ORG COMM

From network to tribe: Ronfeldt reexamines Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda is part tribe, part global networked org. New hybrid forms of organization for the 21st Century—we need to understand what we're up against.

From network to tribe: Ronfeldt reexamines Al Qaeda:

Leading netwar scholar David Ronfeldt has published a new paper in the current First Monday, arguing that in addition to being a networked organization, Al Qaeda has strong tribal components.

In short, Al Qaeda and its affiliates have formed a hybrid of the tribal and network designs: a tribalized network or networked tribe, so to speak, with bits of hierarchy and market–like dynamics too.

Ronfeldt sees information technologies as enhancing tribal memes and organization:

As many analysts have noted, the new information media are enabling terrorists and insurgents to augment their own communication and coordination, as well as reach outside audiences. The online media also suit the oral traditions that tribal peoples prefer. What merits pointing out here is that the jihadis are using the Internet and the Web to inspire the creation of a virtual global tribe of Islamic radicals — an online umma with kinship segments around the world. This can help a member keep in touch with a segment, or re–attach to a new segment in another part of the world as he or she moves around. Thus the information revolution, not to mention broader aspects of globalization, can facilitate a resurgence of intractable tribalism around the world. Al Qaeda and its ilk are a leading example of this.

(caught by Howard)

(Via Smart Mobs)

Blogging is good for your career

Your blogging skills go beyond class.

Blogging is good for your career: Cory Doctorow: The perfect antidote to those fired-for-blogging posts: Tim Bray explains why blogging is good for your career:

1. You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2. You have to get noticed to get hired.
3. It really impresses people when you say "Oh, I've written about that, just google for XXX and I'm on the top page" or "Oh, just google my name."
4. No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6. Knowing more also means you're more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7. Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8. If you're an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9. If you're in marketing, you'll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10. It's a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

Link (via Waxy)

(Via Boing Boing Blog)

Wiki Becomes a Way of Life

Great article on the "folks" behind Widipedia:

Wiki Becomes a Way of Life: More than 16,000 people contribute to the ever-changing Wikipedia, but few are as dedicated as these folks. By Daniel Terdiman.

(Via Wired News)

Swarming, Epidemiology, and Disaster Relief

Here's an interesting piece about new forms of networked organization that eschew traditional org structures.

Swarming, Epidemiology, and Disaster Relief:

Jamais Cascio reports that the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is researching insect behavior and virus propagation as models for civil engineering collaboration networks after disasters.

(Via W. David Stephenson)

The research team, which includes biological, computer and social scientists and civil engineers, will apply their natural-world findings to three major areas: collaboration among organizations involved in disaster-relief efforts; the use of information technology to support preparedness, response and recovery tasks; and the emerging role of civil engineers as key first responders to disasters. [...]

[Noshir] Contractor[, professor of speech communication and of psychology,] said that one of the challenges being explored in the new research is “how first responders have to rely on local information and often work in the absence of global information.”

“An emergency-response strategy based on complete global information being made available instantly to all responders is fundamentally flawed,” Contractor said. “Instead, we need to develop a strategy that leverages cutting-edge research in information technology to enable the rapid assembly and deployment of ad hoc, flexible networks of responders who act largely on the basis of local information. Such a strategy would be enormously helpful in helping us cope with disasters such as the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean.”

(Via Smart Mobs)

"What if I Did This as a Teacher?"

I'm re-blogging this great post from my favorite edu-blog. Will is an instructional technologist for a school district in New Jersey. He's been engaged in an interesting email exchange, some of which he reproduces here. Could this sort of thing work in the college? At Marymount?

"What if I Did This as a Teacher?" Part II: Think he's getting the bigger picture?

Hey, It's 11:30 PM and my head's still buzzing. This Kool-Aid is powerful stuff!

I know reality will soon bring me down, but right now I'm in the idealistic possibilities stage:

What if....each course had a planning weblog where teachers could not only share lessons and best practices, but reflect and enter into conversations about teaching with each other and administrators?

What if...rather than surveying kids after the course was over, they always had a voice in the learning process? We could reflect on how things went and they could discuss this with us (who needs "www.ratemyteachers.com" if you have a real voice in your learning?)

What if....parents (and taxpayers) actually saw the work, thinking, and professionalism that goes into designing a course, unit, and lesson and were encouraged to contribute their experiences and expertise?

What if....we supported student and nontenured teachers by giving them a forum to post and reflect on their lessons? Rather than turning leson plans in to a supervisor who reads them and sticks them in a file, they could become a part of an electronic protfolio or even a part of a school wide (discipline wide?) discussion.

What if....the whole process was transparent. I know how hard I work and how bright and creative most of my colleagues are. Why not pool and demonstrate this talent? I have tremendous respect for the energy and intellegence of my students. Why not tap into this and make connections that could guide and become the basis for classroom discussions. What I don't know enough about is the parents, but I do know all of them want the best for the kids and most want a way to participate in their education without interfering. This could be a vehicle for that.

Obviously, we need to talk or I'm just going to keep clogging up your e-mail. Can you spare a few minutes tomorrow?

A few minutes? He's only proposing to radically redesign just about everything we do at our school. A few minutes will do...

In all seriousness, it's hard to describe the feeling of reading this. I've tried not to beat people over the head with blogs here. I've tried to model and encourage, and though I've had some pretty good success, this is the first teacher that has really started to see it the way I see it. Many have paid lip service to the potential, but I think he really gets it and wants to change what's happening in his classroom and his process...BECAUSE NOW HE CAN. That, by the way, is the simplest way of saying why these tools are going to mandate change in the classroom; because now we can involve parents in the process, bring primary sources to the classroom, collaborate and negotiate meaning with students, carry on conversations about our craft, share ideas and plans, all in ways that we never could before.

(Via Weblogg-ed News)

If PR is Dead....

I've already mentioned in class how employee blogs are changing the way organizations communicate with customers (and with the outside world in general). Here's a link to a nice piece on Robert Scoble, Microsoft geek blogger (also mentioned in class).

Micro Persuasion: If PR Is Dead...: Micro Persuasion

Steve Rubel on how blogs and participatory journalism are impacting the practice of public relations.

If PR Is Dead...

Then Robert Scoble killed it, according to the Economist. Thanks Robert! Seriously, congrats from your friends, The Rubels. A great article. I am not afraid of the new PR world, are you?

(Via MicroPersuasion)