Textbook Case of Good Work - The Seattle Times - Jerry Large

Jerry Large, a columnist for the Seattle Times, wrote a very nice article on my efforts with the Global Text Project…

Kevin Desouza doesn't like waste. I sought him out because I'd read he was getting some of his students to write their own textbook, but that's just part of the story....[LINK]

WorldChanging Seattle - Writing and Publishing Free Textbooks

A nice article on efforts to create a free textbook on Change Management appeared on the WorldChanging Seattle website.

Tulinsky, J. “A Wiki Approach to Writing and Publishing Free Textbooks,” WorldChanging Seattle, January 7, 2009, Available Online at: http://www.worldchanging.com/local/seattle/archives/009273.html

To read about the project, please see - Ideas4Change Blog [LINK].

To learn more about the Global Text Project [LINK]

Reflections on South Africa…Blog Famous?

My blog post on reflections from South Africa has been making headlines on a number of South African’s sites. I spent little over 2 months in South Africa as a visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. See some of the following sites ---

• “SA Innovation to be Seen through Eyes of Top Bloggers,” The Homecoming Revolution, November 19, 2008. http://www.homecomingrevolution.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=684(Reprinted at:
  “SA Innovation to be Seen through Eyes of Top Bloggers,” MatthewBuckland.com, November 19, 2008. http://www.matthewbuckland.com/?p=574)
  
• Barber, S. “Why Desouza's Thinking Gives Pause for Thought,” BusinessDay, November 21, 2008. http://www.businessday.co.za/PrintFriendly.aspx?ID=BD4A889369 (Reprinted at: “South Africa: Why Desouza's Thinking Gives Pause for Thought,” AllAfrica.com, November 20, 2008, http://allafrica.com/stories/200811210115.html; “Authentic Praise,” IZWI, November 20, 2008, http://www.izwi.com/?p=63)
  
• Barber, S. “SA Magic Makes another Believer,” Brand South Africa Blog, September 2, 2008, http://www.brandsouthafricablog.com/bloggers/sa-magic-makes-another-believer/

Term Papers into Textbooks - iNews - Fall 2008

An interesting article that describes the work being done by graduate students at the Information School, University of Washington as part of the Global Text Project appeared in the fall edition of iNews.

Students of my IMT 581, Information and the Management of Change, class have collaborated with consultants and managers at BearingPoint, a global strategy consulting firm, to create a book on change management for the GTP. Students interacted with consultants and executives at BearingPoint, sought ways to contribute to the book or an individual chapter, and then arrived at a statement of work. The goal of this assignment was to give the student (1) a chance to examine a concept in change management in a detailed manner, (2) an opportunity to contribute to an external product that will impact the lives of future students in the field of change management, and (3) a chance to work with members of a leading management and technology organization to co-create a valuable product. Based on the feedback, both students and the practitioners enjoyed the project, the interactions, and each group learned about course-related topics that enhanced their knowledge bases. The model of collaborating with industry on student assignments for a global cause was an innovation that I prototyped, and, based on the positive response from both students and practitioners, I am currently considering how to scale this model to involve a wide array of industry participants into similar projects.

To read the entire issue - http://www.ischool.washington.edu/events/newsletter.aspx

Information-Communication Technologies Open Up Innovation

I have a new paper published in Research-Technology Management - Information-Communication Technologies Open Up Innovation.

Overview:

Information-Communication Technologies (ICTs) are no longer just for internal use. Rather, in the era of open and distributed innovation, they must be leveraged by businesses and organizations to reach, record and review ideas from internal and external sources ranging from vendors, suppliers and customers to employees. ICTs enable the entire innovation process, from idea generation and development to experimenting and testing, and, finally, to commercialization of ideas.

Awazu, Y., Baloh, P., Desouza, K.C., Wecht, C.H., Kim, J.Y., and Jha, S. “Information-Communication Technologies Open Up Innovation,” Research-Technology Management, 52(1), 2009, 51-58.

To access the paper: LINK

Research-Technology Management is the award-winning, bi-monthly journal of the Industrial Research Institute, published since 1958. It contains peer-reviewed articles covering the entire spectrum of technological innovation, from research and development through product development to marketing. RTM is a leading source of knowledge and best practices on innovation management for leaders of research, development, and engineering worldwide. [LINK]