Michael Sampson

Gone Fishing ... back October 13

The printed edition of Seamless Teamwork is done, KMWorld has come and gone, I've recovered from my US trip ... so it's time for a vacation. The New Zealand countryside awaits, and more importantly, so does my family.

I'll be back on the 13th. Grace to you.

Michael's Application for the ACIS 2008 Doctoral Consortium is Accepted

I received notice last night that I can attend and present my PhD work at the Doctoral Consortium at the ACIS 2008 Australasian Conference on Information Systems in December (here in Christchurch).

Is there a single word in the English language that simultaneously conveys the sense "hurray" and "gulp"??

Are you waiting for a response from me?

Apparently Gmail has been having some issues in the past week or so ... and I've noticed it via reduced email. So ... if you have sent me an email and I haven't yet responded, please re-send it. I may not have received it.

And yes, I've shifted to another email provider ...

Sorry for any inconvenience.

M.

Tourist in Sydney

I am in Sydney this week for the Open Publish Conference, which starts in 3 hours. And I am here with my Dad, who came with me ... I'll be doing the conference thing, and he'll be doing the tourist thing.

I haven't been to Sydney in tourist mode before ... it's always been for work and meeting people. But yesterday, with my more traveled father, we looked at the sights after landing from New Zealand. After checking into our hotel in the city, we took the train across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and then walked back along it. Here's a picture from the bridge of the Opera House:

After getting off the bridge, we walked down to the quay, and then around to the Opera House, and then up through the Botanical Gardens, and then through Hyde Part back to the hotel. It was an 8-10 km walk in all. A late lunch in one of the arcades, and for me it was then back to work.

But it was delightful to walk through a little bit of Sydney, and I felt the benefit of the fresh air and sunshine.

How to Write a Book

With the manuscript for my first book, Seamless Teamwork, almost wrapped up, I have been reflecting on the process of writing a book. If I do it again — and yes I have ideas of books that need to be written — I would do some things differently. I don't claim that what follows is unique or has never been said before, but what I do say is that I think what follows is a high-octane way to get a great book written.

Here's my key learnings and ideas for next time:

• Create a rough outline of the book, using a mind mapping tool like Mindjet MindManager. Break down the major topic of the book into 6-10 sub-topics, and create an initial structure for how the book might flow.


• Approach people that you know who might have an interest in the topic of the book, and interview them. Ask them what they think about the topic, how they are currently living out the ideas in their day-to-day work, and the major insights they have had about the topic and the major pain points they have experienced.


• Review the interview notes from all of your conversations, and update your mind map with the additional insights, counterpoints, and examples that you have learned.


• From the mind map, start writing small articles or blog posts about each of the topics. Don't aim for anything too long — a couple of hundred words perhaps, outlining the main thoughts for each main idea. Publish these through an email newsletter or a blog, and request feedback and correlation from other people about what you have written.


• Approach a local business or organization and offer to run a free one or two hour workshop on the topic of your book. You say that you are running it for free because you are testing the material for a longer workshop, and are looking for an initial group of people to hear the ideas and give their feedback. During the workshop, listen to what the participants say, and capture other ideas and concepts. When the workshop is finished, transfer your learning to your mind map.


• Repeat the workshop with some other local firms, gradually extending its length and the range of ideas that you test out.


• Keep going with your writing schedule, of taking the main ideas from your highly-refined mind map and writing up each one in 200-400 words. Keep publishing what you are writing, for feedback and review from others.


• Create a book proposal, and send it off to a publisher that you think will be interested. Or work with your book agent, assuming that you already have one. You'll have enough material for the sample chapters, and because you have already run the workshop multiple times, will have a solid grasp of the overall shape and flow of your book.


• Stop offering the workshop at no charge, and start levying a fee for it. Your material should be enough by now for a half day, full day or even a two-day workshop, and you will have been able to test and refine the ideas with lots of people. Start marketing the workshop in your local areas and beyond.


• Put aside some of the profit that you earn from running the workshop into a savings account. This savings account will be used as the financial back drop you need to get the book written. You'll need enough for living costs and expenses for one month.


