Community engagement: What’s the purpose?
March 24th, 2011 by John Creighton in Projects
Tags: Citizen Centric, Culture-Structure, Democracy, Institutions
Community engagement is a public sector buzzword. Engagement is hailed as a key strategy to help keep institutions such as public libraries relevant now and in the future. But was does community engagement mean? And, more important, what is the purpose of community engagement? Community engagement often is translated as a set of activities and/or events. People attend book readings, film screenings, a community dialogue. Attendance at these events becomes the purpose of engagement as well as the measure of [...]
Read more...IBM Watson debuts on Jeopardy
February 8th, 2011 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture-Structure, Technology, Work
LONGMONT, Colo. — The IBM Watson supercomputer’s Valentine’s Day debut on Jeopardy brings to mind the old American folktale of John Henry. Do you remember John Henry? He was the “steel driving” man born with a hammer in his hand. In an effort to save the jobs of his railroad crew, he took on the steam-powered drill to see whether man or machine was faster at carving a tunnel through a mountain. John Henry won the battle, dying of exhaustion [...]
Read more...After the Great Recession: A search for balance
January 3rd, 2011 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture-Structure, Opinion, Trends
LONGMONT, Colo. — Columnists ranging from Dave Barry to Fareed Zakaria agree that 2010 was a bust and, surely, 2011 will be better. The mood of Americans confirmed pundits’ consensus that 2010 was one of the worst in memory. Gallup tracking polls reveal that the number of Americans’ satisfied with the direction of the country dipped to a meager 17% in late December. We all agree that we’ve been through some tough times. Now, many people are trying to figure [...]
Read more...What do minivans and politics have in common?
November 22nd, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Citizen Centric, Culture-Structure, Family, Public Leaders, Public Values
LONGMONT, Colo. — How is the 2011 Honda Odyssey, results from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll and a dysfunctional Congress connected? They all are examples of American’s growing inability to compromise. Let’s start with the minivan. In the not too distant past, families had to find ways to tolerate each other’s company when going on road trips. A single radio, perhaps books and the people in the car were the only sources of entertainment available to passengers. Parents and [...]
Read more...How do you define work ethic?
November 8th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture-Structure, Institutions, Work
LONGMONT, Colo. — Baby Boomers often lament the deficient work ethic of young people. Is the problem that young people are spoiled? Or, is our definition of work ethic out of date? The video games Pacman and World of Warcraft are excellent metaphors for the changing nature of our institutions — the workplace and schools among others. Pacman is like our 20th Century institutions. You are given are predefined task and a prescribed amount time in which you can do [...]
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