Friday 12 June 2009

Books 12 June 2009

A quick set of mini-reviews for some books I've read recently...


The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson 4 / 5

Enjoyed this a lot - might not be for you if you're squeamish though. An ordinary story - boy meets girl. However, here the boy is nearly dead, horribly burnt & disfigured following a car crash which rather curtails his career as an drug-addled adult film star. The girl, meanwhile, is a fey and mysterious stone carver who claims to be seven hundred years old...

Davidson does a great job of weaving a convincing & engaging story with real depth to the relationship between the two - backed up by enjoyably imaginative storytelling and a veneer of the fantastical.

There are definite flaws to this book - the author heavily researched historical background for the story, and sometimes the depth of historical verisimilitude jars with the narrative. It's not a happy book either - and I wasn't sure the ending really worked for me.

None the less, I enjoyed it a lot and it made quite an impact on me - the kind of novel I imagine I'll return to for second or third readings and find more in it each time. Considering it's a début from Davidson, pretty impressive!


The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss 5 / 5

Another début novel, happily even better this one. Grabbed in some haste - I was in Solihull and needed something to read, and this was on the "Employee's Picks" section in the Borders there. They have great taste!

In "The Name of the Wind", Rothfuss (He blogs!) has done a great job of blending the exuberant and exciting elements of fantasy with some gritty realism. A more grim and gloomy tone is not unknown in fantasy, particularly in recent years, but for me this one gets the balance just about perfect - whilst creating a convincing world and characters, there's still a real element of wonder and enchantment.

This book tells the story of Kvothe, born into a troupe of roving stage performers and minstrels, who clearly from the book's context goes on to become a famous - or, perhaps, notorious - hero, swordsman and magician. Much of this is still to come though, as this is the first of a trilogy. By the end of this volume Kvothe has suffered tragedy, met with both adventure and romance, and shown his potential for the arcane - so there's certainly lots happening. None the less, there's a lingering feeling that things will really get going in the next book!

This book isn't perfect - at times Kvothe does verge on the wish-fulfilling 'Mary-Sue' of legend - but it's without doubt the best fantasy I've read in the past couple of years. If you like fantasy - particularly of the 'epic' sub-genre - then I can't recommend this enough.


The Last Colony, John Scalzi 3 / 5

I'm a long-time reader of John's blog, Whatever, but have tended to only pick up his novels as & when I find them over here in the UK - which hasn't always been often. So I was happy to find a copy of 'The Last Colony' the other week.

This third book is a sequel to Scalzi's previous 'Old Man's War' and 'The Ghost Brigades' and continues the story of John Perry, the septuagenarian soldier fighting humankind's battles on faraway planets. Although not carrying on immediate plot arcs, the book does rely heavily on the earlier two and I would suggest you catch up on those first.

In 'The Last Colony', Perry agrees to lead a new colony settling on a new world. Unfortunately for him, in this universe there are many alien races who object to humans grabbing all the prime real estate. And they're the easier part of Perry's problems, as he also has to contend with his own government.

Above all this is a fun book, which I rattled through reading with great excitement. This is wholly in keeping with the previous books and, indeed, reminds me of early Heinlein works that Scalzi has openly acknowleged as an inspiration. The narrative is warm, witty and rapidly paced.

However, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of depth and detail I found. I'm not sure this would bother everyone, but to a certain degree I felt that the broad outlines of a world were being painted, but there wasn't anything to back them up or develop a real depth of connection with characters.

So whilst I finished the book at breakneck pace, and thoroughly enjoyed it in the process, I can't really say it made much of a lasting impact on me. I'll still look out for Scalzi's books when I see them - but I'm not going to be ordering them in hardcover...


Night of Knives, Ian C Esslemont 3 / 5

I am a huge fan of Steven Erikson's 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' series, so I was curious to see what this new novel, set in the same world but from a different author, would be like. Ian and Steven did develop the Malazan world together from the outset and describe it as a wholly collaborative endeavour, so this book shouldn't be seen as any sort of spin-off or exploitation!

'Night of Knives' is a fast-paced action novel, and does that extremely well. The characters are what they need to be, there are plenty of fights, chases, battles of magic, strange trips between worlds... You get the idea - there's a lot going on. Esslemont has done a great job of plotting and weaving a coherent narrative to describe one very chaotic night.

