I was asked this question at the Anthrodesign group, in the context of a conversation around getting into the swing of a project and developing some working momentum . I shared there, how I often find myself turning to my blog and twitter communities for helping me with my thinking on qualitative and ethnographic research projects. I was then asked these questions: Could you elaborate a bit more on how you tap into your twitter community? with the limited character set, do you drive them to answer in more detail on your blog? How effective have you found twitter in generating meaningful conversations and resources?

Sharing my response here with a few modifications – there are many many ways I use Twitter, apart from keeping in touch with people, the world, and sharing warm fuzzy feelings or rants. I’ll try and describe some of these:

• If I’m looking for advice (from a community I trust) on say which phone to buy next, or where to find macbook chargers, or how to solve a particular problem I find I can really rely on my twitter community.  During the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks Twitter was what kept many of us feeling ‘safe’ (in the way of experiencing it together) and connected to the outside world, as we were stuck in our homes. We also used it to try and reach out to people who were affected – eg. sourced and published lists of victims from hospitals (and directed people to those lists via links on twitter). I’ve often also used Twitter to help mobilize action around immediate causes like someone needing blood of a certain group in a specific hospital. But these are all very specific short term needs being addressed by quick responses.

• I often use Twitter (and my blog – they’re linked BTW) to have meaningful conversations, tease out some areas, ask for help on resources, opinions, suss out experts, or participants for studies. Obviously, with no mention of the actual client or specific subject of research. A recent example – a client is looking to understand Durability as a driver for purchase in her category, and I  broadened the issue and asked a question on Twitter  - the thought to actually blog this series started off with this tweet – and responses to it - looking for evidence that ‘durability’ as a brand proposition isn’t a big purchase driver for youth today. egs, links anecdotes welcome!”.  Sometimes its linked back to my blog, or to something someone else has published and I’m always amazed at both the depth and width in the sharing of perspectives that it evokes.

• And I use it increasingly to share links around what I’m reading or find interesting. The way I do it, is bookmark the link on Delicious and I’ve automated it to show both at my blog, and on Twitter. Often, these are starting points for meaningful conversations among several tweeters who share similar interests. And as importantly, if not more, I get to see all their marvelous links too!

• Or to live-tweet an event I’m at, as I did with TEDIndia last year and then just aggregated my tweets at my blog, and TedXMumbai more recently. The interesting thing about such tweets is you actually have people responding back in real-time, you feel your community is ‘present’ too, and often their questions and comments are shared back at the conferences. These could be conferences around my areas of work too.

• To amplify interesting thoughts, ideas, requirements, needs of others I follow on twitter thru RTs.

• Every post I make on my blog, every bookmark I link to at Delicious – is tweeted. As a result, it helps me broadcast my thoughts, and encourages people to come in and add to the conversation. It really doesn’t bother me where they do this – as today it’s possible to weave much of this into a lifestream of sorts. (I know this might be annoying to those who follow my blog, my twitter profile, and facebook as there can be much repetition – I need to find a way to sort this one out!)

So to answer the question more directly … I find I’m using Twitter increasingly both as a quick-byte sort of space – in and out, and as a gateway or pipe through which information and conversations flow!

Would love to hear your views – How do you use twitter or your blog in generating meaningful conversations and resources around what you do?

An article titled Social Networking plagues India Inc which is based on a survey conducted by Assocham just goes to show that they’re really sleeping or threatened, while their world’s moving forward!

A recent national survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India’s (Assocham) Social Development Foundation revealed that 84% of Indian employees who have access to the world wide web are showing symptoms of internet addiction. They spend more than the “normal’’ amount of time online, and show signs of irritability when they are interrupted from surfing, concludes the study.

With 93% of youngsters saying they were aware of social networking sites, and most averaging an hour a day on MySpace, LinkedIn, Orkut, et al, employers are looking at a productivity loss of nearly 12.5% every day. “The growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity. IT companies have already installed software to restrict use,” said Assocham secretary general D S Rawat said”.

And this, from a psychiatrist and HRD trainer:

“On the other hand, being constantly logged online and indulging in ‘faceless’ communication is detrimental to one’s health,’’ he said. Dr Rajendra Barve, psychiatrist and HRD trainer concurred “This mindset is making people a slave to machines,’’ he said.

