Wicked Problems

In my post this morning on leadership and the work of Keith Grint I made reference to wicked problems without making any attempt to define what a wicked problem is. The phrase is often used describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.

Rittel and Webber's (1973)formulation of wicked problems specifies ten characteristics. Which you can see in the Wikipedia entry and outlined here:

1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem.
2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule.
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but better or worse.
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem.
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique.
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.
9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution.
10. The leader has no right to be wrong (planners are liable for the consequences of the actions they generate).

You can hear Keith Grint talking about solving wicked problems in an audio interview from Cranfield:

Part 1: click here

Part 2: click here

December 2009 Desktop Wallpaper

December 2009 Desktop Wallpaper
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

This month's wallpaper was taken last December. The bokeh was created using a Cokin preshaped mask and setting the focus to manual. The light source was the Christmas tree in the front room. If you like this then please feel free to use it and let me know what you think.

To download the original click on the image to go to Flickr then on the All Sizes tab.

The image was created with fd's Flickr Toys

Nikon D50
f stop f 5.6
exposure 1/80 sec
focal length 55mm

Innovation and Killing Ideas

I spotted this wee video on Ollie Brays' blog this morning.



It is one of a series of little clips about killing ideas. I can see these as being a great discussion starter when we are thinking about change in education!

At the ADES CfE partnership on Thursday, Don Ledingham from East Lothian was talking about the importance of leadership in times of change and challenge such as those we are facing just now. He referred to some of the research work by Professor Keith Grint on the "art of leadership". He talked about three types of leadership for solving different types of problems:

• critical problems - commander
• tame problems - manager
• "wicked" problems - leadership

The difficult challenges we face need to be classed in this third category where there are no straight forward answers that will see us through. We really need to make sure we don't kill interesting and innovative ideas in a time such as this. I hate the term "thinking outside the box" but the solution which lie "inside" the box are not good enough. I guess this is a plea not to be like the cave men in the video.

Media Streaming to the Wii

This seems a bit complex to me but so far I have not found a better way of doing what I am about to describe. I have been keen to stream video and audio from our main computer to the media centre in the living room where we have a Nintendo Wii connected along with the Virgin+ box, a DVD player, surround sound and even a PS2. I am also too much of a skin flint to buy another box like an Apple TV to do the job so my thoughts turned to how I could use the Wii instead. I had already been using the Opera browser on the Wii so already had it set up to access the Internet via the house wifi. This is not the best web browser in the world as you can't update Flash. This means that lots of video sites just don't work. It does, however, allow basic web browsing as well as access to some video sites like YouTube and Google Video.

After a little reading I discovered that a service called Orb allows you to stream your media collection over the Internet with a free account. A small client is downloaded which runs on your PC in the background. You set up an account and identify where your files are stored on your PC. Then you launch the browser on the Wii and log in to Orb. Once you are in there is very simple interface which allows you to access all your audio and media. It was that simple!

Since setting up I have watched a very early episode of Star Trek to check the video and am currently listening to Switchfoot to check that the audio works. It all seems to be fine. What I don't understand is why my bandwidth is not completely choked as I am sitting writing this blog post using my laptop, the main PC is uploading the media files and the Wii is downloading them again. I wonder if it will have an impact on bandwidth limits set by Virgin. I don't know that I will use it that often but it is quite nice to know that it actually work should I want to watch something or listen to something when I am not at the PC.

Digital Photography School Weekend Challenge

Kitchen
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

Every weekend the Digital Photography School website sets a photographic challenge. This weekend's challenge is to take the best possible photograph in the kitchen. I like taking closeup photos with a very simple background. This one of a whisk was taken with a shallow depth of field to blur the handle in the background. The image is a bit noisy as it took the photo in natural light.

EXIF data:
Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
Taken: 2009:11:14 10:34

Make Life Flow

Today is our harvest thanksgiving at church. This year we are focussing on a Tear Fund project to improve clean water and sanitation for some of the poorest people in the world.

A quote from the Tear Fund "Make Life Flow" website:

Tearfund's partners in the Ugandan village of Kigaze are working hard to bring extraordinary changes to the lives of people like 13-year-old Stidia. Every day, Stidia walks down a steep and dangerous mountain path to collect water from a spring. Often intimidated and beaten by older boys, her daily trek is overshadowed by fear and takes so long that she's often late for school. Without proper water and sanitation, all areas of life start to suffer.

If you are interested in the project then watch this video :



Or have a look at this video by Tim Vine:



You can make a donation by clicking here.

Installing Windows 7

This was an interesting exercise by way of comparison with my recent installation of Ubuntu on my laptop. We ordered Windows 7 to replace XP on the desktop I am sitting using to write the blog. It is the main family computer so has tons of videos, photos and music as well as a wide range of software installed on it. We went for the downloadable version as it was a bit cheaper. It didn't take long to download but took a fair wee while to expand ready to do the installation itself. The biggest chunk of time, however, was on the running of Easy Transfer to copy the files and settings from the machine so that we didn't lose the email account settings, and all of that sort of stuff. If I had thought about it a bit more thoroughly I would not have allowsed Easy Transfer to copy all the files. I do have backups after all.You will see from this screenshot that Easy Transfer reckoned on over eight hours to create the backup file of about 130G. It took longer than that! We went out for the day and came back and it was still chuntering away. It did eventually finish and the actual installation of Windows 7 was pretty quick and straight forward. The thing that puzzled me was that it didn't actually clear out all the things that Easy Transfer had backed up so there wasn't enough room on the disk to allow Easy Transfer to restore everything. I had to manually remove stuff before running Easy Transfer. I am not sure what I did wrong but it did eventually get there.

