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Keeping an Action Log for 1st person research April 29, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Action Log, Action Research , 11comments

Keeping an Action Log

In my first post about First Person Action Research I mentioned the Action Log, and now I’m going to explain what I mean by that, and invite you to take the first action but first, here’s some context.

Goals

One of the most frequently occurring goals on 43things has always been “to stop wasting so much time on the internet” and one of the most talked about applications is the “Getting Things Done” ( GTD) system. This suggests that I’m certainly not alone in grappling with the problem of meaningful productivity amongst so much distraction and information overload.

Reflection

I reflected quite easily that I had succumbed to the common affliction of spending too much time monitoring data and checking statistics, at the expense of creating new content, networking with contacts and making improvements to websites. There is some convincing behaviourist theory about the addictive nature of checking inboxes etc when the reward or gratification is irregular or sporadic. People at computers, especially when tired or feeling low can act like rats in a cage who keep on tap-tapping on that button just because every once in a while a piece of cheese rolls down the tube, especially when we can’t predict when it will happen. I blame the evil scientists for setting up an environment like that!

Hiding the distractions

One drastic solution is to move the temptation further away. Get those shortcuts off the browser’s toolbar, remove applications from the dock or system tray. Make it harder to get to the addictive stuff. Now you might have already spotted the dilemma with that approach, which stems from the fact that the person doing the hiding is one and the same as the person doing the seeking!

Action Log

Arising from circumstance, I came up with the idea of starting an Action Log. The idea is simply that I would jot down on a daily basis, a list of the actions taken. I have it in my mind that by actions, I mean visible external steps which are intended to have a positive effect, to add to the movement in the direction I’m headed. Publishing a blog post, joining a forum and posting an introduction, tweaking a theme or plugin to improve usability, uploading a picture, publishing a video, leaving a useful comment somewhere, these are all considered to be actions in this context, whereas doing google searches, reading RSS feeds (without responding), learning and observing are not considered to be actions. Incidentally, taking the step of beginning an Action Log is the critical action for cycle one of my own action inquiry.

Dual Purpose

The purpose of the Action Log is twofold. One of the problems with monitoring web activity is that it’s a complex adaptive system which is often opaque in its mechanisms. You might get a gentle rise in traffic over a couple of weeks, followed by a perplexing sharp dip. Was it because of something I did yesterday, last week, or last month, something unknown external change or a random coincidence? When the subjective inputs are small and widely spread it’s very easy to lose track ( ie forget ) what exactly has been done and when. So having a diarised record in the form of an Action Log should at least improve the chances of being able to detect the weak signals of a reproducible relationship between cause and effect, when there is one.

Recording actions to improve

The second and probably more important purpose, is to act as an incentive to increase the number of actions taken, to begin to reverse the balance that had shifted too far in the direction of passivity. “What gets measured gets done” can be a harsh mantra, but this is a very soft implementation. It’s nothing like being forced to fill in a timesheet for example. And the great thing about it is that all you are doing is focussing on the little positive accomplishments that can be ticked off for each day. There’s no being beaten about the head with a long “To do list ” of things that still haven’t been done, just a simple record and celebration of those that have, so there’s a nod in the direction of appreciative enquiry.

The Action Log is not a learning Journal

For those already familiar with Action Research it’s important not to confuse the Action Log with a Learning Journal. This is not the place to document critical incidents, record insights and diarise about learning. The Action Log may well become an object for reflection later, but is not the place for lengthy narrative. It needs to be very easy to maintain, a matter of a few seconds really, just enough to jot down the small actions taken in a very few words. A record of concrete subjective interventions into the world, always action-orientated.

Where to keep the Action Log.

I keep my Action Log on an intranet wiki but you could use a text file, word document or a physical notepad. As long as it’s reasonably near to hand, dead easy to add to, and can’t get lost or deleted. A private area is necessary, you don’t want to be distracted by spending any time thinking about audience and publishing of this one. Just do it.

Action Log Checklist

Anything you don’t understand please leave questions in the comments and do let me know how you’re getting on with this after a few weeks or so.

Beat the Weather - Ebbsfleet’s tune for Wembley April 28, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : ebbsfleet, video , add a comment

Peter Norton, the Ebbsfleet United groundsman, has released a song called “Beat the Weather” to mark myfootballclub’s team’s appearance at Wembley in the FA Trophy Final on Saturday May 10.

First Person Action Research April 27, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Action Research , 2comments

This is the first in a short series of blog posts about 1st person Action Research, theory and practice.

What is First Person Action Research

This is a type of Action Research or inquiry which is called “First Person” Action Research in a similar way to the “first person singular” part of speech used in grammar which is either “I” or “Me” depending on being the subject or object of a verb. But the “I” in First Person Action Research is both the subject and the object. First person plural would involve “we” and “us” so that’s the more standard participatory Action Research with groups of people who are involved in the research process as well.