India Inc, and Dr. Barve, you must be kidding!!  Build firewalls, and people will find ways across them. Kill their access on their computers, and they will turn to their mobile phones as your study has shown.  How will you block that? They will never stop, because the internet is a way of life, with its own ecology, culture and social behaviours that more often than not, enhance our world. It is a part of my world, and yours, and theirs. It is not a fad that will pass and it’s definitely not about “faceless communication”, nor is it a drug you get addicted to.

You must learn how to embrace it, and use the flows to your advantage in this emerging knowledge economy. Here‘s a start. [picture credit: Gaping Void].

Update: Bonus Link – Can an organization not be ready for Enterprise 2.0? [via @dhinchcliffe]

Actually, my super lazy blogpost post TEDIndia. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and the best part was meeting such a great group of people. I feel incredibly fortunate, and humbled to have been a TEDIndia Fellow.

I’ll be blogging more thoughts and pictures in the next few days, but for now, here’s a compilation of my Tweets (for me, my notes and apologies for typos & grammatical errors) as I was live-tweeting some of the sessions.  Read them, bottom-up!

DAY 3:

well done #tedindia blog and social media team! “TEDTalks will be available starting mid-november” http://is.gd/4PIaR
oddly enuff, many of the BIG names were in the latter group – disappointing. #tedfellows pre-conference truly gr8. will blog later #tedindia
talks i loved – those that came thru w raw honesty. disappointed when projects pitched w’out extracting big pic & some ‘same old’ #tedindia
overall thoughts on #tedindia – transformational for some, inspiring to others. for me utterly humbling & I made many super new friends
feels strange being back after #tedindia and having to shift modes so rapidly. working on a research presentation & off to delhi for monday
oieee TED is almost over … a bunch of us are leaving on the 1 pm bus for bangalore. so pack-up time real soon #tedindia
india is a nationalism of an idea that has emerged long ago – consensus in diversity is how we move into 21st C #tedindia @shashitharoor
Tharoor – the story also rests on political will – secular india & how we’ve embraced religions of the world. a (ra-ra moment) #tedindia
the country that tells the better story wins! (i so agree – and our stories are also in our pop culture). #tedindia @shashitharoor
afghanistan – most popular TV serial – Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi – eg. of soft power. lots of popculture egs. @shashitharoor #tedindia
.@shashitharoor tells stories interestingly. empowerment of the poor is the real achievement of communications #tedindia
thanks for all the shout-outs for my tweeting from #tedindia
the cell phone 15 mn/month story – what did we have to do to get there.!! talks of growing up w’out one. #tedindia @shashitharoor
soft power emerges partly because of govt but partly despite it #tedindia @shashitharoor sez
talking of india’s potential in the 21st century – the Future Beckons – soft power #tedindia
lakshmi also sez @shashitharoor singlehandedly made twitter popular in india. ???. #tedindia
Lakshmi apologizes to tweeters following @shashitharoor for late start #tedindia
A. Balasubramanium – artist, sculptor, painter, printmaker on stage – work here – http://is.gd/4PmVM & http://is.gd/4PmZL #tedindia
lol sivamani doesn’t spare a suitcase – he’s making it sing! wonder if brand managers r watching – sponsorship opps galore :):) #tedindia
he’s using everyday items – pans, empty 10 litre water bottle etc. sheer genius – Sivamani #tedindia
sivamani is awesome! hope all u tweeters r watching the livestream. @shashitharoor will be on later. http://ted.indiatimes.com/ #tedindia
the irony is that so many years of denying being a girl has led us here!! eve ensler #tedindia
being a girl is so powerful that we’ve had to train everyone not to be a girl. Eve Ensler #TEDIndia
Eve Ensler – playwright and activist – best known for The Vagina Monologues is on!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Ensler #tedindia
Matthew Spacie – talking of rugby being an institutionalized safety valve. And Play as a way to learn. Sport teaches u abt life! #TEDIndia
Matthew Spacie – a #TEDFellow – Magic Bus – http://www.magicbusindia.org/
Riverside school url http://www.schoolriverside.com/.
if the city gives to the children, in the future, children will give back to the city #tedindia
in Ahmedabad – how did the city respond to the school? every other month – biggest street closes down & infected by kids playing #tedindia
kid said – teacher told me “i can do it” – but parents said what abt grades?? kids actually did v v well in math eng and science! #tedindia
Kiran Sethi – aware (see the change), enable (being changed), empower (leading change) = “i can” – infect children with this bug #tedindia
Kiran Bir Sethi Riverside School. Contagious is a good word – laughter, passion, inspiration – infected by “i can” bug! #tedindia
Aravind Eye Care – Fastcompany article here – http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/43/drv.html #tedindia
disappointed w session – where’s the new way of learning in all this? eg. ask questions faster, stories, dialogue, real-time etc?. #tedindia
“eye care with the efficiency of macdonalds” – deliver eye care like a burger??? heh! Aravind Eye Clinic – #TEDIndia
CK Prahalad is talking of mobile revolution now!. Didn’t say too much we haven’t seen. Wish he had focussed on stories of change #tedindia
Interview w CK Prahalad on how bottom of the pyramid strategies are paying off. mobile phones as an eg. #tedindia . Link -http://is.gd/4PjBV
CK – 4. multilevel dialogue. 5. Knowledge creation. all thru access to connectivity, information, analytics, dialogue, assessment #tedindia
CK – how to democratize learning? a. eliminate info asymmetries, b. give access to analytics, c. make access affordable & avail, #tedindia
CK – for the first time in history, everyone has access (cell phones eg.) leads to democratized learning. #tedindia
CK – instead of having an institutions view of citizens have a citizens view of institutions – facilitated by tech and internet. #tedindia
CK – how do we change – break down hierarchical power structure becos pple hc access to information and can challenge each other #tedindia
CK – why do gr8 companies lose leadership – becoz cant excape the past or create the future. mistake momentum for leadership #tedindia
multiple discontinuities challenge mental models – learning is abt selectively forgetting the past & refuelling for the future. #tedindia
CK Prahalad – discontinuities egs. eg. suddenly deal w 5 bn pple on less than 2 USD a day OR 400 mn connected by mobile phones #tedindia
CK Prahalad – success has its own learning disabilities built into it . Discontinuities disrupt the process! #TEDIndia
social determinants to learning impt. learning must lead to change. information –>inference (educ + socialization –> Action #TEDIndia
CK Prahalad on!!! #tedindia I want to separate teaching fm learning. learning does not take place in isolation – we’re part of a social grp
Sashwati – “if we can’t reach them, we can’t teach them” – mobile & wireless tech will bridge the gap. with engaging content. #tedindia
looking forward to C.K. Prahalad’s talk. Galli Galli Sim Sim – Shashwati Banerjee of Sesame Street Workshop on now. #TEDIndia #TEDFellows
wow #TEDFellows get a Nokia E71 and a 1500 USD cash card among other things! pays for my new macbook :):) #tedindia

