Research Blog

There’s been several comments on data management structures and whether it’s possible to link these with other people’s work such as Maslow (1954). In his Hierarchy of Needs work he produced a specific triangle of needs. His triangle had five layers, starting at the bottom are psychological needs, then safety needs, followed by social needs, esteem needs and self actualisation.

Abraham Maslow, a well known psychologist, argued that less developed individuals and societies tend to remain in the lower levels of requirements, such as survival and safety, and rarely attain higher level pursuits such as creativity, community and the advancement of knowledge. The opposite of that occurs when individuals or societies can rise above the basics and have time for higher order activities:

“[In a self-actualizing person], everything now comes of its own accord, pouring out, without will, effortlessly, purposelessly. He acts now totally and without deficiency.”–Abraham Maslow

Bostick in his book Ascending the Data Infrastructure Hierarchy, uses the triangle framework to investigate data infrastructure needs, and comes to similar conclusions that too much time is spent on the lower levels and more should be allocated to the higher and more beneficial pursuits. His triangle gives the five stages as Tribal, Enforced, Standardised, Actualised and Peak performance.

Abraham Maslow, (1968) Toward a Psychology of Being, Third Edition. http://www.nidus.org

Bostick, J (2010) Ascending the Data Infrastructure Hierarchy
The Five Stages of Data Infrastructure Management Maturity, dbaDIRECT

Social Media survey reveals the importance of social media at work

The 2010 Toolbox.com/PJA Social Media Index, Wave V, was conducted between January 6 and January 22, 2010. A total of 3,088 IT executives and professionals from 109 countries participated. Participants were drawn directly from the IT community at Toolbox.com. The goal of this survey was to gain insights from executives and professionals on topical issues that affect decision-making. Participants shared input on their use of social media to advance their career, its value in improving their chances as a job candidate, and what they find most valuable about social media for sharing knowledge in the workplace.

The results of the survey revealed:

• Among IT executives and professionals, social media consumption outpaced editorial and vendor content consumption. Respondents consumed social media at a rate of 4.59 hours per week, compared to 3.05 hours of online vendor content and 3.35 hours of online editorial content.
• Social media represents 42% of total media consumption among IT respondents (compared to 31% for editorial and 27% for vendor content).
• IT respondents named staying current (71%) and networking with peers (69%) as the most popular uses of social media.

• More than half of IT decision-makers have responded to a question posed by a peer, while nearly 50% have posted a question themselves.
• Quality and frequency of posting is seen as the most important attribute in a social media expert, followed by promptness and language proficiency.
• Nearly half of respondents say that a social media presence greatly increases or increases their value as a job candidate, while more than 50% claim that social media is important or very important in building their personal brand.
• Respondents agree that social media’s biggest impact on career is to increase their level of expertise in their current job position.

Source: 2010 Toolbox.com/PJA Social Media Index: Wave V – IT Audience Results

Sponsored by Toolbox.com and PJA Advertising + Marketing

Traffic Light indicators

I particularly liked this traffic light image. The NHS among others frequently use traffic lights to show how well their services are doing or for specific projects. Green means working well, amber that there’s problems and red that there are severe problems or that it has stopped altogether. I think this seven way image gives more flexibility and allows a median position – i.e. the green light, but it could also mean that services or projects are going better than expected – well into the blue/ purple area, and people could then have a wider range of potential responses to their evaluations. This also may be easier for people to pick up in questionnaires and they could follow the coding much more simply if red means disagree and the pale grey agree, and these would be reasonably easy to turn into radio buttons.

Image from : http://modernl.com/images/screenshots/led-icons.jpg

The new Research blog is planned as a quick information giving place for all sorts of research snippets, new ideas, news, information you always wanted to know, and the occasional thing that will be really useful!

It will be fairly short and snappy but with links and further information available for those who really are interested.

The first item I’d like to report on is the pioneering computer scientist Jaron Lanier in the New York Times who is beginning to question the direction that the Web is taking, after being a strong advocate initially.

He is warning of ‘hive thinking’ and ‘digital Maoism’ – taking over the Internet. In his recently published book – You Are Not a Gadget – he states: “authors, journalists, musicians and artists are encouraged to treat the fruits of their intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind”.

I thought the idea of a hive mind an interesting if not fully worked out concept, but in the research world, most of our research is paid for in some way or other and not sharing this output seems to be negating the whole process of sharing research outcomes.

Sue