Why choose 1st person Action Research

That’s enough explanation of the name, what’s the use of it? Usually to improve the researcher’s own practice, both as a practitioner in whatever field, and also as a researcher. The researcher may be pioneering a new type of practice, so there’s nobody else to share learning with, or they may be simply isolated by circumstance. So the only way forward is to set up cycles of action taking and data gathering, analysis and reflection, seeking validation from the researcher’s own results, sense of achievement and possibly future sharing of research if suitable contacts can be found.

Who might use First Person Action Inquiry

A classic example is the unmentored teacher, alone in a classroom, with a series of challenges from pupils, under pressure of work and deadlines with no time to discuss with other teachers, poor thing. Another scenario is the homeworker building websites and services, trying out this and that application, able to read and comment on what others are doing in a similar position, but working with a totally unique set of parameters in a specialist niche environment creating an experience in which collaboration almost impossible.

How is it done

Essentially the method is the same as any other action inquiry in that following some planning, a preliminary reconnaisance and literature search may be undertaken, then an action is chosen which is designed to bring about an improvement in the situation being researched, which in this case is the researcher’s own practice. Data is collected, including rich qualitative data, and then at the end of the designated period, the data is analysed and the entire process reflected upon. Any tentative conclusions or findings can then be fed back into the choosing of the next action for the following cycle. That’s the clean version, but it is accepted as given that the actual process in practice will become much messier, with some overlapping cycles and spirals of wheels within wheels. In the next post in this series I will introduce the use of the Action Log.

Further Reading

Handbook of Action Research - Reason & Bradbury 2006: link to pdf or view as html cache.

Building a better blog - DARnet wiki

Transforming Inquiry and Action By Interweaving 27 Flavors of Action Research - Torbert and Chandler ( page 7 ) pdf

Methodology Justification - Linda Hartley ( 2005) from Module UNH3601

Dick, Bob (1999) What is action research?
Available on line at http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/whatisar.html

Habibi Sushi - new Sushi bar in London April 22, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : food and drink, video, London , 2comments

Habibi Sushi

I spotted a brand new sushi bar called Habibi Sushi which only opened last week, so we went back a couple of days later for lunch. The location is great, in the narrow Artillary Passage just a short walk from Liverpool Street station, fork left at the Seven Stars in the direction of Brick Lane or Spitalfields, so very handy for having a bite on the way home, or maybe picking up a takeaway box which looked great. Conveyor belt Sushi bars are great fun, and the original “Moshi Moshi” inside Liverpool Street station itself seems to have gone downhill a bit recently, so some competition in the local area is most welcome.

The food was very good, with some unusual variations on the usual sushi dishes, and about the right proportions of raw fish and cooked meat dishes. The only slight niggle I would have is with the stools which swivel in all directions including up, down and side to side. That might help fit everything in to a narrow shop, but it does make sitting down and staying on a bit of an effort after a while!

Habibi Sushi

From their website at www.habibisushi.co.uk you can download pdfs for either the eat-in or takeaway menus, which is handy if you want to memorise the colour coding dish scheme for pricing conveyor belt choices.

Verdict: Well worth a try if in the vicinity or even making a special trip to visit. I hope Habibi Sushi keeps up the good standard and stays in business for years to come.

London theatre breaks by rail April 19, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : London theatre breaks , add a comment

You can check the availability of tickets for your favourite show and top hotels for theatre breaks by using the form below. Select the show and choose a date first, then enter the hotel details and rail travel.

When you press “check availability” you’ll be taken to the results on the Show and Stay site, from which you can make further searches if necessary until the perfect package is made up for you.

Best Broadband deals - Virgin BT Tiscali or SKY April 17, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : best broadband deals, UK , 4comments



When you look at the newest cheap broadband deals or the latest supercharged fast connection with unlimited downloads promised, it’s hard to tell which broadband provider’s connection will be reliable and up to scratch until after you’ve already signed up for a 12 month contract or even longer.

But the great thing about the internet is that we no longer need to rely on advertisements for all the information that’s necessary to weigh up a service or product before buying. With a little bit of digging around, or just by keeping up to date with what friends are saying, it’s possible to get direct reports from real customers experience of a product, good or bad. In the past this would all have been screened out, and the only source of advice away from the salesmen in the shop would have been “the man in the pub”.

For example, Steve Purkiss had a very bad experience with Virgin Broadband and published about it on his blog where anybody can see:

http://purkiss.com/2008/04/14/virgin-unlimited-broadband-one-week-was-all-i-could-take/

I’ve just cancelled my broadband service from Virgin after only one week. Why? Because today I woke up to find my ‘unlimited’ service had been throttled because I apparently used it too much. I’m now getting less-than-dial-up speeds and the service is all but useless to me

That’s just one really valuable piece of consumer generated information which can help anybody trying to work out which is the best broadband deal out of many under consideration with the main contenders being probably Virgin, BT, Tiscali and SKY.

Blogger Appreciation Day on LinkedIn April 14, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : blog action day , 8comments

Here’s a suggestion from Scott Allen for Blogger Appreciation Day ( cf: Problogger) which might make sense if being a blogger is an important part of one’s identity:

Put your blog down as a separate job on your LinkedIn profile

I’m going to do that today.