DAY 2

Hehe. The bollywood party continues in the bus back. #tedindia rocks. http://twitpic.com/oi3wi
song at #TEDindia Grand Party at Lalit Palace Mysore. Bollywood Nite. Jai Ho! http://twitpic.com/ohvo2
Abhay Deol – thinking woman’s eye candy (paraphrased by Shandana). He’s cute. And seems a lil nervous #tedindia
E3it. Engage entertain educate immerse transform. It’s his mantra. Cost him 250 USD. He’s a dude!!! Rocking #tedindia
RT @tedindia: TED’s June Cohen invites you to join the TED Open Translation Project http://bit.ly/2yFqSF #TEDIndia
E3it. Engage entertain educate immerse transform. It’s his mantra. Cost him 250 USD. He’s a dude!!! Rocking @tedindia
Digital Hampi. Travel to hampi. Ramachandra Budihai takes us there on his augmented reality headset! #tedindia
familiar sight at #tedindia queing up for the vest seats in the house http://twitpic.com/ogrr6
Loved Kavita Ramdas. On feminism – there’s no need to lose yr femininity or yr traditions. SHE (woman) rocks & can be on top. #tedindia
Experienced a real TEDmoment in the last session. Magical. Collective. Worth being here even if just for that. Thanks #tedfellows #tedindia
What can civil society do? Accept and embrace victims of human trafficking in our daily lives. And tell 2 friends. #tedindia
Touched by Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala. rebuild faith in victims of human trafficking. 1 person changes life of 3200 people. #tedindia
Rapid transformation impt for rapid diffusion. Esp w mess we r in. Often best solutions cone in v lil time. Agility. Banerjee #tedindia
RT @infosys: Banny Banerjee: reframing insights -> concepts – > prototypes – > new paradigms in design that r solutions to probs. #TEDIndia
The simulcast lounge is cool. V v comfy. Here’s a pic. #tedindia #tedfellows http://twitpic.com/og7l7
For me best part of the last session was Bribe Buster idea. Wish the others had moved to the ideas space more than showcase work. #tedindia
Anil Gupta – scalability must not become the enemy of sustainability. Shows egs of innovations fm grassroots to global #tedindia #tedfellows
Anil Gupta knocks maslow’s hierarchy of needs out of the stadium! Don’t have to go thru levels fr self actualisation.
Anil Gupta -honeybee network. To learn fm & support grassroots innovation. Minds on the margin are not marginal minds.
@shaffimather totally loved the bribe busters thought. Let us know how civil society can help. #tedindia #tedfellows
RT @pkgulati: Shafi at @tedindia – we are insane people and an insane person does not know what’s an impossible task !! #tedindia
New idea. How to fight the demand for a bribe!! Call in the Bribe Busters Dial …… Nice :) Shaffi Mather. #tedindia #tedfellows
Shaffi Mather. Ambulance service. Dial 1298. Similar to 911. Furst on scene on 26/11. Was at Jugaad workshop Y’day. #tedindia #tedfellows
Dr Asher Hassan. Main Bhi Pakistani Hoon. (I too am Pakistan). Sharing stories of normal people thru photos. #tedindia #tedfellows
RT @bcampbelljr: Idea from TEDIndia – write your obituary. If you don’t like the way it reads, change your life – now. #tedindia
Quite inspirational!! Q- one key idea to spread ? Shukla Bose A- educate the teachers!!! #tedindia #tedfellows
Content of education is education. Not necessarily things like toilets. Take one child at a time and unleash her potential. #tedindia
98% of fathers r alcoholic. An ex-maid was of 28 kids selected for Duke’s scholarship. These kids r using facebook!
Showed videos of kids of roadside flower seller talking of hardy boys and ducatis. Kids teach their parents. ICSE curriculum. #tedindia
Dream is to prepare kids to live peacefully in this conflict-ridden global world. English medium. #tedindia #tedfellows
What?? Her research found one out of four teachers in slum schools donot go to school all yr!! Educating poor > a numbers game #tedindia
Shukla bose- 3 schools for poor kids. 26 yrs in corporate world. Quit. 2003 started Parikrama fm kitchen table.
Q fm @tedchris.how do u get yr insights working in villages on ground?? A- test it first & refine. Iterative process.
Need to combine psychology marketing art and the scientific method. On the verge of a new social science – Sendhil
