The eduFire Blog

Was very encouraged by the response to the blog post on Global Intelligence earlier this week (already in the Top 50 on Google for the phrase!). Wanted to follow up with some thoughts on what things are currently lacking for this vision to get closer to reality. In other words, what’s need to get us to a true Global Intelligence System (GIS…I kind of like the sound of that!). Here’s a start. If you have more thoughts please add them in the comments:

#1: Much better filters for content – There just aren’t that many great content filters out there right now (and I mean filters in the “tastemaker” sense of the word rather than the “restrict access” sense of the word). Sites like Digg and Reddit are *way* better than what we used to have but there’s still a lot to be done in this area. For example, I recently came across the excellent videos from the Business Innovation Factory. They’re kind of like a hybrid of Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast and the TED videos. I love ‘em. Which makes sense because I love ETL and have listened to almost every podcast and I’ve probably watched 100+ TED videos.

So why is that I’m only now discovering the Business Innovation Factory stuff? It’s because there’s not a great filter out there for me to discover them. That filter not only needs to be more all-encompassing than something like Digg (which offers a very male, very young, fairly geeky take on things) and it also has to be personalized for my tastes.
People are working on this right now but we still have a long ways to go here.

#2: Connections between disparate networks – I spent a fair amount of time in 2008 learning about nutrition. There are a number of different forums and social networks that are focused on the subject. However, there’s very little that connects these together. Hence, I’m hesitant to invest myself fully into supply my knowledge to any one network because the only people who will benefit from it are the people on that network.

This *is* starting to change. Some examples of companies that are helping to push this change forward including Disqus (which we just rolled out for our blog comments), Ning (which at least allows common authentication across all of its social nets) and Facebook (Facebook Connect could help significantly with this problem).

The silo approach that networks have historically operated with is a huge barrier to true sharing of global intelligence. And I say that knowing full well that eduFire is still predominantly a silo (something we’re intending to improve upon this year).

#3: Easier publishing tools – I think we made a major step forward in this year in the last couple of years. Leading the charge were micro-blogging platforms like Tumblr and Twitter, social networks with easy publishing capabilities like Facebook and Ning and video sharing platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler. It’s getting really easy to share information.

The next major leap forward will be the increased ability for “set it and forget it” information sharing. For example, if I’m giving a talk at a university it needs to be incredibly easy for me to have that talk recorded, uploaded to the Web, tagged appropriately, RSS-ified, etc. Sites like UStream.tv are doing some very cool things in this area. But there’s still too much work involved. As it gets more simple you’ll see an absolute explosion in content.

Of course with the explosion in content the question naturally arises “Won’t we be overwhelmed with all this content?” I think that question is best answered by #1 above (better filters). As long as the filters are high-quality it doesn’t really matter how much content is created. I’ll only see what’s best-suited for me at any given moment.

#4: Better publishing hardware (for audio and video) – Publishing tools only go so far. If the hardware blows, the content that they generate is going to be lackluster. Look at webcams…most webcams end up generating video of people that would suggest to the uninformed observer that dwell in a cave somewhere. The video is grainy, the lighting is bad…and that’s if you know what you are doing.

As with the other items, there are some cool things happening right now. Just about every video blogger I know seems to be talking about the new HD Flip cameras. I’ve also heard of some good audio recording devices for the iPhone. But we’re not quite there yet. We’ve come a long way in the last 3 years and that’s in large part due to the stellar success of YouTube and the relative success of podcasting.

#5 – A different mindset – This really has nothing to do with technology. It’s all about our individual approach to sharing information and knowledge with the world. Too many people (myself included) are still too wrapped up in hoarding knowledge. There’s still too much of the mentality that I need to keep what I know to myself lest you learn from it and benefit. This is called scarcity mentality.

But look at two stunning examples of what happens when you take an abundance mentality: TED and 37Signals. A few years ago I blogged that I hoped TED would be made available to the world. A couple of days later I was surprised to see an email in my inbox from Chris Anderson, TED’s curator, letting me know that something very cool was in the works. Indeed it was. By sharing all of the TED content for free on the Web not only have they helped educate and inspire millions, they’ve also done more for their brand than anything else they could do. Three years ago, TED was relatively unknown outside of certain circles. Now it’s rare that I bump into a young professional type who hasn’t heard of TED.

37Signals is another great example. Sure they’re predominantly a software company that makes killer products. But they’re also one of the best examples of an abundance mentality out there. By blogging openly about their products, methodologies, etc., they’ve built up a legion of fans. Their book Getting Real has inspired many entrepreneurs (while have the nice ancillary benefit of getting a lot of revenue for their company) and their recent live events have been a big hit. Sure, they could have been very covert in their approach to software development but they chose not to. And not only did we all benefit, so did they.

OK, this post is getting on the long-ish side so I’ll stop there but I’d love to hear any thoughts that you might have. What other things are necessary for us to move towards a Global Intelligence System? Please post in the comments!

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