Once it had done it's stuff we were back up and running pretty quickly with all my email accounts and the like back exactly the way they had been before I started. The machine is running faster and the new features of Windows 7 seem quite nice so far. I haven't had any compatibility problems and everything seems to be hunky dory.

The comparison with installing Ubuntu is quite striking. Although I made a mistake with the partition size when installing Ubuntu it was all pretty smooth and done in less than an hour and a half. The scale of file transfer was clearly much greater with the Windows 7 installation but it took about 15 hours! I think Ubuntu wins on that count (my son will be pleased!).

My first impressions of Windows 7 are pretty positive now that it is up and running. It does what it says on the tin and there have been absolutely no issues with it since installation. The main message for me was, make sure you have plenty of time!

November 2009 Desktop Wallpaper

November 2009 Desktop Wallpaper
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

I am continuing the series of desktop wallpaper pictures for the computer from a photo I took last Novermber in Greenbank Garden on the southside of Glasgow. November tends to be a pretty cold and dull time of the year. Last year, you may remember, we had a pretty cold patch with a lot of fog and freezing fog. This photo really captures how I think it felt at that point last year.

Please feel free to use the photo yourself as your own desktop wallpaper. If you like it then please let me know.

So What is Google Wave?

I can't decide whether Google Wave actually has got something or not. I got my account yesterday morning and have played with it a wee bit since then. The video I highlighted in my recent post is helpful as it starts to unpack what it is about but it really doesn't get to the heart of what this is all about. This blog post by Jason Kolb on the other hand is pretty technical but really helps to unpack the technology and begin to understand how it might be something different. Give it a read before doing anything else!

The big thing for me is whether it shifts the paradigm from traditional email towards something which is far more collaborative. Unless large organisations are able to change the culture of email which is now fairly well embedded towards this form of collaborative tool then it is likely to crash and burn the way so many other ideas have done. In the organisation I work for, for example, there is still no real acknowledgement of web 2.0 never mind the shift that Google Wave might be implying. I am really interested in how we use IT as a business tool to make our work better and our lives easier. To that end I am not that interested in the bells and whistles but very much concerned about what it might mean for our working lives.

You could also have a look at this video:



I guess it will be a while before we know that as we are all still paddling in the shallows. Time and a lot of experience will tell.

Google Street View

I was trying to geotag a picture that I took in London over the weekend and couldn't remember exactly where I took the picture. To help I loaded Google Street View to see if I could retrace my steps. As I did so I discovered many streets aren't covered as the van can't get down a fair number of the narrower streets and lanes. It's only in the US but if you are over the pond then you can nominate where it goes. Click here to do so.

I was a little surprised, therefore, when I cam across this little video. The big question is, is this for real? Will it fill in the gaps?

Google Wave

I have just received a Google Wave account! How exciting, I think! Now I have to work out what all the fuss is about. If you also have an account do you want to let me know and we can try waving at each other?

Google says:

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

If you don't know what I'm talking about then watch the video...

Whitelee Windfarm

Whitelee Windfarm
Originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay

Yesterday afternoon we took the aged relatives up to see Whitelee Windfarm on the Eaglesham moor on the south side of Glasgow. You are bound to have heard of it as it was all over the news when it went on-line a few months ago. The farm can generate enough electricity to power the whole of Glasgow when it is working flat out. 140 wind turbines are quite impressive as they spread over the moor. These things are enormous. You don't really get an impression of the scale until you stand at the foot of one of them and watch the vanes swoosh over your head. They are quiet, graceful and huge!

The visitor centre is free and includes hands on exhibits on generating electricity and the environment. There ius also a cafe and a shop. There are miles of paths for walking and cycling. Lots of people were taking the opportunity to make use of them. The only down side is the tiny car park. I know it was the school holidays but the car park was stoud out with cars all down the drive making it very difficult to get in or out.

So, if you live in or around Glasgow then this is well worth a visit. I know I was once a science teacher so this ought to interest me but I think it ought to interest most people out of curiosity or to think a bit about the energy debate or just to get outside for a walk or cycle.

To get there put G76 0QQ into the sat nav or...

From M77
Leave the M77 at junction 6 and take the slip road towards Eaglesham. Take the first right and travel 3 miles along this road, then take the second road on the right.

From Eaglesham
Go up Montgomery Street past the Wishing Well (this is where you should go for something to eat before or after your visit! Put G76 0AU into the sat nav) onto Moor Road for 2.5 miles. You will easily spot the car park on the left hand side.

View Larger Map

You can find out more about the visitor centre by clicking on this link: http://www.whiteleewindfarm.co.uk

Enjoy your visit.