Intentions don’t always translate into actions. Last mile problem shd be talked of as last mile opportunity. #tedindia #tedfellows
Sharing puzzles w us. We hv intuitive ways of dealing w the world. For Last mile problems our mental models may not always work. #tedindia
Sendhil mullainathan on stage. How people make choices and decisions. #tedindia #tedfellows http://twitpic.com/ofray
At the TED x Fellows breakfast. Spreading ideas. #tedindia #tedfellows http://twitpic.com/ofndt
(ed) RT @rmack & @AndreMartin: “A trip into d secret, online ‘cloud’”: where & how yr files r stored online -plain English http://ow.ly/zuwf
Does anyone in the simulcast lounge at #tedindia have an iPhone charger?? It’s a real trek to my room!!He got 3 sets of standing ovations. @tedchris says he’s one of the most outstanding innovators he has ever seen. #TEDindia #tedfellows
Integrating computing with everday objects. How powerful is that!!! Pranav mistry is sheer genius. Wow. #TEDindia #tedfellows
Wow!!!! Took paper. Removed mic from camera. Clipped cam to paper. now plays games using paper as the computer. With info too. #TEDindia
Explored 3D pen and stickynotes. Then reversed this thinking Why not paint real life with digital info??? And WOW!!!! #TEDindia #tedfellows
Pranav Mistry – SixthSense we use objects and gestures as part of everyday life.wHy not mimic in tech?? #tedfellows #tedindia
Modified camera to record his acuity. Dylan is the system being used. Now testing Dylan for autism. Awesome!!! #tedindia #tedfellows
Motion or dynamic info processing the bedrock in recovery. Using Darius his baby as a baby cam!!! #tedindia #tedfellows
Really enjoying being here. Get a bit of “india shining” feel tho. 1st session was v entertaining. 2nd session a bit of same old. #tedindia
Pavan sinha fm MIT tells us that recovery is possible and has treated 200 kids despite extended congenital blindness. #tedindia #tedfellows
Project prakash. Neuroscience. Outreach +treatment + study. Showing kids from blind school on video. #tedindia #tedfellows
For all those who asked. Was in the main auditorium so no tweeting. Only allowed in simulcast lounge and last row. #tedindia #tedfellows
And another pic of the mainstage. #tedindia #tedfellows No video allowed at all. http://twitpic.com/obxvm
The TED stage. Event begins in 10. Nice sarees as a backdrop. Mobiles off soon. http://twitpic.com/obx04
Crazy rush for the best seats for the opening session of the main event. #tedindia #tedfelliws. http://twitpic.com/obvqe
Jugaad flourishes where government fails to provide solutions. Bottom up social arrangement. Scale makes it viable. #tedindia # tedfellow
What??? RT @vishalgondal RT @ppeach: Credit card companies know whether couples will divorce 6 months before they do. #TEDIndia
Calls chit funds stripped down capitalism! Regd industry 3-4k billion dollars. Unregistered 10 to 100 tines that amt. #tedindia #tedfellows
Modit on Chit funds in context of jugaad. Much like the kitty party concept. Lending/saving/ insurance device. #tedindia. #tedfellows
Reuben sez new term for ambulance = death taxi ! #tedindia #tedfellows
Charges approx. 2.5 times normal taxi rates Bigger barrier is cultural, located in association with dead body. Jugaad #tedindia #tedfellows
Context for his business idea. 90% usage of ambulance in india was for dead bodies. #tedindia #tedfellows jugaad panel
Shaffi fm 1298 dial for ambulance. Jugaad. Differential pricing paid &free. depends on type of hospital. Pvt or public #tedindia #tedfellows
For working poor. Rentals play a key role in pricing. Selling impressive homes fr USD 6k to 10 k. Jugaad #tedindia
Housing market in inda. 25 million units of unfulfilled demand. USD 150 billion opportunity in sales. Jugaad
Dhaval fm ashray housing. His company treats land as working capital rather than rely on appreciation. Jugaad.
David Kyle on jugaad panel sez jugaad is inherent in education sector in india. He’s a financer.
Jugaad is a work around the system sez Reuben. Affordability is at the heart of jugaad
Workshhop on jugaad with reuben abraham and others just starting.

