Lets play & expt with this new tool called "Branch" which I came across today. (seems quite like G+) We can have a brief discussion about DD's various adventured in the last week. What all happened, how IIT-KGP & VGSOM reacted to the twitter tennis, and everything else.
Hi. I would love to get a picture from DD or whoever can to give some context from what I observed on twitter. I'm particularly interested in understanding the principles that worked so we can apply to many different contexts.
Thank you for opening this thread....
Ok. So it worked. I see 2 interesting things. A discussion thread in total can be shared on #SM & can also be embedded in a blog post. Thats cool. Over to DD....
Thanks for the invite.
MJ: Good question - what are the principles involved in the twitter tennis and what I found.
My findings are as follows:
1. My idea was to pick suitable students for the projects the client had in mind. Basically the client wanted these interns (3rd yr student - pre-final yr students) to come over to the client's premises and work as interns to a) solve some nagging problems for them b) develop new products or modify and develop existing products c) develop/design new systems or tweak existing ones.
2. The challenge was to pick interesting ppl out of a crowd of 40 MBA (marketing, operations, HR) students and 84 Engineering students (from Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering & Mechanical Engineering). Total vacancies = 20
@DD: You have been doing this for so many years. I have seen students submitting their ideas in papers with handwritten notes & hand drawn drawings. Why this time you thought of doing it on twitter? Do you see any specific advantage in this method?
For each group (Gr1 MBA; Gr2 Engg) the time allotted to me was a day each.
3. So I used a method of Self Organized Peer Assessment (SOPA).
4. Given a challenge young students respond extremely well.
5. They could retain their excitement for over 4 hours of grueling activity.
Did all the students have a chance to play twitter tennis? From what I saw many fewer than 124 players.
@DCP This time too they did the usual paper stuff with additional two features - a) self assessment b) Twitter tennis.
3 ideas of playing out on Twitter were- a) to make a global review and assessment of the students by others b) to check how they play out in a global dialog and still keep standing on their feet plus quick thinking c) The quality of abstraction of the concepts they generated and used for solving the problems and how good they are in expressing and exchanging them within the constraint of 140 characters.
I see. So the thinking was making students express their idea in 140 chrs, express themselves to the world and engage in dialogs. Nice.
If I were the client, my criteria would probably be
"b) to check how they play out in a global dialog and still keep standing on their feet plus quick thinking
So that says to me it might interesting going forward to capture the speed and precision of their response. From my point of view speed is more predictive than precision ( above a certain level ).
@MJ. All had a chance to play Twitter Tennis. But unfortunately only four were used to Twitter to some extent (an awareness level). So I had to take a class on Tweeting and help them out with it. So far those who picked up tweeted. Others would join in after they gain more confidence learning from peers. They have time till Monday 12 Noon (for MBA) and Tuesday 12 Noon (for Engg). The convos would continue till evening. Thanks for the tip you gave to use the reply button to keep the convo chained.
DD "So far those who picked up tweeted" interesting indicator of quick learn...
True. Speed is predictive. We might focus on the precision of expressions and the conceptual clarity with which they exchange.
Yes, an interesting indicator indeed. How quickly one learns with guided interactions, hands on help supported by examples.
The process for the MBA students was as follows:
1. Form groups where each group contains 10 students. In this case there were 4 groups.
2. Each member of the group frames a question, which can't be directly googled for an answer. This is checked by the facilitator. If an answer can be directly googled the question is disqualified. The question relates to their area of activity or their course or a subject of their liking. Each write a question on one A4 sheet of paper. Hence we would have 10 sheets of paper generated in approx 10 mins.
3. So for each group we have 10 questions. Each student in the group would then have 9 questions to answer in roughly 30 min. Answer to each question is limited to 100 words.
4. They don't answer the question they generated. Now after 30 mins all the scripts related to question 1, 2, 3.... are collected and grouped.
5. All scripts of Question 1 is passed on to the originator of the question 1. He/she marks the answers given by others to his/her question.
6. After all the papers are marked the answer scripts are arranged as per the person and handed over to the respective person. He/she then adds up all the marks allotted to him by others. That is the final score for that person.
7. Depending on the percentage marks they are given a grade. For 80% and above Level 3, for 70 to 80% Level 2 and for 60 to 70% Level 1. Below 60% they fail the test.
8. papers of L 3, 2 and 1 rthen examined by my co-facilitators
8 contd.. My co-facilitators mark them for the a) Beauty of the question they asked b) The grace with which they marked others c) the degree of WOW they had in their own answers.
