The Ferryman

Dear Michael, Thanks, Respects and Inspiration to you (Michael Jackson)

Thanks Michael for all those great music videos in the 80's.  You were a leader, an innovator, doing completely new and great things back then.  You entertained us when we took a break from our studies in college in the early 80s, and tried out this new MTV experience at the time.  (It was much more interesting back then!)  You were a Thriller!

Respects to you Michael, we played and danced to your songs last night, and were not alone.

Inspiration Michael, if we can take inspiration from your tragedy and Childhood legacy you could not shake off, it is that we should take some more time to reach out to our family, friends and contacts.  Even if it is that business partner, don't just always email them, get on the Skype with them, talk and get some understanding, build some shared meaning, reach out and support. As you said:

You are not alone, I am here with you
Though you're far away, I am here to stay
You are not alone, I am here with you
Though we're far apart, You're always in my heart

And if you want to collaborate folks in this flatter world don't be alone and far away. Reach out!

The Ferryman

Program for Advances in Innovation and Knowledge Management in Research & Product Development

I provide here the final program for our InnovationWell workshop on Innovation and Knowledge Management in Research & Product Development which will take place 5-7 July 2006 at Oxford University, Oxford, UK.   We will be examining and discussing methods and best practices for accelerating innovation, integrating knowledge, communicating understanding and supporting decision making in industry research and product development.  We should have a series of stimulating workshops and facilitated conversations on the varied ingredients required for a successful R&D innovation recipe covering strategic planning, supporting collaboration, managing intellectual property, effectively planning and managing electronic laboratory notebook systems, using ontologies for knowledge discovery, subjecting R&D to continuous assessment and improvement, and integrating best practices from the fields of innovation management, knowledge management and complex systems to improve productivity.  It should be a knowledge-enriching 3 days with many ideas for participants to bring away.

You can download a copy of the Program Brochure as a pdf here:

Download innovationwellrd_oxford_web1.PDF

For  further information and questions on these workshops and registration, please contact: Barry Hardy,  eMail: barry.hardy [at] douglasconnect.com, Tel: +41 61 851 0170

A complete workshop summary is contained in the remainder of this post:

Launching this Blog

Why the Ferryman name?

If you have ever been to Basel in Switzerland you may have taken a ferry across the Rhine between the main city and “Klein Basel” (Little Basel). This ferry is tethered to a cable line stretching across the river and uses only the river’s current to be pushed quietly from one side to the other. Here I imagine sitting with the river’s flow of information swirling past, reflecting on the voices that have spoken to me that day. Here we can also sit together and share a conversation as we observe the constant and changing flow around us.

And so this Blog has been taken to the river.

“You will learn it,” said the Ferryman Vasudeva, “but not from me. The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it too…And it sometimes happened that while listening to the river, they both thought the same thoughts, perhaps of a conversation of the previous day, or about one of the travellers whose fate and circumstances occupied their minds, or death, or their childhood; and when the river told them something good at the same moment, they looked at each other, both thinking the same thought, both happy at the same answer to the same question.”

Herman Hesse