The Dim and Distant Past

Got a call from a long haired young fellow of around 15 or so (at least that was my memory of this chap) asking if I was the person who had been a youth worker back in the 1970's when he was last in touch with me.

You could have blown me over with a feather.

After a brief, but intensive "let's check each other out to ensure that neither of us gets hit with Internet identity scams" using Skype, I came upon a hair challenged individual with a great moustache, that bore a resemblance to the young man I had known all those years ago. I could figure that out because I still have pictures, now digitally renewed of those earlier times.

When I sent him a few of the photos, one of his comments proved how priceless the wisdom of time can be.

Here was this man, this father, being asked by his children why they could not have long hair, now surrounded by pictures of himself with long hair.

There is possibly no cure in the comments that I received from John, but they sure made me feel good to know that someone I had interacted with in the 1970's felt strongly enough about the difference our interaction had made to his life to chase me over the Internet to say as much nearly thirty years later. Wow!

I hope we can chat some more so I can learn about him and his life. It would be sad after all this time and effort if the contact was only a "one off."

Thanks John. You have made a difference in my life too. Give me more opportunities to listen to your stories, the brief bits I heard were fascinating.

The day after the day before

After a really shocking day, when I was able literally only able to get out of bed for "comfort breaks" I started today in deep fear of what the next day (ie. today) was going to be like.

Apart from an early attack of nausea that was fixed with some medication, it's been fine.

Fortunately, I hope that the change in the medication regime which started last night will continue to have the same sound effects they had from now on.

Suffice it to say that I even managed to get some work done on family genealogy AND believe it or not, even rattle the shrunken brain stem that I think I still have left, after all the medication, with a visit to some sites I used to favour when I worked (and I kid you not) in knowledge management, records management, change management and the like.

People do not seem to have advanced much, because I found the following entry on one site called BRINT which claims to be "the World's No. 1 Resource for Business Technology Management and Knowledge Management:"

Hi,

I am trying to get a view of what innovative ways people are applying tools and techniques in knowledge management.

I know the basics like Document Management Systems, Wikis, Blogs, Discussion Forums, Intranets, but what innovative ways are people collaborating/utilising these tools in knowledge management. Furthermore, what sort of techniques are people applying to both capture and disseminate knowledge (i.e. recorded lectures/discussions, presentations, informal discussion (how to capture these I am not sure) etc. )

If anyone has any ideas, or can provide me with any insight as to how they are implementing KM in their organisation I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks

As a "Registered Affiliate" I could not resist replying with the following:

Have you thought of using the facilities provided by Google ie. the equivalent of their on line and freely available office suite, their linked application suite called "Pcassa2" - an application that stores pictures on line and more and their Google Talk application which enables you to link to users anywhere on the planet with both audio and visual web cam capability to have key conferences about anything and everything?

Personally I use these applications (and indeed other of the Google products such as their Google Earth, Google Desktop, gmail and of course their search engine) as part of knowledge sharing and knowledge management related to Genealogy.

The tools mentioned above can connect anyone with known members of their family available on line to build on individual data and photo collections and then through on line real time document sharing and discussion actually save hundreds of person hours of searching and recording.

Each person in a different country can add to the mix data which only they can easily find in their own country and then through collaboration build on the knowledge of the whole group as well as benefit new family members as they come on line to "join the party" as it were.

The beauty of this collaborative effort can then be further presented through Google Blogs or Google Web pages or for those still addicted to paper through Adobe Acrobat conversion on the fly.

Last, but by no means least, because the products mentioned enable strict security controls on who can read and who can read and edit documentation, view and edit pictures, work together in audio visual conferencing etc. etc. the combination of the products create a better outcome for users within one setting than can be found in most corporate settings where they are still mucking about trying to create networks that operate throughout their corporate structure much less throughout the whole world.

Alas I am not a shareholder of this company, but whether it survives or not is irrelevant to me as their products are FREE.

Is there anyone out there who can match this combination of tools for knowledge gathering and management at the price anywhere?

I suspect not. But, hey, it's just a suggestion"

I waiting to see what sort of thrashing I get on line.

Then I can ask Leanne for some more pain management medication. This time though, I have to confess I have no idea where she can apply it, nor what level of pain I can ascribe to the outcome.

After all, the thrashing will only be applied on line, so the pain as well as its application, will be virtual.

Then again I may have wrecked this 'on line' wonder for those of us who use it. As firms start to find their financial backs to the wall and no longer have the megabucks to purchase corporate licences for other products maybe they will have to resort to my suggestion as the way to go.

It would be interesting to see if there was a corporate take up of the ideas in my suggestion.

I hope not, I really like to see people wasting their time and our money, don't you?

After all, if they work in government, they will get their money back in taxes and if they are in private enterprise they get it back through fees and charges.

Genealogy a treatment for those who are dying

I have spent the last four days totally immersed in genealogy related work.

I have been given some information about Camden Pioneers and from this information together with my data base and a look at BDM NSW (Births Deaths and Marriages) on line, I have been able to find distant family members with the surname of Adams, Roots, Emery, Buttenshaw and all of their links to the S family and of course to each other. I have confirmed stuff I know, changed stuff where the source from BDM tells me I must and adding rounding out things that are interesting.

In other words I have been working hard, but having fun and realising that while we live one life only, by sharing stuff about ourselves we are contributing to the prolongation of memories that others have about us and also ensuring that those who have never known us can get an idea about who we were and how we lived and enjoyed our lives - or not