DAY 1:

5 Mins into Microsoft surface demo here’s what we see. @amitvarma spilt coke on it. Hehe. #tedindia http://twitpic.com/o8ezk
Watching a demo of Microsoft Surface. 10000 usd. #tedindia #tedfellows http://twitpic.com/o8enq
over and out for now – party time !!!
announcements on now – party at brindavan gardens tonight – gr8 becoz infosys campus does not allow booze!!!!!!!
he’s a great speaker!! whatever brilliant ideas you hear – the opposite also may be true – essence
he should study indian addresses too!!!
final lecture of the day beginning – confounding systems of japanese streets = derek sivers
new opps for collab, multimedia integration, imaginative ways to tell their story – grade 4 using it too!!!
Rob Newberry – students using prezi. http://prezi.com/. So what does web2.0 in classroom mean for the future?
kids r thinking vieually – engaged and tech minded – when u ask for proof of learning – non-linear ways!
Rob Newberry – emerging tech are changing classrooms & students. give it to them, rather than teach, u see learning!
she’s holding a brain in her hand! talking of info processing. starts left goes right forward & backwards
strange twist – cowdung trade led to increasing cattle & degrading forests & elephants (which were in my coffee!!)
growth of trade in cowdung – YES cow dung – it is being sold as get far higher price than chemical fertilizers
Prof. Madhusudan Nature Conversation – nice first slide – “waiter, there’s an elephant in my coffee!”
Bacterial Consortium formed to solve these probs. Cultured at diff salinity levels. Nitrifying BioReactors
Prof Mohan Kandaswamy – traditional systems of aquaculture lots of waste & harmful ammonia – pollution – hi mortality.
eve blossom’s company is lulan artisans http://www.lulan.com/blog/ -
artisans vulnerable to trafficking – at risk. formed social venture to prevent human trafficking & generate eco opps.
talks of human trafficking as a marketplace – and she felt the call to do something after a horrifying experience
Prof Eve Blossom – moved to vietnam as an architect of buildings and left vietnam as an architect for change
Raqs – photo, installations, video – invite viewer to analyse a crime. subodh gupta – celebrates everyday artifacts
interesting set doing art and installations – loved the skeleton of a rickshaw by jitin kallat
Ravin Agarwal 10 indian artists- bharti kher, – bindis, balasubramanium, chitra ganesh – amar chitra katha,
.@thecomicproject tons of references to Jugaad this morning at the Fellows sessions!
the infosys campus is fantastic in a weird sense – architectural kitsch! not sure i love it tho – ot inviting me to explore more!
Ramachandran – Gandhi neurons – there is no independent self that is outside of others – bridging the science-humanities gap!
similarly – with touch – these neurons are based in empathy. but you don’t feel the touch. empathy but not experience
MIRROR neurons – transmitted eg. tool use, fire, shelter, language – this is the basis of culture and civilization.
neurons fire when person performs a specific action. a subset will also fire when u look at someone else performing that action
VS Ramachandran – representation of self and others on the human brain #tedindia @tedfellows . puts electrodes in nerve cells & eavesdrops
Suneeta Reddy – Apollo Hospitals talked of telemedicine – a bit like a pitch – didn’t learn v much
Richard Alderson of Unltd India – DNA of social entrepreneurship made up of Economic, social, political, Spiritual.
First interesting TEDUniv talk – PalletRacks Structures by Freeman Murray
this morning was cool; got to hear what 25 Fellows are doing! will be posting pics I took later.
TED University consists of 4 minute talks – 3 sessions with 6-7 people each. Before the main event tomorrow
Bruno Guissani introduces the first session at TED Unilversity #tedfellows #tedindia Kiran Khalap talking. Are Ideas Good or Bad?
In the bus to #tedindia with #tedfellows. Much bonding happening. @amitvarma is in form! http://twitpic.com/o3l2e

