Institutional Change:

I attended Tony Bates' talk last week, and it was really useful.  Problem is, it was also depressing, because all the institutional problems he described are alive and well at my own huge university. I get a sense of unrelenting doom just thinking about it.

I was still mulling over Tony's talk on Tuesday, when I attended Howard Rheingold's talk in Second Life, for the National Extension Virtual Conference (check here for recordings of the talks).  Could be that the reason Howard made more of an impression on me than Tony was because Tony was talking through Elluminate (which is like taking a bath with your clothes on) and Howard was talking through Second Life (which, for all its failings, does convey a sense of human connection).  Anyway, Howard said some things that seemed to continue the discussion that Tony began, so I thought I'd mention them here. This is what I remember from the talk, plus a few notes, so don't quote me, but the basic message was "convert or subvert."

• Howard was talking about the problem of big institutions controlled by powerful individuals.  His advice: go for that individual.  Convince them that change is positive. Howard Mentioned Lou Gerstner's influence on IBM, and how that company transformed itself under his leadership. 

• I really liked what he said about the web -- how we wouldn't have it today if a lot of engineers hadn't ignored their own companies' rules to communicate with each other through Usenet.  He argues that open systems and open resources are the way to continue that kind of creative growth. 

Tony's talk allowed me to see that I was putting a little too much faith in my institution's capacity for change, and he suggested ways of dealing with the problem.  Howard's talk gave me more ideas; encouraging, but we've still got a long row to hoe, if you ask me.