About 21,038,400 seconds ago, John's parents heard the doctor say "It's a blogger!"

Just for the record. Only sometimes. And unintentionally mostly.

Not this time and I'm sorry.  

This is by way of apologizing to Jenett for not returning his emails about his exceptionally cool Jenett Radio Randomizer.

My reservations:

1. I never had a random link on my sites before. My content is somewhat focused, every element contributing to context and crafting user behavior. It seems somehow a disservice to the few visitors who find their way to my little blog to just cast them carelessly about the blogosphere. It's not as if Radio bloggers have anything in common, right? (a question worth pursuing) 
    
2. The link text included Jenett's email adress. This put me off. This would place his email on all the pages of my web site. I haven't even put my phone numberand email address in my a klog apart templates. This got me ruminating on my privacy, my public persona, junk phone calls, making new friends, the difference between an email address and phone number, and on and on.   
    
3. The Randomizer button (which looks and works great, by the way) needs to be above the fold; that first screenful of my home page. I'm working very hard to squeeze value from every pixel. Is the random traffic back to my site worth the alternative uses of my screen space? What should I push below the fold? Translations? Calendar navigation? Search? XML badges? 
    
4. Signup wasn't automated. Would Randomizer scale like this? Will it be around in a year? Will the pool become big enough to be effectively random? Will a Radio tool emerge to make installation smart and easy?    

So I was just thinking to myself about all of this, talking to friends about it, generally mulling it over. Avoiding the issue. In the meantime I stuck the Randomizer in the footer; glad to send traffic to those needing escape even without links coming back from that prestigious roster of users. I even took the plunge, signing up for Wander-lust.

So that's where things stand. Mea culpa.

Go take a random walk!

Hi, Amy. 

You wrote via Ernie the Attorney via snowdeal.org | conflux:

One of the tough tasks in KM is getting expertise located in an organization (that is, figuring out who has it on a subject by subject basis). Tougher still is validating its credibility with other members of the organization. Toughest of all is getting the experts to agree to share their expertise with others, except as part of their regular job. Employees who have spent a career lifetime enhancing their value because they "know" something others don't are logically reluctant to give away their valuable expertise...  

Amy, the baby boomers are starting to retire in droves (you know who you are). How competitive is a firm when 20% to 40% of its most experienced people leave? You can fight to get and keep talent but that doesn't fix Mary-who-left-Tuesday being the only one who knows how to get that payroll program to work.

There is no technology fix. Just a human one. Whether you call it a Learning Organization campaign or a Knowledge Management program, you still have to get people engaged. Talking. Sharing. Growing. Enjoying the process. Becoming more effective, more marketable. Making their workplace better.

The only tools that matter are ones people really use.

That's where klogs (knowledge or enterprise weblogs) come in.

KM Systems are to Treacle as Weblogs are to Honey. People gag on most KM systems. And get a sugar high off of blogging. So people use them. Start your engines and gun your motor, your KM go-cart is off and running. It isn't ready for NASCAR, it won't make it to the moon and back. But your project, your people, are going in the right direction. Can you say that now or for any other toolset?  

btw, if you know anyone interested in setting up a consulting practice to help large orgs, public or private, survive the coming Baby Bust, drop my name. pwolff@dijest.com.

Ever yours,

- Phil Wolff

I live in Oakland, California. A demonstration on the Washington D.C. mall for American slavery reparations has me asking questions.

If each person who was a slave were to receive $1000, how would you divide it up?

Do you need slave ancestors to receive reparations? How about if only half of my pedigree came from slaves? Would that entitle me to only half of a share?

Should you get a bigger share if your ancestors spent more years suffering (three generations) than someone whose ancestor was a slave for only one year?

Do you need to look like an African American to receive reparations? Presumably pain was distributed unevenly according to appearance.

I have a black friend whose grandparents came over from England, dirt poor but never a slave in the family. He looks black, grew up in America the same as everyone else who looks black. Should he receive reparations too?

From whom should reparations be extracted?

From the Confederate States of America? Not feasible, and the institution predated the CSA.

From the class of slave owners? Are reparations punitive in purpose? Not everyone was a slave owner, although the economic contribution benefited everyone. And not all slave owners were alike in their treatment of slaves.

From specific slave owners? They are dead. From their estates? Should you not get a reparation if the estate is bankrupt?

My ancestors came to this country fleeing pogroms and Nazis long after the American civil war. Do I owe?

Remembering that slavery was not a crime, is it right to punish lawful but immoral behavior?

We don't sentence a man's family to jail for his crime. Is it right to punish someone for something their great grandparents did?

According to some, the civil war was fought to free the slaves (among other political and economic reasons). Should the bill for the war go to the beneficiaries, freed slaves?

I'm not even touching on the symbolism of acknowledgement.

My people were slaves in Egypt and thousands of years later we still spend eight days each year remembering the pain and celebrating our freedom. Decendents of the slave owners attacked the decendents of those slaves as recently as the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s; tanks, missiles, and machine guns this time. Still no "Sorry for making you build pyramids" email.

Reparations work best right after a conflict when information is fresh and all survivors from both sides are around to stake claims, tell their stories, and make peace.

Is the cultural and economic damage caused by slavery worse than that from other, more recent causes: underfunded school districts, housing discrimination, hiring discrimination, redlining?

Some argue for reparations but want social engineering. Let's fix systemic problems. Invoking reparations just distracts. Build an enduring commitment to economic and social justice instead. Reparations suggests closure, and I don't think a one-time cash dividend fixes that. If your goal is to move the African American communities up an economic class or two, then you'd better start changing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to support upward economic and political mobility while removing other barriers.

What do you think?

• An argument for: Lewis Gordon on the occasion of the Black Reparations March on Washington, D.C.,15 April 2001.
• Janelle Carter for AP describing the march.
• An argument against: Oliver Willis: The Reparations Numbnuts Strike Again and Still Upset About Reparations Talk 

[aka public policy]