9. Then the best 2 from each group is picked up by my co-facilitators. In this case 8 papers of 8 students.
10 I now examine these 8 papers for the final selection of the 4 final candidates to be recruited.
10. They then get engaged in Twitter Tennis for the objectives as stated above.
11. 3 assessments are then put together for the final selection of the 4 candidates (Peer marking + Facilitators marks + Twitter assessment).
The candidates were excited and they wished that this technique might be used for the following:
a) As a teaching methodology in their normal class
b) for their own preparation for the final exam.
c) In general for challenging tests and competitions from the outside world in preparing and grooming themselves.
It is a win-win-win situation for all.
a) Students. Generally others who come to the campus only give chance to students above a CGPA grade to attend their 'interviews' (traditional style). Students with lower CGPA get demoralized in the process. In this case all those who are interested get a chance to challenge the test. This test is not based on memory testing. It wants to see the originality and creativity of the students. Not much concerned abt their individual grade points or CVs.
b) Company
c) facilitators though the facilitators are to be on their toes al the time - alert, energetic and sharp.
d) the institute.
So, what do you all think of it?
Wait. Let me go thru ur comments. I was away for some time.
Its really interesting that you had to give users' training on twitter operations.
Fantastic. Simply loved the SOPA method. While any evaluation process brings in competition among students, this is a method which is cooperative. Something as if the students play a cooperative business game. The exam hall atmosphere must have been lively & enjoyable rather than tense & stressful for the students.
It was! Co-operation replaced competition - mostly. But we could spot a few who unfairly marked papers. We chucked them out from the selection list.
The 2nd part i.e evaluation by the facilitator perhaps calls for a very hard work on the evaluator's part. (as there is no standard question set). Tedious & time taking job for the evaluator.
3rd is the twitter tennis. Thats the real fireworks of the day. As I said yday it was your invasion not innovation. That too in the proudly elite IIT. Good to see that students are introduced to a new world of #SM and how it can be used for productive purposes.
So this is very cool and has many practical implications. Congrats to DD for taking the risk.
Help me understand more about objectives as above in "10. They then get engaged in Twitter Tennis for the objectives as stated above."
What I know from twitter is that every RT or a tweet continuing a conversation gives me a little hit of pleasure. I'm pretty sure there is neuro science to help explain DC Padhi's comment "Thats the real fireworks of the day."
Just a quick nemetical note :-) We are looking at a clear example of the fun of Free Neme Exchange within Authentic Constraints (140 chrs)
"3 ideas of playing out on Twitter were- a) to make a global review and assessment of the students by others b) to check how they play out in a global dialog and still keep standing on their feet plus quick thinking c) The quality of abstraction of the concepts they generated and used for solving the problems and how good they are in expressing and exchanging them within the constraint of 140 characters."
One Prof remarked, 'We should be copying that in our class'.
Another lamented, 'Wish I could follow that. But if I do that I would be sacked from my job'.
That explains the risk and my risk taking behavior in trying out new things - pretty sure that it would need to be perfected over time. Nonetheless everyone got excited at least!
@DD- I was about to say that. IIT is so elite that doing such a thing is like breaking a fort. But you did that. You know how to break forts of ego. Kudos !!
The good thing is that the Prof Training and Placement said, 'I found it so fascinating that I promise to give you a bigger playground to experiment your ideas."
We then thought of staging an open collaborative platform where many problems of different industries can be worked out and solved within 3 days. That might come up sometimes in Jan 2013.
The other good thing is that some students came up and asked me 'May we work with you? We don't need any pay" Incredible!
Hahahaha...So the guys are mesmerized by you. Very natural.
The other good thing happened in Tata Metaliks. I gave a two hour open lecture to anyone interested in prediction of complex systems where I began with whorls/torroids/whirlpools and ended up with resonance, change of state and the possible interruptions we can do with complex systems taking BF as an example.
One Sr. V P who heard me for the first time was so happy that he started introducing me to others who hadn't heard me as 'You must find time to hear him. It is a out of the world experience -- both for content and delivery without any notes or ppt slides. I wish I heard him more. Difficult to describe him -- mathematician or physicist or engineer or professor or a writer... very difficult to make out -- all rolled into one."
@DCP: Why natural? I am not into any witchcraft or hypnotism
I have been really laughing for last 15min. An Institute like IIT is mesmerized by seeing twitter actions, which we call 'monkey tricks' and do day & night relentlessly.