I realise it's not fair to compare the two authors, but based on this book I remain unconvinced that Esslemont can bring the same balance of action and feeling that Erikson manages - part of the appeal the 'Book of the Fallen' series has to me is that it conveys the full range of human emotion, from joy to despair to rage to desperate sorrow. And Erikson surely doesn't have any problem writing big, dramatic battle sequences either.

As I say, it's harsh on Esslemont to judge his first novel by such high standards - in my book it's a fine first novel. There is a second one - 'Return of the Crimson Guard' - out now, and I plan to check that out soon. So definitely not a bad book - just has a lot to live up to!


The Gone-away World, Nick Harkaway 5 / 5

Yet another first novel, this one from - I discovered after finishing it - the son of the great author of spy fiction, John Le Carre. Also a really excellent book - I literally finished it two or three hours ago and am still buzzing a little with excitement!

Unlike the other books in this post, 'The Gone-away World' is written in an overtly comical and stream-of-conciousness style which at times seemed to be channeling a potent mix of Neal Stephenson, Douglas Adams and even maybe Jerome K Jerome. The plot also has its absurd moments, featuring as it does pirates, ninjas, and the most unlikely romantic assignation I have ever read.

Using this style is interesting, to say the least, given that the book is about the end of the world - in a way - and addresses head-on some deep and uncomfortable questions about love, war, corporate culture and philosophy. I won't give away any plot points, but there are also big surprises towards the end, spun in by the author in quite elegant fashion.

Again, there are a few problems - although the comedic style works most of the time, it sometimes meets its limits and crosses the line into farce. Although I enjoy complex and flowery language, Harkaway takes it a bit too far here on occasion and would maybe have benefitted from some further editing. I notice he credits Dumas in the endnote and indeed, the verbosity is reminiscent of something like 'Le Comte de Monte Cristo'.

Summing up, however, 'The Gone-away' world is a cracking read with lots of action, a sizzling plot, good characters and an innovative way of telling a story. Highly recommended!



Wednesday 10 June 2009

The much reported death of KM - my take...

Last week I attended David Gurteen's "Effective Knowledge Worker" workshop - a valuable and very thought provoking day! One point that came up in discussion was the "Is KM dead?" debate that seems to have been rattling around in the KM community and online for a while now. As usual never knowing when to leave alone, I thought I'd add my tuppence...

Much of this appears to have kicked off following an interview with Dave Snowden and Larry Prusak last year. Luis Suarez's post here has an excellent round-up of links and further discussion. I'm not going to attempt a comprehensive point-by-point argument here, but rather put forward some of my thoughts, particularly based on my own experience.

My first response to "KM is dead!" was to ask - "What do you mean by KM?" and indeed, this does seem to be the key to the debate. In general, those saying "Yes, KM is dead!" aren't doing KM any more, oh no. They're doing Social Media, or Knowledge Sharing, or something equally flavour-of-the-month - yay!

The other side - "No, KM's still alive" - tend to still call what they do Knowledge Management, like myself. It can't be dead, because then we'd be out of a job. Maybe your idea of KM is dead - not mine. Nuh-uh. Vive le KM!

What I'm getting at is that at some level this is all a squabble about terminology. Call it what you will, but we're all working towards the same end - improving the ability of people to be more productive, perform to a higher standard and make better decisions. We believe we can best do this through making changes in the way people develop and use knowledge.

An aside - I should make clear that this is about driving improved business results - we're not doing this to make people happier. Sometimes KM - and recently, social media - people seem to miss this point and assume empowering people, having open conversations etc. should be goals in themselves. Not so - they should all be in pursuit of higher performance. Blimey, I sound like Alan Sugar! However... it's no coincidence that happy, empowered people & high performing businesses go hand-in-glove. Aren't we lucky to be living in a day & age where we get a chance to have fun at work
and be high-powered and successful? That's the idea, anyway...

Anyway - back to my main point. Whatever we're doing in this space, it is all about changing the ways people develop & use their knowledge. Is that knowledge tacit or explicit? Can it be held in a document? Can knowledge exist at all outside of people's heads? KM experts would happily argue all of these points - hence I propose we ignore them. Does it really matter? Some people love taxonomies and file systems, others won't touch anything formally managed and controlled, preferring instead informal networks and conversations. News! Both of these are KM, and in my opinion anyone claiming to be a Knowledge Manager should acknowledge this.

