University website, they are:

1. Learning with understanding is facilitated when new and existing knowledge is structured around the major concepts and principles of the discipline.

2.Learners use what they already know to construct new understandings.

3. Learning is facilitated through the use of metacognitive strategies that identify, monitor, and regulate cognitive processes.

4. Learners have different strategies, approaches, patterns of abilities, and learning styles that are a function of the interaction between their heredity and their prior experiences.

5. Learners’ motivation to learn and sense of self affects what is learned, how much is learned, and how much effort will be put into the learning process.

6. The practices and activities in which people engage while learning shape what is learned.

7. Learning is enhanced through socially supported interactions.

But, wait, I have faked you out, because these are not the seven principles of learning I was trying to source on the Internet. But, then, neither are these, the next set that we find on Google. This time from ASAE, the Center for Association Leadership:

1. Learning involves both support and challenge.

2. Learning involves changing both thinking and action.

3. Learning is an ongoing process of self-discovery.

4. Participants need to feel that the learning experience is both relevant to their situation and authentic to them as a person.

5. Learners and faculty should be involved as equal contributors in the learning process.

6. Learning is a social activity and happens best in the context of a trusting community.

7. Learning experiences should surprise and delight participants.

Whew, that must be the right one, correct? .. Not.

On Becoming a "Knowledge Journalist"

In search of encore careers, my wife told me about "knowledge journalists"; that seemed to be a valid trigger for some internet wondering/wandering, so here we go! While there are some wasted hits on the first page of Google results, the first hit is a goodie, but oldie. From 1999, Tom Fineran writes about "A Component-Based Knowledge Management System" and says:

One essential aspect of knowledge quality is meaningful classification. Although it may be possible to perform some classification automatically, a considerable amount of manual effort will be required initially. "Knowledge Journalists" will be required to perform some of these activities. This is not to say that Knowledge Journalists are essential for a functioning Knowledge Management System.. What it means is that those organizations that require high-quality information need to consider developing Knowledge Journalist professionals.

The next good hit is about someone who apparently was a knowledge journalist for some time. From what seems to be an old, not-update web site, we can learn about Sylva Foti:

Then she became a Knowledge Journalist at Hewitt, which is a lot like being a Regular Journalist, except that she wrote confidential business profiles from the consultants' point of view. The idea was to share consultants' stories on their clients so they could learn from each other. It's the latest in Knowledge Management.

Up next, an abstract from a publication on "Knowledge Management"( but I am not paying $25 to see what's in the detail):