You are right. Even the Profs were looking over the shoulders of their students trying to figure out what tweeting is all about. One remarked, 'I thought tweeting is only meant for celebs. This is a different application ... "
Thanks to MJ and DCP for your good wishes and engagement in the Twitter Tennis and to MJ for the tips. It really boosted the young minds. I have so many other ideas, which I am sure would click.
MJ -- can't this along with SONEL be used in Emergent U as a methodology?
The Sr. VP was 100% right. I like his expression "out of world experience'...'no description will suffice'...Thats why I call you DEVIL...As if God has come down to earth to teach Complexity...If something matches then it would be some innings of Sachin Tendulkar where it appears that God has come down to earth to play cricket.
Yes. I was just thinking just the same.. :-)
I'm intrigued by the possibilities of using the approach you are developing for almost any workplace training. As you know I think there is a need for this in the States...
Just know it is on my radar. The clearest application for me is with printing companies who have been subjected to an enormous amount of bullshit both about business development and training their workers. Also thinking about tying into production courses in design programs. Design programs are one of the fastest growing MBA and undergraduate certs in the States.
The recruitment style is revolutionary...it need media's attention..
Hey DCP don't embarrass me. I am just excited to try out new things and approaches. At times it backfires. At times it clicks. But nonetheless a risky business. Once in a while you get kicked in the ass. To tell the truth I have often lost many big contracts for trying out new tricks. But it is fun and worth trying. Keeps me alive.
MJ: I have during the week thought of the whole course structure and the methods of the EU (and the contents) Would share it tomorrow. Extremely tired but terribly excited over the events unfolding over the last six days.
This morning Daniel pointed me to Storify... some interesting possibilities.. take a look at these two
DD I bet there is a statistical significant correlation between interns selected by the people interactions you describe and an analysis of their tweets..
@DD:- I never embarrass or over admire anybody. To tell the truth sometimes I also get headache to see your quick maneuverings. But I try switch myself from center to edge and enjoy the excitement. I also know invasive changes are risky. But if anyone in India can do it, it is only you (dont know abt other parts of world). Young minds should quite naturally get hypnotized by you. Another type may be mid-aged like me who have gone a certain distance and looking for a turn.
@DD- Strange that you could not post your comment. Wonder if it was so bcoz I was logged off. Does it allow conv when the branch creator is online? Just check if you can add another person? Or only the branch admin is allowed?
@DD - Glad the risky experiment worked well and that playgrounds of possibility will gradually arise to accommodation for this new methodology. I was mulling if maybe the candidate students might curate their tweets using Storify which could then be printed and exchanged at random with another student who would engage their work. This might stimulate some twitter tennis / collaboration which could then be curated into another Storify. @MJ don't you think that printing this process could further prove its benefit?
@DCP I actually liked your comment esp 'quick manoeuvrings' I think it is plasticity of the mind and will to shape them in a way one likes as per situation (redesign). I believe that many small changes with the possibility of further changes has the power 2change any system however, impenetrable or unchangeable they might seem at the beginning. Changes brought about in such manner would have effects on the existing system - informing it or reshaping it.
@DCP I think it might have something to do with the originator logging in or off. But we must observe that for some more time.
@DDRD yes many exciting possibilities are emerging in my mind at this moment hitting me thick and fast including a whole new business model that involves many.
@Dan Thanks for encouraging me with Storify. Exploring it now.
I somehow have some difficult in understanding the design projects being done by interns. As many are mech engg projects & I have no write up or drawings to refer, I am on knees. :-(
Shall deal with them in the evening. Now I am with the MBA guys. See the update on #ddintern
OK. Trying to catch up.
@DD I'm sure you have considered, but just in case, edited printed twitter tennis might be a value in any printed material for internal distribution. It should work very well in a university or training context.
@Daniel mulling : How might this approach be used in any 3d normal time community. ACNews and Press comes to mind.
I am going to try to branch off into a conversation about Arrival City News and Press...
@Daniel So I hit the branch button, but haven't seen the result yet. Let me know if it shows up when you come by..
@MJ: Perhaps you wanna make a new branch for a discussion in new topic. If yes, then press 'compose'. Add desired ppl on the 1st box-they will get invitation. Subject- its the branch name (as this is BranchPlay). Message- Your initial comments abt the discussion. If u want u may add a link.
In the same way you can create a new branch from any comment box of this branch by using 'branch this' on right side. But everytime you have to invite ppl.
Can you help with this while I take a look?
I can't see how one invites people after hitting the Branch button...
@MJ: Once u hit branch, U see a box on the top named "To". Type the ppl's twitter id (as @dde337) or email id. They will get ur invite. U can also check the box "solicit more...." to put an open ad on twitter. Hope u can do it this time.
