A Guidebook for Free-Range Learners...

I recently had the opportunity to read and comment on a very early draft, musings would probably be more acurate, of an upcoming book by eLearning guru Jay Cross, tentatively titled: Informal Learning, A Guidebook for Free-Range Learners and Frustrated Managers. It's going to be a fun and insightful book and can't wait to see the final copy. I include this plug for Jay here for two not-so-important reasons: 1) I was looking for an excuse to use Jay's provacative phrase "Free-Range Learners" (wish I had come up with that!), and 2) he mentions my company in a section called: Instant Information and the CoPs that Produce It. Sorry, couldn't help the self-promotion, so here's the relevant quote:

"A CoP is a community of practice. Most of us are members of several CoPs but don't realize it. Think “guild” or “special interest group” or “professional group.” Cisco set up a dozen of them around issues such as security or VoIP. Once or twice a year, opinion leaders in a specialty get together for a week to share insights, hear about new developments, and listen to customers. Every moment is videotaped, for the discussions become content for those who cannot attend in person. Altus Learning Systems slices and dices the presentation so that anyone can call up sort of an in-house Google, and within a minute be looking at, listening to, or reading precisely what they requested. Instead of the frustration of wading through a presentation to find what you need, this content is indexed to the individual sentence (see example from International Conference on Global Knowledge Sharing). You can even subscribe to subjects as a podcast to listen to while driving or at the gym."

Well said Jay, thanks. Here's hoping this seminal passage survives the editing process and makes it into the published version! For more insight from the ever-creative and irreverant Mr. Cross, just mosey over to his personal website.