• When you have enough money saved, and have gone through all of the ideas on your mind map, rule out a month in your schedule for writing your book. Take all of your draft writings, all of the feedback from the workshop, and for a month do nothing but write the manuscript. This involves taking all of the main ideas that you've written already, and wordsmithing them into a final manuscript. Live off your savings during this time, and stay intently focused on getting the book done.

So there you have it … the current iteration of Michael's "Fail Safe Way to Write a Great Book". What book are you going to write?

Changes Afoot

I'm experimenting with a few changes around here ...

• I have changed the name of the blog from Effective Collaboration to Working with People You Can't Be With. For many of the people I deal with, the new name means something, whereas the old name drew "So what does that mean?" questions or looks.


• There is a name change in my daily report from the "Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report" to "Working with People You Can't Be With Daily Report", for the same reasons as above.


• I will be putting a sentence of analysis into my daily report ... it is the new text that shows in light blue. So each item will have a summary sentence, a quote from the source, and then a sentence of analysis. And I'm going to try and find more images and screen shots too ... I find they make the text heavy posts more meaningful.

Looking forward to hearing what you think ...

Going on Tour ... Melbourne, Australia (July 23-25)

I have been invited to speak at three special events in Melbourne, Australia next month, and will be there from Wednesday July 23 to Friday July 25.

The three events are:

1. I'll be presenting to three groups on Wednesday evening, July 23. One suggestion is that I talk about overcoming government and corporate fear and risk aversion to social media tools ... but we're still finalizing the details. This session will be hosted by the Melbourne Knowledge Management Leadership Forum, the Knowledge Management Roundtable in Victoria, and the Victorian Public Sector Continuous Improvement Network. Learn more about the four topics I will be addressing.


2. In addition to being at the event on Wednesday night, I will be meeting with the Knowledge Management Roundtable again on Thursday. We'll be having a wide-ranging conversation about knowledge management, collaboration, and more.


3. The VITTA (the association that helps teachers who teach IT in schools) is having me back to give my lecture and workshop on Supporting Virtual Teams through Technology. That's on the evening of the Thursday, July 24.

So ... I have some gaps in my schedule. I'm open to meeting with you and learning more about your work and how collaboration approaches and technologies can help improve that. I look forward to hearing from you.

Feedback on Collaboration

Last Friday, I sent out my new email newsletter for the first time. There were a couple of problems for people that received it, which I haven't been too happy about:
(1) I changed DNS servers for michaelsampson.net about 10 days ago, and some internal DNS servers have not updated, meaning that when people have clicked on the links, they haven't worked; and
(2) the way the newsletter came through put what was supposed to be a sidebar at the top of the message, making it look like I was trying to give priority to some things which were not supposed to be given priority in the message.

This is how it was supposed to look ...

Oh well, I live and learn ... and this week will do it through a different service, so ... hopefully it will work better.

Anyhow, Mark sent me this feedback today, which made the above two issues reduce in impact for me:

"Thanks for sending the newsletter. There were some good links contained in there which lifted me out of my daily chore of attempting to 'collaborate' in the knowledge economy !!

I was reflecting on one blog on knowledge workers trying to be all things to all people. Setting the vision is critical, in the agricultural revolution it was providing enough food, likewise the industrial revolution delivered a tangible product. What we deal with today is so often an intangible deliverable (software, a balance sheet, insurance quote). Therefore the unifying purpose is even more critical as the process to success is difficult to identify and thereby more frustrating to recreate, needing greater collaboration.

You cannot go too far wrong if you conduct your collaborative efforts in line with the first two NATO principles of war;
- Selection and maintenance of the aim
- Momentum"

Thanks Mark!

Notes on "Experimental Research" (Professor Joey George, Florida State)

Professor George gave another seminar this afternoon, looking at how to carry out experimental research. Joey is self-taught in experimental research methodology (as opposed to being taught through a class).

Agenda:
- Definition
- Pros and Cons
- Checklist
- Execution
- Data Analysis and Write-Up

Definition
- Lab experiments ... take place in an especially created setting to investigate a phenomenon. The researcher has control over the independent variable(s) and the assignment of random participants to various treatment and non-treatment conditions. From AIS.