@DD
Just thought of optimal twitter tennis. No more than 2 tweets beofre a response. The "winner" might be the one who can keep hitting it back. Or the "winner" might be measured by the number of exchanges they elicit.
Goes to the very hard problem of disagreeing without causing your twitter partner to disengage. One gets points for the appearance of "Thank You". Or the exchange that says "I hadn't thought of that" Or the exchange that says "Precisely" or "Hear, hear" or other words that indicate agreement.
The hardest match is when the twitter players get to "Yes."
You may have seen my exchanges with Assesswell. She keeps coming back to disagree and often insults me . That is me playing twitter tennis. So interesting.
@DCP I've done that a couple of times and only get a pop up screen that says "What is Branching?" blabla. Then I click "Got IT" and it just goes back to the screen.
I assume you are not getting that same message... Perhaps it only goes to the person who starts the conversation. May I ask to try a branch when you think it's appropriate. I would love a branch that goes to discussing the publishing effort Daniel and I are working on. In case you don't know it's called Arrival City News and Arrival City Press. If you can create a branch I will be glad to share the vision and developments.
ACN is an important publication to my mind. And what I think is that we can use the material for Urban Design including social problems in a better way. It would act as the foundation of Urban Design. I think we now have enuf material for putting it up in sum place with archival facility. Don't know what or how. @MJ @Dan
@MJ -- Thx for the evaluation criteria. Lovely. Wud follow that and let us see what we come up with. Whether it matches the understanding of other peers who have evaluated their written submission. It would be an interesting correlation indeed.
@MJ On a lighter vein -- Just imagining what might Assesswell do if she comes to know of our SONEL and SOPA? She would like to kick us out of Twitter, if possible or request Twitter to ban us for life. :)) No?
'I found it so fascinating that I promise to give you a bigger playground to experiment your ideas."
THAT was the measure of success. Forget numbers and other mind-numbing nonsense.
Also, "It is a out of the world experience...Difficult to describe him". The best things in life and the greatest learning can only be 'felt'.
The one thing that Branch 'fails' at as a mechanism for conversation is being able to nest comments to other comments.
To Michael -- great job at persisting the streams via Storify.
DD = "many small changes"
Didi = Micro-perturbations. Same fundamental principle as micro tests -- the underlying activity I believe goes on in the universe as the elements make 'informed choices'. I believe this based on the fundamental premise that everything is driven by choice. There is nothing more fundamental than choice.
[For the rest of you, as I've learned over time that Indians have all sorts of honorific references in their culture that we are not exposed to. "Didi" is a 'sisterly' reference to someone older than you. Once we studied it out, indeed it did turn out that I'm older than Dibyendu.]
This may be why barring all other explanations Twitter is such a vibrant platform: the carrier of micro-perturbations, micro-tests.
Yes Didi, That big platform is a dream come true. What I have discussed with the Prof is -- bring problems from industries all over and challenge the students to approach them in 3 days time with some prize money. It would be design/innovation in action. My motto which I learned from Tom Peters is "Fire Fire Fire" and not Steady, Aim, Shoot. It really works of course with some backfire too. Can't miss that.
@Sandeep -- it is true that media coverage might have helped. May be you may ask your friend for a TEDx event in India. This would be the topic -- Advances in Higher Education SONEL and SOPA.
@DD:- BTW When the nemetics book coming up? Didn't hear anything since long.
The plan is changed a bit. First the book on Rapidinnovation followed by a book on Nemetics. I plan to write down the first book during this 2 weeks of Puja holidays. I have thought of writing it as a dialog with my favorite cat - Pinki. What do you think of that? @MJ @Dan @Didi. (In that case I must refer to MJ as Dada - honorific title for elder brother).
Fantastic. A book written as a dialog with a cat. Simply gr8.
How do monkeys play? By jumping & hanging around branches of trees. Incidentally we engage in conv which we say 'monkey tricks' and the tool is 'branch'. :-)
Then DD's biography will read: "The Man Who Speaks With Cats"
DCP: AHAHAHAH
@All members:- Just check 2 things.
(1) Can u add new members into this existing branch.
(2) Can u create a new branch for some topic & add ppl there.
MJ had some prob in creating a new branch.
Wouldn't that be great Didi as a book on innovation. I also plan to put blank pages (perforated at the edges) after every chapter so that readers can pencil in their notes and queries and have them posted to me or to a site for more interactions. What about that?
