I’m back wishing it would be much longer. Anyway, had a lot of warmth meeting family and friends as well as a lot of cold in St.Petersburg and Moscow (we’ve got the first snow in both cities! :)

For more – St.Petersburg sighteseeing at Flickr:

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/11/01.html#a1703; comments are here.

• Free WiFi in Moscow
• Take-aways from UK trip
• Back from travelling: thinking themes and lessons learnt

This time in Moscow was different – next to all other things I was running a kick-off meeting for a project (will tell more later – when marketing stuff is out :) with several European and Russian partners. For many Europeans it was the first experience in Russia – signtseeing, but also learning about the culture and preparing for the joint work.

I wonder if I was annoying with all my questions about their experiences :) I was so curious to know what did they discover, find different, similar, worth attention… Even with open borders Russia is still pretty much unknown for many foreigners: image of Russia is a strange combination of cold war time impressions and stories in the media magnify specific issues, but do not tell much about everyday life. I’m happy that this trip made it a bit different at least for a few people.

What I found interesting (and – in retrospect – it shouldn’t be that surprising) that most learning about culture came through experiencing it – finding a way around the city and, especially, three days of joint work with Russian people (like a discussion on financial issues of the project that illuminated many issues that Russian businesses are facing). I was there with two colleagues, and, in spite of all my attempts to prepare them by telling stories it feels like my stories were nothing compared to the richness of their own experiences even in a limited number of situations.

We didn’t design on purpose for those experiences, but, given my believe that understanding cultures – similarities and differences – is crusial for this project, I really would like to think how to make “learning about culture through experience” element stronger next times.

I also think about this from an ethnographic perspective – I’ve read too much about learning culture through reflecting on moments where you as an outsider do not fit. What is strange and funny is my own role – I was constantly switching between being Russian, being someone living abroad and being someone in between – understanding both sides, trying to mediate for common language, thinking of mediation process… This in-between position shows me a way to redefine my own identity and go beyond my current dichotomy of being a guest in the Netherlands or being a stranger in Russia.

And – in case you are curious – main impressions of our European guests (my biased summary ;)

• passion of Russian people
• beauty and scale of Moscow
• green and beautiful parks
• life that never stops (like bookshopping after midnight – and seeing that there are others :)
• a strange combination of a modern high-standard city (could be any European capital) with third world elements – differences that somehow co-exist next to each other

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/05/28.html#a1579; comments are here.

• Ethnography: being there with critical perspective
• ‘Invisible work’ issue of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
• Learning: community vs. individual perspective

Riccardo redefines social pressure:

We are used to think of Social Pressure as that feeling of “I have to do more” to stand up with the expectations of others.

Today I experienced another kind of Social Pressure, the one being imposed by your expanded social network on your attention/focus.
Let me explain:
I read on Kottke‘s that an explosion caused massive power outage in Moscow.
Normally this would go totally unnoticed. But today something different happened: the words “explosion” and “moscow” rang a bell. My mind ravaged on a query for “is there anybody you know who could be in Moscow now?”.
Of course yes.
Next query was “May she actually be there?” and, yes, I remembered reading something about that, and I had this sensation she hadn’t blogged in a while.
A quick check confirmed these feelings.
The fact I couldn’t find her on IM made me worry even more. All these well knowing the nobody were injured or whatever, that’s funny.

Fortunately, there are no reasons to worry – I’m back :) I was in Moscow during the outage, but spent the whole day at a workshop in the Northern part of the city that went unaffected (although the high temperatures were raising even more with hearing the news). And – to be fair – I was pretty happy that for the last few days there I moved from my sister’s apartment in the South to my parents’ place – she told me her story of dark shops, people storming buses or giving up and walking along the street.

Anyway – I’m more or less back (travelling a bit more for a few coming days).

And I loved how Riccardo puts it concluding the post:

Anyway, the point is that having a large social network actually imposes an higher attention degree on what goes on worldwide, and in a sense can make you listen to and be sympathethic with topics you’d never noticed before.

This is pretty logical, but still feels strange – your main focus is still more or less on things you do and people around you, but your peripheral vision extends to far away world…

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/05/27.html#a1578; comments are here.

• My Friday 5: bloggers I’d love to meet
• On weblog audiences…
• Blog networking study: an overview

There are hundred reasons to blog and quite some half-written posts in my head, but no time – I’m flying to Moscow on Saturday, so it’s a lot to sort out before that.

