Communities & Collaboration - Learning and sharing in a virtual world by Steve Dale

Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

April 8, 2018 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

The following is a list of the critical points to consider when embarking on a project or plan to build an online community. This information is available from previous blog posts I’ve shared over the years, and Slideshare presentations, but for convenience I’ve curated these posts into a single post/page of “knowledge nuggets”. The items have been kept deliberately brief, but further and detailed information (with relevant citations and references) can be provided on request. Ensure you have community facilitator/community…

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Are any of us “experts”?

March 14, 2018 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

I was recently reminded of this article, which resonated with me at the time, and still does. I’m guessing all of us could pin a few names to people we might label as “confident idiots”, but I wonder how often we turn the mirror on ourselves and measure our perceived wisdom against the Dunning-Kruger curve? One particular example that I find a little irksome is the number of people who describe themselves as “expert” in their personal bios. Self-proclaimed expertise…

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The 4 Biggest Trends to Expect for Chatbots in 2018

January 25, 2018 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

The year 2017 saw amazing strides in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chatbots. The effects such innovations have had for everything from retail and customer service to data mining are even now still becoming realised. Chatbots, through their underlying technology, seek to mimic human interaction with users on websites, mobile apps, and messaging systems. They have potential to reach more customers faster and more efficiently while maintaining high levels of customer engagement and satisfaction. Here are the four biggest…

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Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) As A Stimulus For Innovation

January 12, 2018 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

As part of my role as a Facilitator for Warwick Business School’s “Knowledge & Innovation Network” (KIN), I was privileged to be invited to a Sci-Fi Symposium organised by the Defence, Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The event took place just before Christmas 2017, and was led by Dr John Carney, Principal Scientist and Mrs Caz Pitt (Innovation Process & Culture Lead) at Dstl. The aim of the Symposium was to explore whether the stimulus of Science Fiction might enable…

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Automation and AI – What does the future of work look like?

November 20, 2017 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

Our news and activity streams are buzzing with articles, blogs, analyst reports and social media hype around the topic of “AI”. It’s a fairly loosely defined topic that covers an enormous spectrum of disciplines, from big data and predictive analytics, to machine learning, natural language processing, automation and robotics. Depending on who you listen to, it’s either the most important technological breakthrough since the invention of electricity, or it heralds the end of civilisation as we know it! Extreme scenarios…

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KIN Winter workshop 2017: Data-driven decision making

November 14, 2017 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

It’s now just over three weeks to Warwick Business School’s Knowledge & Innovation Network Winter Workshop on the 6th December. An event I’ve been busily planning over the past few months. It’s been a bit of a rocky road finding the right speakers for this event, but I think we’re finally there, and we’ve got a good blend of relevant experts who can talk about the social, ethical, political and economic impact of human-machine (augmented) decision making, and the real…

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Workplace Week Fringe Event: Automation & AI

October 3, 2017 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

Warwick Business School’s Knowledge & Innovation Network (KIN) and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) will be facilitating a breakfast briefing during Workplace Week (13-17th November) on the topic of ‘Automation & AI in the workplace‘. Workplace automation is becoming more widespread, and today’s AI-enabled, information-rich tools are increasingly able to handle jobs that in the past have been exclusively done by people (including tax returns, language translations, accounting, even some types of surgery) – automation is destined to have profound implications…

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Alexa – I think I love you!

May 4, 2017 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

Unless you are a technology ‘geek’, most people wouldn’t have paid much attention to ‘bots’ or ‘virtual assistants’ until relatively recently. We’ve seen and maybe occasionally used Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana, but their utility was perceived to be limited to doing hands-free searches. How little we knew! The investment in AI, and especially Natural Language Processing (NLP) by the big players, has revealed their true value. It’s slowly dawning on more and more users that these assistants…

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The depreciating value of human knowledge

April 26, 2017 stephendale Comments 0 Comment

Automation is just one facet on the broader spectrum of AI and machine intelligence. Yes, it’s going to affect us all (it already is with the increasing emergence of intelligent agents and bots), but I think there is a far deeper issue here that – at least for the majority of people who haven’t become immersed in the “AI” meme – is going largely unnoticed. That is, the very nature of human knowledge and how we understand the world. Machines…

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