Home | Login | Recent Changes | Search | All Pages | Help

AyersWorkingTogether

JimBullock wrote:

Topic for doing something together.

I'm making this up, and I'm in brainstorming mode, so these won't be complete (or put another way, the topics will be "untested").

• Do we maybe want to do some code? Pick an opensource project and a problem or enhancement, and see what happens?
• What about pooling our experience on something, to make a "what we know" guide?
• What about adding to the canon? The student is also a teacher. Maybe the product is additions to the AYE-BOK from folks who have a lot to say, but don't yet get their stuff out there.
• Charity work. Coordinate with Habitat for Humanity to build a house the week we're at AYE.
• Other

Critical mass is one constraint

• Enough people who are interested in the problem or the solution
• Enough skill to get some traction
• Enough time (& other resources) to do the work

Why bother?

Reflection and integration, I think, would differentiate doing this at AYE from doing the same stuff in other settings. I'd be delighted to hear about "How I'm working with the stuff from the sessions thus far." from others. I'd be delighted with some mechanism to remind me to pay attention to that. My journaling habit isn't making it. David Socha's journaling requirement in CSE403 was brilliant, I thought, although he's hardly the first to encourage doing such a thing.

When I return from something development-y, I end up a little disoriented. Here I sit, back in my little life, with this pile of new tools and insights that look like they ought to be useful. I don't know that they actually are useful. I don't know how I might use them. For me, the measure of amplified effectiveness comes with doing real stuff in my life.

[...] JimBullock, 2002.12.10

Jim, I have similar feelings. I wanted to test my pile of new tools and insights and felt that the test would be best with friends who shared the tools and insights. My involvement in the AYE Conference, at least in part, sprang from this desire. I have found that sharing these tools and insights does not necessarily, by itself, create the utopian environment which might be hoped for.

It is closer to your last statement: doing real stuff in my life. The effects there are subtle. When I look for changes in how I work with people in my work-a-day world, I do not find the dramatic change that I hope for. But, when I let go of the "drama" filter, I look for those smaller ways that I am different or that my behavior is different, I am more rewarded.

Now that I am thinking about it, I am gratified that I can find those small changes in me and my behavior and see that I and them do indeed have positive impacts on others. BobKing 2002.12.22

Now, having thought about some more, I wonder about the StepsAndMissteps taken or not taken when trying to apply something new and wonderful...BobKing 2002.12.26

I would certainly like to get together with other AYEers to do some meaningful work. Wouldn't mind working on a HabitatForHumanity hous; I would prefer to do something in software that would be useful for public school educators or creative artists (graphic arts, music, video -- perhaps for the younger sort).

A similar suggestion came up on the agile modeling mailing list, and one person posted this half-serious suggestion:

• You create a business entity.
• You dump seed money into it.
• Owners have a percentage share in the business.
• Investors are another story, usually work out some sort of return.
• You hire yourselves.
• You set MBOs and bonuses based on performance
• Folks who work for the company can draw a salary.
• You work for a year getting product built, marketing done, clients signed.
• On a periodic basis (annually, quarterly, whatever), you can pay dividends.
• Build up a great company and sell it.

KeithRay 2002.12.19

This year, I'm doing my special education thing with a kid who has been mainstreamed from special education into "normal" high school classes. This high school is an award-winning suburban high school with enthusiastic and energetic teachers, but I still come away with a feeling that school is a polarizing experience. The students that are quick early on get the grades, the attention, and the praise. The students who have been slower catching on get the "I'm not OK" message drilled into their skulls.

If a student feels hopeless, it's easy to tune-out and slide down the greased skids of the grading and standardized testing system.

Example: early math is calculational. How fast & accurately can you process sheets of drill? Until you hit Algebra and the abstract math, you don't know that you have an affinity for abstract problem solving.

To quote Jerry, "It doesn't have to be this way!"

Could we come up with some alternatives to discovering your strengths that counteract some of the linear standardized testing scale mindset out there? Survey how successful people actually develop? What alternatives parents of misfit students could/should examine?

A survey of how the best got there could be enlightening and help counteract this "divide the children into OK and Not OK" thinking?

--BobLee 2002.12.19

Too true, Bob. Both my daughter and my brother have talents that are not visible in the public school system in Canada, and I would be (pleasantly) surprised if they are in the States. When she was 15, my father described my daughter as being the best networker he had ever met. People skills are valued even less than abstract math; algebra turns up in junior high.

SherryHeinze 2002.12.19

My personal vote would go to something that relates to AYE values and interpersonal challenges. Writing code may work for some people, but not all AYE participants write code. If I knew what "canon" meant this might be appealing. A project that tests and stretches interpersonal skills sounds like a porjext that would best fit AYErs.

- BeckyWinant 2002.12.27

"Canon" N,

"The books of the Bible officially accepted as Holy Scripture. "

"A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field: �the durable canon of American short fiction� (William Styron)."

Sourced from the American Heritage Dictionary.

As for what to do, several observations:

• We don't all have to do something. Some of us can go do something, and the others can do something else, or nothing at all. (We must remember, however to select at most one thing that Johanna likes, and make sure that all of us who she wants to work with are on the same project. I won't be responsible for increasing the stuff she's missing out on.)
• My thesis - not previously stated with great clarity - is that doing something together that involves producing an output - a deliverable - would present an additional and intersting set of interpersonal challenges. Such a thing would be an exercise in AYE values, or not depending on how we approached it.