Pros and Cons
Pros:
- a narrow focus.
- control - high levels of internal validity
- established data analysis methods, eg, ANOVA (traditional)
- ... can be an issue with reviewers though, if you haven't done the analysis correctly.
- established format for writing up results. There is pretty much a checklist to go through.
- student subjects are readily available

Cons:
- lack of realism
- limited generalization or external validity. Generally is a group of researchers with students that are easily found.
- results should be viewed as a single data point. Need to run multiple experiments ... replications, others with changes
- ... or you could mix it with other methods, eg, start with an experiment and then explore with case study or an ethnography
- students subjects are not always the best choice, given the research question. Need to justify the use of student subjects.
- it is not always fast and easy
- ... it takes time to get it done right.

Checklist
1. Research Question
2. Research Model and Hypotheses
3. Dependent Variables (and measurement instruments)
4. Independent Variables (manipulations)
5. Research Design (controls)
6. Subjects
7. Tasks
8. Procedures
9. Institutional Approval

Example
Joey went through a recent paper, The Effects of Warnings, Computer-Based Media, and Probing Activity on Successful Lie Detection.

Some pointers:
- experiments tend to be factorial designs, eg, 2x4
- balance is important. Eg, for training vs. no training, you need to have something for those not getting trained something to do while the others are being trained.
- you need to anticipate all possible threats to internal validity. See the chapter on Internal Validity in Cook and Campbell for more.
- some designs include explicit controls where there is no manipulations
- on using students: hard to get them to the experimental location; and how you do keep them engaged in the task at hand?
- there is a repository of tasks for experiments, but sometimes you have to create them.
- piloting the experiment is essential.

Notes on "Computer-Mediated Communication and Deception" (Professor Joey George)

Joey George is a professor at Florida State University, and is here in NZ to spend time at the University of Canterbury. He is giving a talk on deception in computer-mediated communication. Joey has been studying this area for over a decade.

Deception is present in 20-33% of everyday communication interactions. Most deception is trivial ("How are you?", "I'm well thanks" ... when you really are unwell). Researchers in the communication discipline have studied deception for decades, but mostly in two-person face-to-face situations. Yet as computer-mediated communication has become more pervasive, the research has shifted focus to how things happen in this area. Eg, phishing, spear phishing (highly-targeted, socially engineered email message).

Two main research questions:
1. How can we detect deception in CMC?
2. How can we design software to overcome this problem?

With respect to question #1, the objectives were to (a) create an integrated deception detection model, and (b) to conduct experiments to confirm the model. There were four US universities involved. The research program ran for 5 years. At Florida State, over 2000 people were involved in the research. Today Joey will be talking about the resume study and the diary study.

Deception is ... "messages and information knowingly transmitted to create a false impression or conclusion." There has to be an intention to deceive. There are four types of deception:
- outright fabrication
- concealment
- equivocation (evasion, deflections, ambiguity)
- exaggerations

Our ability to detect deception ... on average, we can detect deceptions 40-60% of the time. People are better at figuring out what's true, and less better at figuring out when something is false. Why is this? In general, people have a tendency to believe what people tell us.

The theoretical basis for the basis:
- leakage theory (the deceiver has to control so many aspects of the communication when trying to deceive -- facial expressions, body language, the words -- but they can't generally control everything ... and thus cues to deception "leak" out).
- interpersonal deception theory (adds behavioural adaptation after the reception of a message)
- an integrated model ( ... slide went by too fast to write down all of the boxes and arrows)

Key indicators of deception:
- liars' stories are less compelling -- they make less sense; they are told in a less engaging way; the stories are told in a less immediate way; and liars sound more uncertain.
- liars provide fewer details that truth tellers
- liars make more negative statements and complaints
- liars are more tense that truthtellers -- more nervous, more vocally tense, speak in a higher pitch
- liars still too closely to the details, to the key elements of their story

An experiment ... a Resume study, with student subjects.
- wanted to do a media comparison, between email, chat, chat with audio, and audio only
- students were asked to "enhance" their resume in order to get a scholarship.
- an other independent variable ... warnings about lying or not.
- overall result: deception detection rate 8% of the time. If they were warned, they were much better at identifying the lies -- 4x more likely to identify.
- ... the media made no difference.

A second study ... a Diary study.
- give your subjects a way to record their behaviour over a period of time. People were asked to record their communication and deception over a week.
- students were asked to fill out a questionnaire on a PDA over the course of a week.