I should be focusing on a proposal I have to submit today and designing an innovative ethnographic approach to researching latent and future needs and expectations from automotive service, but I find myself distracted and lacking inspiration.  And I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of another kind.  I was in Bangalore on work and met up with a cousin who has young kids in school. We were talking about how they are being taught and how they learn. Although both parents are heavy users of the internet, she said to me she wants to keep her kids away from it for as long as possible because she’s rather have them learn, synthesize and remember, than just provide them with the access to gain the knowledge. I’m a firm believer in the ‘magic’ of the web in it’s natural ability in providing us new avenues to learn and serendipitous discovery. And in the power of communities like Twitter that really help us grow as we share and learn together.

 And yet, my cousin’s comment bothered me as I found myself telling a friend just last night that there are several mashups around Twitter.  His immediate question to me was, name 10 – and I found myself at a loss. But in a few seconds I could provide him with a full list from the Twitter Fan Wiki.  I felt a little embarrassed about the fact that I had not bothered to remember even a few!!!  Similarly with a recent statistic on the future of mobile social networking – I knew I had read it but I had not remembered the exact statistic. It took a little Googling to find it.  Searched. Found. Forgot. This bothers me.

 As this happened, I put the question up at Twitter last night: “what’s better – access to knowledge or having the knowledge? i find often i have access & don’t bother to remember stuff. Not good!”

Here are some responses (read bottom-up):

I love the rap on knowledge, synthesis, wisdom and learning! What bothers me most is while the web is hugely useful in helping us in “learning to learn”, how much of this, as Gautam and @weaverluke suggest is being synthesized and allowed to transform into wisdom?

Mahatma Gandhi once said: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

My recent experience with the Learning Journey we organised for Clients actually reinforced to me that given the right balance of content with experiential immersions and a focus on ‘how’ learning would take place, learning-to-be can begin even with just a week’s exposure.

One of the instances that brings such a smile on my face is the sight of youngsters lighting up one cigarette after another, while chatting with 13 older persons who were all non-smokers from North America all in an enclosed area in a coffee and hookah bar! And not one of my clients complained or even minded, although I was so conscious that this could potentially be quite uncomfortable for them!!! You can keep talking about how the youth is confident, irreverent, etc, you can build models based on consumer insights and on all sorts of qualitative and quantitative data, but when you actually observe their manner of ‘being’ and they actually draw you into their world into which you walk in openly and begin sharing yourself, how much easier and more effective it is to understand and learn!

