POWERFUL
METAPHORS BY CHARLES SAVAGE
Several years ago, I met Professor Nonaka in his office at the
Hitotsubashi University just outside Tokyo. Among other things,
he pointed out how important 'powerful metaphors' can be. There
are powerful metaphors that are so implicit in our thinking that
we hardly recognize them, and yet, they keep us captive to one
way of thinking. For example, the Industrial Era "repair
man" is deep in our souls. We are always trying to find out
what is not working so we can repair it. We look for that which
is broken in our colleagues at work, instead of looking for their
strengths upon which to build.
We are all familiar with the hierarchy metaphor. In Nonaka and
Takeuchi's hypertext organization, they combine three metaphors,
that when understood in an interactive way, liberate much human
energy.
I’d like to use the idea of powerful metaphors to explore
some of the workings of metalayer.
Besides the knowledge-based layer metaphor from Nonaka and Takeuchi,
I'd like to explore three other metaphors, the 'movable-type'
of Gutenberg, the 'weaver's
workbench and shuttle' and the 'newspaper'.
JOHANNES
GUTENBERG'S 'MOVABLE TYPE'
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In
the mid 1450s Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type.
This development had profound implications on the spread of
information, for the publishing of broadsides, newspapers and
books. Individual letters could now be used and reused in different
combinations. A turning point in human history had been reached.
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Just
over five hundred years later, Tim Berners-Lee, developed what might
be called electronic publishing, with the development of the World
Wide Web and HTML. Suddenly, anyone could publish text and pictures
that could be read by anyone else in the world.
The next step is 'movable
ideas'
How can we use and reuse people’s experience,
their insights, their questions and their visions? These ideas come
alive in CONTEXT, and yet the context keeps changing. Perhaps in twenty
years we will understand that metalayer understood the dynamics of
movable ideas and created a platform to enable people to combine and
recombine their thinking in context of new opportunities.
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THE
WEAVER'S BENCH AND THE SHUTTLE
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Weaving
is almost as old as human history. Over time, skilled craftsmen
developed weaving benches to hold the threads. These threads
could be raised and lowered by foot peddles as needed in order
to vary the patterns.
They would then use a shuttle to pass different colored threads
between the threads thereby creating multiple patterns. |
metalayer
has developed a dynamic shuttle so that it is possible to weave
in ideas, thoughts, hyperlinks, questions or presentations at
any point so as to add color and texture to the conversation.
This is a truly unique feature that I have not found on any
other groupware system. The metalayer shuttle is a wonderful
"IDEA
WEAVER(TM)" .
It is possible with this shuttle to mimic human conversation
electronically. Why?Human conversation is not orderly, but it
skips and jumps around. At times it remains superficial, at
other times it goes deeply into a subject. We circle back to
ask another question about something that was discussed twenty
minutes ago. In most every groupware system, it is not possible
to jump around so freely. In metalayer, it is a way of life
and so much more comfortable. |
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THE
DAILY NEWSPAPER
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The
daily newspaper provides the circulation of ideas that nourishes
a community, and that inspires or saddens the people. Each reader
asks: What is happening? Where is the action? What is important?
Who won? Who failed? And on it goes. What would a city be without
a newspaper?
Just think, how much time do you need in the morning to browse
through your newspaper and to get a first overview of what’s
been happening in the world? Perhaps fifteen minutes to a half
hour.As an experiment, take a scissor and cut out all the articles
from the paper. Suppose you received this pile of unsorted articles
each morning. How much time would you now need to get an overview
of what’s gone on overnight? |
As Markus likes to point out, "Much of our information is the
same. In a newspaper, we have the context given, but with the cut-out
articles we find ourselves facing our eMail inbox."
metalayer
offers the "Times" page, a way of quickly seeing the news,
what is new since one has last been on line. There is an important
difference between our daily newspapers and metalayer’s Times. We
can only read our papers, but with metalayer, it is possible to
both read and write, and right away. In other words, metalayer provides
a "living newspaper" that continually changes, depending
on the interaction of the community. For example, you can see other
people who may also be reading their morning electronic newspaper.
At this point it is very easy to meet them, and to interact within
the context of the material. In this way your own personalized "Times"
page becomes the reality where things happen, the space itself.
This
is what is really exciting. When people first come to metalayer,
they look at the layout and the graphics, but they do not see the
living community, because it is not there. Only as people engage
with one another based on their thoughts and feelings does the community
come alive. What is really interesting is not the framework and
structure (like the weaver’s workbench), but the color and texture
of the conversations. The creators of metalayer have understood
this.
Indeed,
Markus and Niki thought to create, not a rigid and structured environment,
but an interactive morning newspaper. They ended up creating a living
any-time-of-the-day virtual newspaper. In addition, they realized
that one news story could inspire another, provoke a comment, or
engender a challenge.
Moreover,
they reasoned, "Why not build into our virtual any-time-of-the-day
newspaper the ability to not only read it, but to write ‘letters
to the editor’ on the spot. Can we not go one step beyond Gutenberg
and not only create movable type, but also movable ideas in an easily
expandable layout? Now every reader is also a writer. He or she
can place the shuttle at any place on the page and contribute an
instant letter, note, comment or question.”
In essence, Markus and Niki and the team have created a weavers
framework where, with the help of the Idea WeaverTM (Shuttle),
movable ideas can be added at any point, thereby creating an ever-changing
tapestry of conversations in community. Now ideas can be woven together
opening up new horizons of business opportunities to the company.
In
this way, the knowledge-based layer of Nonaka and Takeuchi becomes
the garden of thinking where the seeds of new ideas are planted
and cultivated so that with the support of the business-based layer,
the project-team can deliver the results. It all fits together.
Yet, for it to fully function, our companies and their leaders need
to invest as much effort in upgrading their cultural context as
they do in investing in technology infrastructure.
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