Blogger Appreciation Day April 14
Here are a couple of ideas on how to implement this with LinkedIn:

1. Connect with the bloggers you know. Now just because you read someone’s blog doesn’t mean they know you well enough to feel comfortable connecting on LinkedIn. If you do know each other well, just send a LinkedIn invitation (remember to personalize it — make it your thank-you message). If you’re not sure about it, contact them via email first and ask them if they’d like to connect.
2. Give them a recommendation. Show your appreciation publicly — put it on their profile. Be specific and relevant — don’t just gush. Be sure to read Naina Redhu’s LinkedIn recommendation tips first. Also, I generally recommend that people put their blog as a separate position on their profile, unless it’s an integral part of their primary job. If the bloggers you’re connected to haven’t done that, you might like to suggest that to them so that you can make a recommendation in the context of their blog rather than their primary job.

Possible objections might be that it might not look right to potential employers or that it’s bending the rules of LinkedIn, but then I would retort that most bloggers would have a prominent link on their profile anyway and that maintaining a blog is indeed an important part, if not THE most important part of the modern ‘portfolio career’ way of life which spans a number of different positions and income streams at any one time.

Will you be putting your blog down as a separate position on LinkedIn? Do let me know if you think it’s a good idea or otherwise, similarly for blogger appreciation day itself :-)

update:

Here is a list of other fine blogs which are spreading the blogger appreciation day:

Hold on below April 12, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music , 2comments

( ambient avatar by chinposin )

Linda got me talking about the old days last night as we compared memories of the early 1970s and this song “Hold on below” was mentioned, it’s so old. I would guess from 1972 or possibly 1971, I think I was fourteen when I first picked up a guitar and churned out a schoolbook full of songs within a few months, only a handful of which have survived the passing of time like I think this one does. The recording was made in Dover in 1980-1 around the time that John Lennon was shot, and I think I must have recently bought a new set of strings for the old twelve string guitar because it sounds quite bright compared to other recordings.

Andy Roberts – Hold on Below

Lyrics are kind of bleak and nihilist with a streak of rebellion, which is perfectly fitting for a teenager and I ‘ve really no idea where the nautical analogy came from, canal boating possibly.
The embedded mp3 player is from Last.fm and applied to the WordPress blog using the excellent “embedit” plugin which I’m delighted to have discovered because it overcomes the theme breaking problems associated with embedded scripts, and keeps the code well out of reach of any wysiwyg editor.

Below is just an image link to the Last.fm page for the song:

Hold on below - Andy Roberts

Is VIDEO on Flickr better than youTube? April 9, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : social objects, Flickr, video, London , 3comments


Video uploading to Flickr went live earlier today so it’s a big topic of conversation, especially the inevitable comparison with youTube the leader in the field.

Video on Flickr with long photo concept for Flickr video

My first reaction was delight to discover that the flickr video upload and sharing is totally integrated into the photo sharing community aspect of flick that made it so successful. Videos appear in the photostream alongside stills, and can be community tagged, commented on, sent to sets and groups, and blogged using “blog this” which is fantastic. The quality of the video and audio is superior too, with up to 150MB file sizes acceptable for a 90 second video. Why the 90 second limit? Well this is to avoid the problem of being used as a file download service for copied music videos, TV clips and films etc and to encourage home made movie clips from digital cameras, phones etc. So Flickr can avoid the enormous copyright problem that google inherited when they bought youTube.

“long photos”

Central to Flickr’s philosophy for introducing video is the concept of the “long photo” which kind of fits in with the use of digital still cameras that have the capacity to take video clips. This service is for genuine user generated video, short clips about everyday life, surroundings, little art videos and so on. Not so much about long videos of talking heads recorded straight from webcams saying “um” and “ah” a lot either.

London Video group

Flickr groups by default can accept both pictures and video but I thought it might be useful to have a group for London Video that focusses on video only, still linked to the London photo group, London Flickr meetups. I’ve invited some flickr contacts from London and from the social media cafe as well, but anybody interested in video is welcome to join and upload anything vaguely London related.All in all, it’s going to be very interesting to see how creative people use the opportunity that Flickr video is offering.

To give an idea, here’s Billy’s bacon video from Flickr, embedded on this wordPress blog.

I know, you can already do all that with youTube but I feel there are some significant advantages with the Flickr Video implementation, aren’t there?

Google cheat sheet - embedded pdf viewer from edocr April 7, 2008

Posted by Andy Roberts in : social objects , 2comments

There are a few document sharing sites taking off at present and I like this one called edocr where I found this Google cheat sheet:

Above is a short document called the Google Cheat Sheet which contains a list of Google services, urls, international and some other at-a-glance stuff. It’s being presented here on my blog as an embedded object, much like is done with youTube videos. There are a few buttons which can help you view the document, including a zoom and text cursor so you can copy and paste from it. There’s probably a way of clicking back through to the page of the person who uploaded it onto edocr.com too.

Update:

There doesn’t seem to be a way to click through to the original document from the embedded widget thingy above so here’s another option for bloggers, a thumbnail with link to download the document:

Google cheat sheet on edocr