So many other experiences ….

we’re all observers together

lunch cooked by a family in a village on a traditional stove over firewood.

new best friends from the village

with dabbawallas understanding how grassroots self-organising systems work

renovation underway

a variety of food!

with bloggers

[pictures from Flickr group and Elena's flickr page]

This comment from a senior member of the group actually reinforces how a Learning Journey can really create a ‘we participate therefore we are” learning framework:

Each of our Team members has been changed for life as a result of our experiences – and we are most grateful. The experiences of our recent Learning Journey has been woven into the very fabric of my soul. More than ever I understand more personally that we are all citizens of the globe bonded together by the common threads of our humanness. Many thanks, again, Dina, to both you and Shubhangi for shaping experiences that touched our lives so profoundly.

vs

Great piece on Social Learning titled Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler. The supercool text illustrations are by Susan E. Haviland.

Some snippets I really enjoyed:

What do we mean by “social learning”? Perhaps the simplest way to explain this concept is to note that social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning.

There is a second, perhaps even more significant, aspect of social learning. Mastering a field of knowledge involves not only “learning about” the subject matter but also “learning to be” a full participant in the field.

In a traditional Cartesian educational system, students may spend years learning about a subject; only after amassing sufficient (explicit) knowledge are they expected to start acquiring the (tacit) knowledge or practice of how to be an active practitioner/professional in a field.⁹ But viewing learning as the process of joining a community of practice reverses this pattern and allows new students to engage in “learning to be” even as they are mastering the content of a field. This encourages the practice of what John Dewey called “productive inquiry”—that is, the process of seeking the knowledge when it is needed in order to carry out a particular situated task.

Although this article has been written in the context of education, there are some great learnings for researchers, ethnographers and for business too. One of the greatest challenges and often a dilemma is how to leverage social tools into research and marketing that would create a shift from a much hyped must-do model based on explicit learning (yeah – lets go build a social network or lets start a Facebook community for our brand) to a more intuitive method grounded in tacit knowledge and real experience.

One reason why we believe researchers experimenting with these tools should immerse themselves in using them first, one reason why we believe all brand managers should build their own social media toolkits through actual experience! One of the problems with this is the time commitments required for these personal explorations, which could then morph into professional insights. I cannot emphasise more the importance of being touched at a personal level for developing a learning-to-be mindset. That’s what good Learning Journeys can accomplish.

I am just back from a week-long Learning Journey my colleague Shubhangi and I organised for a group of 10 very senior health-care professionals from the US who are on a Futures Task Force … it was intensive, immersive and really very rewarding. It’s been a Learning Journey for all of us – we formed a community of open minds and hearts, in our journey to shared understanding, and we learned so much from each other as a result.

The objective was to immerse them into a culture and people that provide such a wide range of healing traditions, and to understand models, not just in healthcare but otherwise too, that are serving a diverse population of more than a billion people in India. Some of the areas we covered:

• base-of-the-pyramid and top-of-the-pyramid models
• community projects in slums and rural areas – health, education, microfinance, govt and non-govt – the concept of self-help groups and decentralized bottom-up projects that empower women and other communities to understand and solve their own problems given societal pressures
• holistic approaches to healthcare
• innovations in telemedicine and ICT
• healthcare immersions at several levels – urban elite including medical tourism, urban poor, rural areas
• culture, religion and history
• immersions, conversations and screenings of films which let us view notions of Indian-ness and of a global India through different lenses: business, politics, society, culture, economics, environment, time, space …
• deep dives into villages and slums
• Indian healing traditions
• conversations around pop culture, including Bollywood
• youth and technology – the leapfrog generation perspective
• social media which is being used for collective action

It was really exciting, although fairly exhausting on the organizing of content and logistics for a group this size. Our greatest challenge was to balance real immersion and free-flowing conversations with more formal content; to get them to experience as much of the real India as they could within a week, in all the dizzying contradictions it presents – and not one side of the coin that is often presented in Western media – that of urban India shining.

In Shubhangi’s own words, which I echo fully:

“I think I experienced such ‘dizzying contrasts’, met so many wonderful people, listened to experts in different fields and soooo much more in those 7 days that I’m still quite overwhelmed and it will take time to come to grips with everything I learned.”

I know our clients feel the same. Most of all, we had a lot of fun, and we were really blessed to have a group with us that was so open to all experiences, so humble, despite being CEO’s, CTO’s, Medical Directors, Board Members of several hospitals in the developed world, and who didn’t wince once when we got them to have a meal cooked by villagers or walk through the narrow alleys of Dharavi slum, or sit on bumpy cycle-rickshaws in Chandni Chowk.

