Design Science as a link #mtw3 #mosocoop #oldsmooc

The Buckmaster Fuller podcast from the BBC ( see previous post ) is not helping me much to get a clearcut definition of design Science. It may be more useful to just look at the various ways these words are used. Or start with what interests me and then see where this connects.

The first Management Learning at Work conferences were soon after the collapse of the dotcom bubble

(The Learning Company, bought by Mattel in 1999 for $3.5 billion, sold for $27.3 million in 2000.)

so it was a time to look at long term recovery of what might be possible. I liked the opening keynote from John Burgoyne as the bright side was not ruled out before we started. But the conference themes moved on to leadership and critique. we never got to much on how technology could work in practice.

The Deming Special Interest Group of the CQI has a much more practical approach. But learning is not a priority, it turns up as a topic in situations where learning is not happening. This can be quite often. Also there is an overlap with web design or how content is promoted. The MoSO model is freely available.

The OLDS MOOC still has a couple of weeks to go. Design Science seems to be in the background. There is definitely an interest in design but so far not enough use of a definition of design science that it could be compared with other situations.

I mention this in particular because the MoSO model will be the focus for a face2face meeting on March 15th. It will be compared with another model on sustainability for organisations, based partly on design science. I think there will be a lot of overlap between Deming and design science but this will be clarified during the meeting.

So far in #mtw3 John Burgoyne has not said much about design science though there has been mention of scientific leadership ( possibly as a joke though) There are journal articles about design science and management but not any evidence this is being used by actual managers ( so far as I can tell ) . So maybe design science is the same for learning design and management but this is not yet clear. 

In the online test runs for #mtw3 we have looked at academic publishing towards the end as an example of innovation, as studied at the Work Foundation . This could be a bit wider, to look at educational organisations, how learning is supported, forms of publishing within this. The OLDS MOOC course includes a look at the Larnaca Declaration. This covers Learning Design but I don't think it covers the changes in organisation that might be expected.  

Meanwhile reporting on Futurelearn suggests there could be some disruption

We were later joined by Don Nutbeam, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, one of the partner institutions of Futurelearn.

Nutbeam: Traditionally, the universities have always drawn the students to them. Now, the universities are going out to the students. So partnering with The Open University and Futurelearn is absolutely fundamental to our motto of taking Southampton to the world instead of asking the world to come to us. So the best universities in the world are going the way of the best businesses in the world - becoming more global - travelling across countries, becoming multinationals.

So I think design science could relate to learning and organisation. More posts about this over the next couple of weeks. Also related comments on LinkedIn etc for #mtw3 #mosocoop #oldsmooc , trying not to go too far off topic at any one time. 
  

Buckmaster Fuller Radio 4 still online, #designscience #mtw3 #mosocoop #oldsmooc

I have been sent a link to Radio 4 program on Buckmaster Fuller. I missed it when broadcast but it will be on the iPlayer for a while.

This is very interesting for inspiration and sustainability background. But there is not much on Design Science, the only remark seems to include this with the most strange ideas, as represented on this program.

I think we will come back to this in a future Wild Show on Phonic FM. So far there has been no objection to quoting short sections from the Today program. we don't do it too often, just when they fit in and we can add somnething through comment or relating to other items. 

Radio continues as live broadcasting but I think the online listen again is gaining in proportion of how people listen.

The clips we recorded are on YouTube with Creative Commons attribution. So we hope they could be repeated on other broadcasts if we are told about it. chris Norton is back from holiday this week so the Wild Show will return to mostly music, but there may be another look at the Design Science DJ later in the year.

Reflection #1 - Wild Show 21 and 28 Feb

I am a few days behind with the OLDS MOOC so am going to catch up in bits. First situation is the Wild Show on Phonic FM.