Part of my interest here is from the idea that became the title to C. W. Nicol's Moving Zen. It's easy to maintain equilibrium while sitting still on a mat. The Karate practice he wrote about is an example of Moving Zen - that equilibrium while acting, in the middle of a storm. Similar to the idea in Kipling's If.

What is the point of composure, effectiveness and balance if you can only do it in here? Effectiveness I think is in large part out there in the world where we make our livings and take our chances. You've got to take the tools with you, so you have them when you need them. Hence my suggestion of doing something with a deliverable, as an intermediate step between reflecting, and doing whatever we do back in the world.

-- JimBullock, 2002.12.27

The religious stuff is ...well, scary. What does Holy mean to each of us? Please! Do not answer because it really doesn't matter.. Just contemplate this when you decide to use words like "canon" again. In some contexts this comes too close to cannon.

An overall comment - I love the idea you have germinated! During the evolution of AYE the topic of "community" arises. The notion of doing somthing is compelling.

I'm sure if we did something that Johanna decided was uninteresting our effort would still be of value. Just let the idea flow where it will follow. (I am not really sure of your reference other than to assume this is playful).

I think if this is to materailize as something other than banter we would need to explore what might be of interest, what it would require, how many, when and ... then hopefully something could happen.

BeckyWinant 2002-12-31

The wiki seems to me to be a place for that to happen. And it has already happened, with many of the projects resulting in AYE sessions (like the tutorial and the SHAPE day, plus others). The way it's done is to come up with a germ of an idea for a project and then make a wiki page that will attract people who are likely to want to participate.

The AYE community already consists of well over 200 people who have shown a willingness to spend their time and money on this sort of thing. Let's build from there.

And, of course, something we can all do is contribute to the underlying base for these projects, by encouraging good people to come to AYE and to participate in the wiki. If you want to take part, use the PublicityTeam page. Everyone can be on that team.

It may not be obvious to others, but I can feel it building. - JerryWeinberg 2003.01.01

Where I can really see a difference is in myself. - SherryHeinze 2003.01.01

Re: "canon"

I thought a while about replying to this. Eventually I realized that the same reason I chose "canon" requires that I say something more.

My choice of the word "canon" was deliberate. It's used to refer to an accepted, approved body of knowledge by folks like E. O. Wilson, Howard Bloom, and Camile Paglia. These folks refer to a Western "canon" vs. "body of literature" for it's connotations - a selecting body, a shared dogma, and so on. It's used by advocates of multiculturalism in education for the same connotation. All such selections of course are the product of some deciding body with a point of view. When it's called a "body of knowledge", it's easy to forget the "Says who?" part.

I am personally suspicious of "canons" and doubly so of folks who would appoint themselves the "canons" who select the canon. The PMBoK is selected by the PMI from their point of view, as is any collection of software practices selected by the authority of your choice: SEI, ACM, IEEE, Agile Alliance, etc. Should we decide on an AYE project to add to the canon of software engineering literature, we should be aware that we are also deciding what's important enough to produce.

Personally, I refrain from using "body of knowledge" because I don't believe it's accurate. The body of knowledge doesn't exist without someone who did the selecting, based on their particular point of view. Keeping the selecting body with the selection retains the question: "Why should I listen to you?"

I chose finally to reply because I think "canon" illustrates something about what might come out of AYE. There's little useful about declaring yet another sages' cabal to lord their superior knowledge over people. And I'm not sure AYE permutes into a good enough name for a cabal. "Ayers" is weak. AYE-ites? AYE-istas? AYE-ocrats? A cabal has got to have a good name, and these just don't make it.

But, there's even less use in declaring ourselves incompetent and irrelivant. At least the preachy class (pun intended) is trying to do something. "With great power comes great responsibility." goes the motto from this past summer's movie Spiderman. That includes the responsibility to act appropriately with that power when called for.

It's that last thought that prompted me to reply on "canon." If I really do believe I have something to offer - deliberately choosing that word in this case - then I ought to step up and offer it. It's a word I chose with some reflection because of its connotations. (No, I don't think this deeply about every single word. Maybe I should.) The talent I encountered at AYE has the right to offer it's insights, and maybe obligation to do so. Perhaps even the wisdom to know which insights to offer and how. If I didn't think so, I would never have suggested we consider adding to the canon. Suggesting that people shoot their mouths off is something else I do cautiously, and only after reflection.

- JimBullock, 2003.1.3

Re: BeckyWinant wrote: . . . hopefully something could happen.

I think getting any particular additional AYE thing to happen will require a consistent, committed presence from someone associated with that thing. I am unable to provide that right now in aid of any of my own suggestions, and doesn't that feel strange. I can offer only about the level of effort, and more important the level of consistency I've shown on the Wiki since the conference. That's not enough to take any of these ideas, or much else, and run with it.

Re: SherryHeinze wrote: . . . After AYE 2001, there were just a couple of us haunting the WIKI like lost souls not sure what to do next.

Well, within the limitations I've got, I intend to do what I can to maintain contact with the people I met last November. Would be too silly to do otherwise.

- JimBullock, 2003.1.3

One really useful thing is to spread the knowledge we already have. One way to do that is to write articles for the AYE website (or other places). I'm willing to be part of an editorial network that helps any AYEr who needs it. A lot of us already do that for each other, so how about I create a page where people can post short notices about SeekingEditorialAssistance. SEA is a good acronym for the AYE conference, and for people at sea about their writing. - JerryWeinberg 2003.01.03

I really like your measure of difference - difference in self.

Any knowledge has to start there for each of us. At least that is also how it feels to me.

- BeckyWinant 2003.01.06