Somehow I felt there was a soul connection with those they touched during the week – one of collective hope and renewal that is so empowering and essential for action. It’s difficult to articulate – how can one explain that warm smile right from the heart, that respect and humbleness they showed and which was returned everytime in full and more, from their hosts in India who were so gracious and open and honest in sharing parts of their lives with them. Blowing all our stereotypes about divides and differences to bits! Images that stay in my mind are of the group chatting with villagers – despite language barriers – of children giving them big hugs while sending them off as if they were old friends! Thank you to my Clients and to all the folks from India who shared with each other so freely and openly. [Pic: one of Shubhangi's many wonderful pictures at Flickr].

It’s been fantastic too and such a privilege to have worked with Nicole-Anne Boyer of Adaptive Edge, a friend from my Worldchanging days who is really the Learning Journey expert [pdf file] and is leading this project. I loved the way she let us loose and yet micro-managed the project when required! We learnt so much about the processes, and most of all about the presence of mind and the heart that’s required in the balancing of provocation with gentle guidance, of surprise within a tightly scheduled itinerary, of energy with silent presence, of taking them to the edge of chaos and allowing them to guide themselves back gently, of experiencing groundedness with visions of the future. Thank you Nicole for trusting in us, and allowing us this immense experience together with you.

Thank you too Shubhangi, my colleague at Explore Research and Consultancy, and good friend over the last 12 years, for her quiet support and amazing patience with me when I was losing it, for all the work running up to the Learning Journey and during it, taking care that the content was just right, for plodding through all the planning, for the warmth and guidance she displayed towards our visitors – always with a smile on her face, and without once showing any annoyance at me even when I was at my bossy best!!

What a journey! I should be tired, but I feel such energy and hope. I’ve done several modules of immersions and deep dives and learning journeys as part of qualitative research and ethnography projects before – this was the first time we did such a comprehensive one – with just the one objective. I am now convinced that this is one of the most powerful ways of getting groups out of their comfort zones and into really deep reflections in reframing value, innovation and when considering their own future in a very real and human way. It’s something we have to do more often, even at Mosoci – its so good for the soul!

Will put up pictures and images from this in later posts – well over a thousand pictures taken by the group thru the week.

  Olivier at Headshift has a good post titled “Enterprise 2.0″ Performance:  Exploitation or Exploration?” Reminds me of a post I had done way back in 2004 called Revisiting Knowledge Management – Presence, Communication, Collaboration = FLOW. And that was pre-Twitter, pre-Facebook, pre-so-many-new-web-2.0-tools. How amazing it would be if we could turn random ideas, thoughts and our life experiences into organizational assets. And to be able to use freely all available social media to allow information to flow seamlessly from one employee to another. These are enabled today by social media tools like blogs, wikis, VoIP, IM, social networks, twitter, bookmarking, newsreaders etc.

Some excerpts from Olivier’s piece today:

“The key focus should be people and information flow. So the first thing we have to consider is that communication and HR are not two elements one has to put on the backburner. Trick is that it is a lasting tradition in many organisations. For instance, IT people still put communication processes on the backburner and favour operational processes. They don’t understand that knowledge work cannot be limited to processes, that it is multi-faceted communication flows around processed tasks that make things work. Meetings, e-mails, phone, IM, blogs, wikis, information aggregators and filtering devices wrap defined task oriented programmes up. The former help employees use the later, more efficiently.”

He goes on to make the points that for real innovation, you need and open mind and an appetite for exploration. And today, IT departments are creating artificial scarcity by imposing upon and restricting employees to a set of tools, when they are really in the know on what tools are most relevant for them. “Instead, it might be clever to take advantage of employees who enjoy web 2.0 at home, for years now.”

Here’s how:

“If we live in an economy where innovation is a key factor of performance and competitiveness, we have to accept exploration and reprimand exploitation. We have to unleash the innovation that lies dormant within the firewall. We have to favour pilots, contextual applications, open-source, information and application mashups. The corporate information world needs no more systematic enterprise-wide stuff. Reductionism does not create relevance, it creates scarcity and underperformance. Relevance is created by situational applications, social software, interaction design, user-centricity and some basic features like APIs and personalized pages as Intranets (see Portaneo Enterprise). The corporate world needs no more old routines hidden behind new tools. Stop confusing documents and information. Stop forcing people using only emails and Enterprise Content Management. ECM reduces workflow to permission and conversation to versioning. Emails create confusion in conversations. This replicates ageless routines. Replication does not create performance in a world of innovation.”