Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on memory http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic memory Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Blogs as external brain packs Tue, 16 Jul 2002 22:40:51 +0100 <A href="http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,53815,00.html">Wired</A>: "Seniors in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, with mild to moderate memory loss, are writing weblogs to help them make sense of their daily lives. And the activity, they say, is slowing the onset of their symptoms." [<A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » This is such a fantastic idea. It does, however, raise some serious security issues.  At the moment there is no real trust issue with what goes in a weblog.  But if someone is really going to treat a weblog as their external brain pack then their going to have to be sure that no-one can tamper with it, thereby altering their perceived reality. It puts me in mind of the <A href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Nolan,+Christopher">Christopher Nolan</A> film <A href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0209144">Memento</A> (with <A href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Pearce,+Guy">Guy Pierce</A>).  </BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000227.html A context for k-logging success Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:43:22 +0000 I've been spending some time thinking about how to employ k-logs in a business and, in particular, in a business which does not primarily see itself as a "knowledge business" but as a production business.  I'm thinking about the challenges of getting people who don't routinely use computers as part of their work to not only become part of a KM project but to thrive in it. It's probably no surprise that I think k-logs are a good idea but, in the 6 months or so since I took up this sword I haven't really seen the practical evidence of this.  Where are the big deployments?  Where are the articles and papers? I think k-logs struggle when it comes to practical implementation because, good idea or not, they do not stand on their own.  They struggle without a wider context in which they can make sense.  This leads me back to a question I have mulled before which is about the boundary between k-logs and the legacy intranet. k-logs, to me, should be the living, beating heart of an organisation.  The posts racing from aggregator to aggregator are like the blood pumping around the organism, connecting parts together and ensuring they are healthy.  But if these posts are not to be ephemera then they have to go somewhere, they have to gain a context within the wider organisation and it's memory systems. I predict that successful k-logging will require an interface between k-logs themselves and more established systems & groups.  At the moment I think the 3 most likely candidates are: <UL> <LI>Communities of Practice</LI> <LI>Best Practice Programs</LI> <LI>After-Action-Reviews</LI></UL> Each of these has a review element and a sense of producing something in aggregate from what they review.  I think it will be these groups who will mine an organisations k-logs and make best use of them.  And it will be participation in such groups that will create loops back into the heart of the organisation, keep it connected, keep it alive. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001203.html Look to the sky and remember that you were loved. Mon, 17 Mar 2003 13:17:41 +0000 Between Hope and Memory I'm interested in memory because memory is all we have. We are unable to perceive the temporal singularity of the present, which is a razor-sharp edge. It cuts our experience into past and future. We understand the division, but cannot comprehend the blade. I have nothing but my own quickly fading memories out of which to build my reality. These memories lose focus and detail as they disappear behind me, drifting far into the past. How hopefully I bind them together even as they fall apart. How boldly I proclaim reality even as I forget it. We live in the transition between the future and the past. We are the moment that hope becomes memory. Someday I will be dead and my children will cobble together their ragged memories and create me anew. They will create me in their own image. I will be clay in their hands with only the breath of their memories to give me life. So I spend a fair amount of energy trying to create good memories for my three daughters. This may seem rather contrived, but Im of the opinion that parenting is mostly contrived. Theres really no time for much else. Plant good memories while you can, mommies and daddies. Our time on earth is short and hope becomes remembrance in the twinkle of a little girls eye.   AD 2063 A 70-year-old woman points her grandsons hand toward the Eastern sky on a November evening. Orions belt of three stars hangs low near the horizon, forming a nearly perfect vertical line. The middle star, that ones mine. Its name is Alnilam. That means string of pearls. My father gave me that star because I was his middle daughter. He said I was his string of pearls. She stares at the star and tilts her head slightly. I was his string of pearls. What about the other stars, Grandma Well, the top star is Susans. She was the oldest. The last star is Sharons because she was the baby. Each year they rise in the east, just in the order we were born. See? Most people call it Orions belt, but daddy always called it The Three Sisters. He said he had as much a right to name the stars as anyone. He used to say, Look for the three sisters in November, when I am gone. Look to the sky and remember that you were loved. <IMG src="http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/images/starpeople.gif" border=0> The Preacher [<A href="http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/">Real Live Preacher</A>] http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001280.html