This trip will be special, both personally and professionally – wondering how things will go… It’s also 4,5 months since my last visit – unbearably long comparing to the last couple of years (and – still – I know how lucky I’m to be able to fly frequently).

I’m counting days: today – tomorrow – flying – home…

Anyway, if you happen to be in Moscow and feel like cappuccino and wandering around – let me know

Back to work…

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/05/12.html#a1575; comments are here.

• Large social network imposes an higher attention degree on what goes on worldwide
• Back from Venice
• Travel plans: US in January – Hawaii/Minneapolis/Chicago

Via a bit of browsing around I have discovered that Loïc le Meur was in Moscow. It looks pretty much like a business trip, so of course I’m very curious if it results in any serious moves of Six Apart… Hope for an opportunity to find out :)

Anyway, what I find out even more interesting is Loïc’s impressions of Moscow. Read it yourself. I would’t say that it’s the most objective perspective in the world, but it’s nice to see something different from a typical pattern that people in Europe get from media.

See also: Is Russia on your horizon ?

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/02/24.html#a1507; comments are here.

• Studying weblogs at Microsoft: blogging as a person or as an employee
• BlogWalk 4.0
• Klogging roles

Wired – Russia: Dial ‘H’ for Hostage [via browsing started by Waypath plug-in] – a year old article about LiveJournal as an alternative to mainstream media.

It also says about LiveJournal: “Of the site’s 700,000 users, more than 6,000 are Russian.” I wonder what is the real number as Blogcensus shows only 900+ Russian language blogs.

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/10/15.html#a800; comments are here.

• Loïc le Meur in Moscow…
• Knowledge management, weblogs and action research
• Teaching experiences: past and future

Some follow-ups for Perseus weblog study

• Phil Wolff: summary and reasons for abandoned blogs
• Clay Shirky: on below-average abandonment rate of LiveJournal and writing vs. reading focus of analysis (see also comments for more explanations about LiveJournal and use of survey results)
• Oliver Wrede: publishing ‘personal’ vs. ‘professional’ life and stopping blogging
• Jim Elve: flaws, explanations of abandoned blogs
• Nick Douglas: a bit on dinamics of switching from hosting to your own sever and community
• Jim McGee: ‘This is a perfect application of Sturgeon’s Law – “90% of everything is crud.” ‘

Check links to the survey at Blogdex if you want more.

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/10/11.html#a793; comments are here.

• Blog research repository?
• More on reading weblogs
• Wikis and blogs: convergent and divergent conversations

Husted, Kenneth & Michailova, Snejina. 2002. Knowledge Sharing in Russian Companies with Western Participation. International Management, Vol 6, No. 2, pp. 17-28

Michailova, Snejina & Worm, Verner. 2002. Personal Networking in Russia and China: BLAT and GUANXI. Working paper No. 15, Department of International Economics and Management, CBS (results in a paper: Michailova, Snejina & Worm, Verner. 2003. Personal networking in Russia and China: Blat and Guanxi. European Management Journal, forthcoming in August)

Mined from Center for East European Studies, Copenhagen Business School: here and here

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/05/07.html#a583; comments are here.

• Loïc le Meur in Moscow…
• KMSS03: Innovation -> connecting research and practice
• Mathemagenic processing and expert knowledge

Played with Vivisimo search engine [via Seb's Open Research] that clusters documents next to search, did ego searching, had fun. Found a lot of artefacts of my teaching in Russia: web-based training course web-site, students’ projects (I loved this one – Web usability for HRs). Got nostalgic :)

If things go right I might get into distance teaching: KM course for Russian HR practitioners. Definitely I’m thinking about using blogs. Does anyone has experience of using blogs next to LMS/course environment?

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/02/27.html#a478; comments are here.

• Back
• More on connections between learning and teaching
• Blogs in Russia

Pat Delaney shares A proposal for school district deployment of a CMS [via Sebastian Fiedler]

Great example for those who want to start. It includes:

• Capabilities & benefits
• Examples
• CMS Selection & Pricing
• Security
• Training scenarios
• Infrastructure requirements
• Process for school participation

I have to check if Manila supports Cyrillic (Radio doesn’t :(. If so I have a great idea in mind: my monther is school principal in Russia…

Yesterday I searched for blogs in .ru and found out that blogging is taking off in my own country, but more in the “personal diary format” rather than in “k-logging format”. I really want to introduce blogging to Russian professionals and I have ideas for several projects in mind. Now it’s a matter of time and finding tools that will work in Russian.

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/01/17.html#a413; comments are here.

• I-KNOW: morning thoughts
• Four things we do with weblogs