This is a key point in making useful progress from this discussion - people are messy and inconsistent, and any effective approach to improving knowledge work has to recognise this. IT and IM types can find this a horrific concept - people left to their own devices will inevitably produce a mess of stuff. But people are also pretty good at resolving ambiguity and sorting the useful from the dross - if they're empowered to do so.

The flip side of this, is that some situations, problems and types of people are best dealt with through formal processes, structures and management. Yes, all you social media, Web 2.0 hipsters - some people do actually like doing things in a structured, routine manner! Crazy, I know. Not my cup of tea, but as KM experts we need an approach that embraces all the many ways of doing things, rather than imposing any one solution.

So - what I guess I'm trying to say is that KM is not a consultancy methodology, or a programming language, or a scientific theory. I don't believe it can "die", or be discredited, or debunked. No - KM is simply an approach which recognises the importance of both individuals and knowledge, and develops a wide, varied and above all pragmatic set of practices that help improve knowledge working effectiveness.

I realise I've just fallen into my own trap and developed yet another definition of KM. Not what I set out to do, but never mind - I will plough on regardless.

Going off on a slightly different tack now - I will wrap up this post soon, I promise - I'd like to address another angle of the "KM is dead" argument - the impact of past failures. It seems to be suggested that as KM has "failed" in the past, it is tainted beyond recognition. Well, for a start I don't believe it has failed - KM has delivered notable successes. More importantly, if we value knowledge - and we do - then how can we fail to manage it?

I think it's relevant to compare to other management practices here. Risk Management. Safety Management. Financial Management. All of these have a range of tools & techniques. All have had spectacular failures. (Hello, credit crunch!) But nobody argues with their basic principles - I will minimise my risks, I will increase safety, I will run my business on a sound financial basis. Why not also - I will maximise value and performance through management of knowledge?

So I believe it's incumbent on us as KM experts to embrace past failures, learn from them and promote Knowledge Management as a holistic, pragmatic way of increasing performance. If the most effective way to do this in your organisation is through managing documents and file structures, great. If it's by setting up knowledge plans, communities of practice and so on - again, great. You may drive huge improvements by effecting cultural change, implementing social tools and empowering your people - excellent! But whatever you do, focus on the individuals, the knowledge, and how your actions help to improve their way of working. That is what KM is all about.

Monday 8 June 2009

Photos Catch-up - Part 1

Over the past couple of months I've been trying to get out & take some more photos. Having got a DSLR last September - the excellent Canon 450D - I'm only now starting to feel I've got a real grip on what to do technically to get reasonable exposures. I'm now really keen to focus (heh) on the artistry and composition possibilities - which I think will be a life long learning process!

So anyway, herewith some pics...

Windsurfing Hill Head

These were taken down at Hill Head earlier in May. It was a horrible grotty afternoon/evening - I'd been out sailing earlier in the day and had got thoroughly cold & miserable in the rain. Luckily just as I came in, exhausted, the rain cleared up so I got changed quickly to take some pics. These guys were sailing at the western end of Hill Head beach & coming in quite close to the drainage outfall where I could stand.

Windsurfing Hill Head

It was really rather dark & gloomy by that point of the afternoon and I think the AF in the camera was struggling - these photos all seemed a little blurred. I was shooting in Tv mode at about 1/640 or faster to freeze the motion but the images were very dark - I had to really ramp the brightness up in Lightroom. This has introduced noise, unfortunately!

Windsurfing Hill Head

This chap was kind enough to sail straight at me whilst pulling off a neat body-drag - quite an old-skool trick but still looks good.

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The next morning at Hayling Island was a much nicer day - very unexpected sunshine but still cold for May, I was in my winter wetsuit and nowhere near too hot! I had a good couple of hours sailing before running out of energy - several months of no exercise hasn't done me much good. At least it gave me the chance to take some pics and have a chat with some mates from the Boards forums...

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I really liked the forward loop sequence of which this photo is a part - a brighter day, fast shutter speed, AF Servo and continuous shot mode delivered good results. However, I still need to get more conscious of framing when tracking moving subjects - this would have looked a lot better with the whole sailor, board & rig in the shot!

IMG_4595

I was lucky enough here to get the brightness of the sun in the foreground, and especially off the sail & the spray, whilst the background was conveniently darkened by a passing cloud. Very useful!

That's all for now but there's plenty more photos so stay tuned for a Part 2 - and some pictures that aren't of windsurfing!