Plus my hand sketches of Pinki the cat in different poses doing blah blah blah...
cc MJ for approval of dialogs with the cat, perforated blank pages and hand sketches.
@DCP I got to the same problem as MJ on branching out on a particular topic. However, adding people to the convo does not seem to be a prob at all.
Incidentally all these crazy ideas of a dialog with a cat, hand sketches and blank sheets came from Rick.
Before the book comes out from press, some animation videos of the dialog btwn u & the cat should be on web. Rope in a good animator. My frnd at Calcutta (with whom I stayed) works in an animator & works at WebelD. If you desire I can ask him to hit ur den sometime.
@DCP -- Please do ask him. He is the man I now need most. Animation -- that is the best idea.
Ok. I will ask him to meet you ASAP. He was also quite interested to see you.
Please ask him. Can he make it this week any time in the evening? Good to know that he is interested to meet me. Well we can have a whale of a time.
I will speak to him tomorrow and ask him to meet you within this week. He will see u in evng only as he will go office in mrng. Actually when I told him abt ur comments on his fatal accident, he was dumbfounded. He is a total mad guy. U may like him. Dont know how good he is as an animator. Anyway our projects are small. As he is a faculty in a trg academy he can dump the tasks onto his students.
I like that. Madder the better. We are all mad. It is the mad and the unreasonable that stand a chance to change anything.
While we talked abt DD's cat, I recalled Simon's naughty cat. I love this cat. Amazing vids. simonscat.com
Loved the vid on Simon's cat. Do you know that I created Pinki the cat as a master detective solving all sorts of weird wicked problems. I used to regale Rick and Rit with Pinki's stories when they were kids. And they refused to go to bed without listening to one such story every night. Even now, when they get depressed at times they recall what Pinki the cat would have done in that circumstance. The character is so live.
And it has something to do with Schrodinger's Cat. It is both alive and dead at the same time unless we kill it with our perceptions.
@DD "dialogs with the cat, perforated blank pages and hand sketches." wonderful and doable both...
So I haven't read the full thread yet, but when I heard about dialog with Cat I couldn't resist adding google.com
Oops I should have figured that Pinky was related to that other cat..
I see. Then Pinky is an old & wise granny cat. Hmmmm
@MJ Thanks for the link. Very good representation. Sketches like that with blurbs might be useful to get concepts across very easily.
@DCP yes Pinki is now the wise old granny cat who now loves sleeping on the sofa next to my writing table (the seat that you usually take when you visit my den). At times she wakes up and yawns and flings a question or two at me with a sarcastic smile followed by a irritating twitch of her whiskers.
Thanks so much for the invitation. Enjoying the branchers xchange, as well as DD organic creativity =)
@DD- I hope she is a cat only and 'cat' is not a code. LOL
Thanks @Fabian. Good to have you in our midst. Love that 'organic creativity'. Hope you would soon suffer a brain damage or reorientation which in medical terms is normally is called 'madness'. :))
@DCP She is a cat only. But can do lot of things. Change colors. At times become invisible to fight enemies and bad men. Also change shape from a cat to a handsome man in no time to woo a beautiful girl. It is a magic CAT -- very live like the Cool American Teenager (CAT)!
Have just seen another Base of Pyramid fridge made of clay kseboa.org What about teaching rural folks to DIY that fridge ?
@DD- Next time I visit Kol, introduce me to that cat. Let me have some wisdom from the granny. :-)
@Fabian -- This is it. So we already have it in place. Transform this to a DIY -- and it becomes disruptive technology -- for free for millions of users. No?
Same with power as we are discussing over #ddinternit. Supply basic necessities of life free of cost. It transforms lives of millions.
And as @DCP wants -- a water purifier at zero cost again DIY given the design.
If we somehow add a air purifier than all basic necessities of life are taken care of free of charge -- water, air, food storage, power. That would be the equal opportunity platform for all human beings on which they can build better things through education and knowledge sharing.
@DCP Sure. Pinky would love to meet you.
Fabian: Mitticool story was the first one shared in Jugaad Innovation. See chapter 1 amazon.com
Also found this one
vimeo.com
Since we all are in different time zones I just thought it wud be incorrect to say good night (GN) before logging off. So I just coined a term GLN (good long now). GLN all.
@DCP GLN and the same here too GLN. What an enjoyable evening it was! Pure adda. Thanks to @MJ, @Didi, @DCP @Fabian and @Dan GLN from me for the moment.
@DCP Just came back to say Thank you. Your GLN is a great innovation in #sm etiquette. One more added to my list.
Thanks for your feedback! Team Branch
