Hairspray

I went with Daisie to see Hairspray last night at the Shaftesbury Theatre. It's a superb show. High energy, some strong performances and a terrific atmosphere in the theatre (which was full). I thoroughly recommend it.

I paid £20 each for two tickets in the Grand Circle - at the very back of the theatre [Row J, seats 12 and 13]. These were excellent value, with a good view and plenty of leg room. Also the advantage of not having anyone sitting behind you. If you fancy it, book your tickets on one of the websites that tells you which seats you are buying, then check them out on Theatre Monkey where there are seating plans for all the theatres with recommendations on which are good and which are bad seats.

I have to tell you though, this morning I'm not humming any of the songs from the show, so I don't think the music is as legendary as, say, Phantom of the Opera or Lion King, but the production is terrific, the large cast enthusiastic, and the performances - especially from Michael Ball and Mel Smith - first class. My favourite scene was the number 'Back to the Sixties' when the Dynamites step out of the advert. Check out the video on the official site. The other high point was the duet between Wilbur (Mel Smith) and Edna (Michael Ball) which brought the house down. They were obviously enjoying themselves!

Knowledge or Information?

I’m doing a fair amount of work these days on the governance arrangements which need to be in place for some of the new social media tools, such as blogs and wikis.

The wiki phenomenon in particular is an interesting one.

One of the key success factors for traditional intranets is the implementation of tools to ensure content is kept up to date, is usable, accessible for people with disabilities, and complies with the organisational policies and any regulations that affect your industry. Important so that users can have confidence that the material they are viewing is safe to use as part of their business dealings. Trusted content. This is most often achieved by having clear ownership of content. Someone you can pin responsibility to. However, in the new collaborative world of crowd-sourced content there is often no one particular owner of content, so who do you pin responsibility on?

This means we need to think differently about content governance.

But there’s another dimension. People sometimes refer to the content on these collaborative platforms as knowledge. Explicit knowledge. I don’t think there’s ever really been agreement about when explicit knowledge becomes information. There are as many views as there are practitioners. Whichever way you look at it a significant overlap will exist between knowledge management policies and information management policies. The two need to be taken together.

Then you have the issue of whether a single organisation – even some of the largest – can ever really generate effective ‘crowd-sourced’ content. Wikipedia is a good example of effective crowd-sourcing and the wisdom of crowds. It depends on a substantial volume of people having sufficient knowledge of a subject reviewing and editing content such that its accuracy and relevancy increases in, typically, small incremental steps. However, inside an organisation there are often only a handful of people who have sufficient knowledge of a subject to make a valid contribution. A handful of people does not constitute a crowd! So what happens is that the wiki platform – put in place for crowd-sourcing content – starts to be used as a (sometimes simple) content management platform, by-passing the controls and policies in place on the normal content management system. Sometimes this is done for mischievous purposes – to get people out of the rigour associated with owning important content. However, it’s more often because the wiki platform is so much easier to use than the official organisational content management system. So you can’t blame people.

You can add to that the tension between knowledge management (keep everything so we can learn from it) and information retention (get rid of everything as soon as you can).

And the fact that a wiki platform will often contain a mix of genuine crowd-sourced material and individually owned ‘published’ content.

It’s complicated.

So what’s the answer? Should we re-classify traditional content managed intranets as ‘legacy’ intranets and move to a different form of governance for the whole intranet, or should we try and force different kinds of kind onto different platforms, which will be difficult as people will naturally gravitate to the platform of least resistance?

What is clear however, that the drivers of these policies are still there, and in fact are becoming more prevalent. Growing concerns about data privacy, identity theft, stories about the potential impact of loss of data etc. mean that governance is likely to be tightened rather than relaxed. Another tension.

I’m going to have to think about this some more! Watch this space.

Jack the Ripper

A couple of nights ago I went with a group of friends on a London Walk – Jack The Ripper. Led by our guide Steve we assembled at Tower Hill tube station before heading into the East End of London to be entertained with stories of the Victorian terror that was Jack the Ripper. And it was fun.

The thought did occur to me whilst we were standing outside modern buildings listening to Steve’s stories, just how much this part of London has changed. It’s become a mix of chic and modern, and old yet trendy. Particularly around Spitalfields Market. Of course, it’s the stories we came for, but it would have added to the atmosphere to have stood outside the actual house where Mary Kelly (the Ripper’s last victim) met her end, rather than a multi-story car park.

I’ve been on other London Walks, around other parts of London and I can recommend them all. Most of others take you to places that still exist, but I guess even when the last of the old Ripper-era buildings are gone, people will still be following a guide to hear about the horrors of those days. And so they should.

Getting faster

One of the important things about training for a marathon is to vary your exercise regime. Long run after long run will not help you improve as much as a structured training schedule which mixes different activities. It's crucial to undertake shorter, faster sessions, and to include some hill work. With that in mind, today I was scheduled to do a short fast run. I did a 3 or 4 minute jog, followed by my stretches then set off in the wind and rain to try and get under 50 minutes for 10k. That might not sound fast, but it is for me. I romped home in 48'51 seconds, with plenty of running left in my legs. A couple of days rest before I'm due to do a 21 or 22k road run. That's half marathon distance and I'll be doing it either on Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather. I'll be aiming to hit 2 hours. Although that's not the fastest I've done, I want to take it easy to stay injury free. The speed will come later.

Join me if you like!

Today's run

It's very, very windy, but I thought I'd go for a run anyway. Did my 8k circuit twice. I decided to take it very easy after yesterday's long bike ride and went round in a very comfortable 1'33. You can see the results here (remember I went round twice!).

Next weekend I'm looking to do a 22k road run, with perhaps a fast 10k during the week. Just 2 weeks to go before I start running 3 times a week!

Cold Stone Creamery

If you're in Florida, you have to try this ice cream outlet. Making your own ice cream flavour is on my list of the top five things to do in Florida. And it's good ice cream too.

Cold Stone Creamery

If I had more experience I'd open an outlet at Bluewater. It would be a surefire winner!

A problem with wind

I went on a long bike ride yesterday. From home to Hadleigh and back. That involved negotiating the Dartford Crossing where cyclists get a lift through by the people that work there. Did you know, you they will drive your car through if you're scared! Now that's service!

Anyway, the hardest thing about riding a bike is the wind. I can cope with rain, punctures, hills and motorists, but a strong wind kills me..... Yesterday was just like that. A strong wind was blowing from the west. A record time getting there with the wind behind me, and a torrid time coming back. I made it though. 52 miles.

You can see the details from my Garmin GPS on the Motion Based site.