The suggested format is something like

a specific incident

that happened to you

confront challenge / problem

resolved it successfully

So

a specific incident that happened to me

For the Dreambazaar I started to work on video, how to show Creative Commons on YouTube and then use the Remix button. During the week on Prototyping I got the idea of trying out a prototype by talking to the people it is intended for. So I raised this over coffee after the Wild Show on a Thursday morning. It turns out that although several people are moving in the same direction the support needed if on offer in person can take many forms. In one case the permission to reuse content was ok, but I think any technology is through someone else. Another person was happy to video the Phonic Party on an iPhone so there was a second camera as well as my Zi8. But they wanted me to pirate it complete so they could delete it. On YouTube you have to use your real name and this is not their style of music. Another problem is running out of time to edit and upload.

confront challenge / problem

So during the evaluation week I added another cloud to the Dreamscape, treating one radio show as a prototype for the next. Chris Norton is on a two week holiday so left JD and me to fill in. I have previously tried to talk to JD about Design Science and the Design Science DJ. He still thinks being a DJ is a skill, and needs a lot of convincing about science.

resolved it successfully

Fortunately we also invited  Fabian King as a guest to talk about 3D scanning ( art shows continue in the Phoenix and the scanning aspect is under reported ) Fortunately he knows about Design Science as well. And better still he brought his own sounds. My design challenge to JD was to alter his style from an 80s show on Totnes FM ( listen again available online) so we did 70s one week and 90s the next. Apart from 20 minutes when I went to find our guest, JD modified the design to leave the music to the guest.

Links to the clips from previous blog posts

So eventually it worked quite well. We did play interesting sequences of music from the 70s and 90s. We added value through comment to clips borrowed from other sources. The original Design Science of Collaboration is 90 minutes on YouTube. So far no complaint from the Today Program on copying a discussion on the novel and science. Also one clip with mostly Penny Bentley from the OLDS MOOC hangout week 5.

So it turns out sound is still a lot easier than video. Working on two hours of radio a week is possible, especially using lots of content from other sources. YouTube still has potential but working out how to edit several camera angles will take a while longer. Over time there is more awareness of Creative Commons and techniques to work with this. Conclusion so far is that the course is not in time scale as expected. 

for interest

Is there a blog version of British Journal of Management take on Design Science? #Wilmott #Starkey #Hodgkinson

I am trying to find out more about Design Science. There seems to be a good potential link for the OLDS MOOC course and the work on sustainability. Through Google I have found some info on a possible Critique approach from Hugh Wilmott.

In his commentary on our proposal to reframe the relevance of business and management research by combining design science with critical realism (Hodgkinson and Starkey, British Journal of Management, 22 (2011), pp. 355–369), Willmott (British Journal of Management, 23 (2012), pp. 598–604) commends us for our advocacy of a social science as opposed to professional school agenda, while admonishing us for seeking to underpin the commended design science ethos with critical realism, on the grounds of ontological inconsistency and the risk of diminishing the emancipatory elements of our social usefulness agenda. In reply, we demonstrate how, in highlighting the interplay of multiple generative mechanisms within and between levels of analysis, critical realism is entirely commensurate with the design science approach advocated, and enriches rather than diminishes our overarching agenda to humanize the workplace.

I think that is as much as will be publicly available for free. So next week I may go to Exeter University library and try to find out if it is possible to read some of this. St Lukes campus library was ok for journals connected to the OLDS MOOC. 

But I also wonder if there is a short intro to the issues involved in the form of a public blog post. If this about "emancipatory elements" and an "agenda to humanize the workplace" then there may be publication or a version or comment that is easier to understand and get hold of. I still may try to check what is possible through the library, but meanwhile clues welcome.

Second Wild Show on Design Science #designscience #oldsmooc #mtw3 #mosocoop

There are now some clips from yesterday. music on Soundcloud and talk on YouTube. So next week Chris Norton will be back and I expect we will concentrate on music. there are enough clips for the Design Science DJ to develop through social media. There may be more on the live radio when we have some more connections.

Thanks to Fabian and JD, I think these two shows are an excellent beginning.