George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
I know, for my part, that I’m generating a reasonable amount of content on AI as a counter-voice to what I see as unbridled enthusiasm on the subject—a minority perspective. With the extreme majority of content riding the “enthusiasm wave” to shore.
What do you believe are the driving factors behind this phenomenon? Saving Changes...
If you want to know what makes me tick in this regard, here’s the principle:
- All things, animate and inanimate, exist within a lifecycle, a pattern, that demands fulfillment. Hence, the secret to understanding the future is deciphering the patterns demanded from the past.
A bit deep, but stated in practical terms: Unveiling the past allows one to predict the future.
Why? Lifecycle patterns exist for replication, at least until you are dealing with project management, which, in that case, all bets are off. ;)
Deciphering the patterns that repeat throughout time and are even surprisingly common across various facets of the physical universe is in a nutshell, the basis of General Systems Theory.
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1 reply by George Freeman
Jan 20, 2024 9:17 PM
George Freeman
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Hi Keith,
I never studied “general systems theory,” but your insight (from years back) provoked me to do some reading on the subject, and it wasn’t hard to see crossovers between it and my resolved principles. In other words, with your input, I updated my recipe book from half-baked approaches to three-quarters-baked.
My approaches evolved from my learned experiences in designing abstract systems coupled with dream-state fascinations with relativity and quantum mechanics, which provided the “extended lifecycle” perspectives. Stated differently, my path to my disillusioned current state did not pass through the halls of formal engineering.
But this is a project management platform, so it probably seems odd to many to see threads twisting in this direction. But it shouldn’t be, as systems thinking (which derives from “General Systems Theory”) is a powerful problem-solving tool (or better stated, approach) in the project management profession regardless of the domain you manage projects within; hence, it should be sought after.
Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Jan 20, 2024 11:27 AM
Replying to Luis Branco
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Dear George
You wrote: "- All things, animate and inanimate, exist within a lifecycle, a pattern, that demands fulfillment. Hence, the secret to understanding the future is deciphering the patterns demanded from the past"
And I ask: is this (one of the reasons) why we use AI? :-)
Luis,
In as much as so-called AI leverages pattern recognition algorithms to analyze data (i.e., data that resides in the past) to produce risk scores that are then injected and interrogated in a decision model to produce a probable answer to a question (that finds its presentment in the immediate future) —Yes.
However, in current-day usage, the answer to “Why do we use AI?” is more likely to be found in the affective (i.e., attitude) domain of learning versus its cognitive (i.e., knowledge) cousin. Stated differently, it’s more of a response to the “phenomenon” that is AI. Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Jan 20, 2024 2:07 PM
Replying to Keith Novak
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Deciphering the patterns that repeat throughout time and are even surprisingly common across various facets of the physical universe is in a nutshell, the basis of General Systems Theory.
Hi Keith,
I never studied “general systems theory,” but your insight (from years back) provoked me to do some reading on the subject, and it wasn’t hard to see crossovers between it and my resolved principles. In other words, with your input, I updated my recipe book from half-baked approaches to three-quarters-baked.
My approaches evolved from my learned experiences in designing abstract systems coupled with dream-state fascinations with relativity and quantum mechanics, which provided the “extended lifecycle” perspectives. Stated differently, my path to my disillusioned current state did not pass through the halls of formal engineering.
But this is a project management platform, so it probably seems odd to many to see threads twisting in this direction. But it shouldn’t be, as systems thinking (which derives from “General Systems Theory”) is a powerful problem-solving tool (or better stated, approach) in the project management profession regardless of the domain you manage projects within; hence, it should be sought after. Saving Changes...
I think there are a few reasons. There is a lot of industry hype at the moment which is understandable as AI becomes accessible to the masses. The same happened with the introduction of the home PC in the 80's, the internet in the 90's, and smart phones in the 2000's. Some people figure out how the capabilities can change their lives. Others play games and download cute cat videos.
Another part is people hoping this new technology will cure all ills, which is unfortunate because often that means hoping it will do the thinking for them, and they will tend to trust the answers like people following their GPS into a lake.
PMI is also not above "shill" posting to disguise marketing as grassroots interest. I have been asked to post a new topic provided to me, and when I didn't I saw it posted by another user. I suspect that I am not alone and due to the pattern of posts, I would also suspect that the brief flurry of posts around citizen development was similarly not 100% genuine.
Keith Novak - Jumping in to address the reflections on the role that the Online Community Engagement Specialists play in encouraging discussion here (and yes, I'm definitely watching plenty of cute cat videos in my off hours).
One of the reasons I love online communities and have stayed in the industry for 10+ years now is because it's such a joy to never know what is top of mind for community members until they post their thoughts. It's truly impossible to predict what topics are going to take off - and any sort of question might to come in at any moment of any day from around the world.
My team does proactively post discussions to get the conversation going, much like a host of a dinner party doesn't just let the table sit in silence waiting for someone else to start talking...my team also, on occasion, reaches out to community members 1:1 to solicit questions, including the offer to post on their behalf with their permission. One of our goals is to increase the number of unique contributors here, and I've often found that people are a bit shy to post on their own, but when asked, really appreciate the help getting started jumping in to the conversation.
No one knows what will take off next, whether it's Citizen Developer, AI, or something else, which is another part of my team's process: monitoring what community topics or groups need to be launched and which need to be sunset over time, too.
I'm always happy to share any more about the approaches we take to broaden the types of voices that we hear in the discussion forums, so don't hesitate to reach out 1:1 to dive into these ideas about community management in more detail.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Jan 23, 2024 5:05 PM
Rami Kaibni
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Laura Coscarelli: I know this comment was addressed to Keith but I would like to jump in to first, commend you and your team for the recent efforts you've been putting in engaging with the community. We've definitely been noticing this and feel happy about it.
On another note, one suggestion I have is to filter the posts before any post is being posted on the discussion thread. I know this might add a bit of a load to the moderation team but on average there are 3 to 5 discussion threads being posted daily so shouldn't be a big deal, however, it will make a big difference for the community in terms of ensuring only quality discussion threads are posted, and no redundant or repetitive ones are being posted because lately, there were no many repetitive posts especially when it comes to AI.
My suggestion above is coming from experience as I am one of PMI's LinkedIn Group Moderators where we have more than 430,000 members and on daily basis we receive more than 50 posts which we have to approve before being posted. Out of those 50 posts, we normally find between 3 to 5 to be quality posts, and the rest we reject but we noticed that this approach did increase engagement with the posts. Another approach we took is pacing the posts: We approve one per every few hours to give members the chance to engage with each post. This is something I believe wil be beneficial for this community. You can pick Christopher Eckstine brain on this as well!
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jan 23, 2024 4:12 PM
Replying to Laura Coscarelli
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Keith Novak - Jumping in to address the reflections on the role that the Online Community Engagement Specialists play in encouraging discussion here (and yes, I'm definitely watching plenty of cute cat videos in my off hours).
One of the reasons I love online communities and have stayed in the industry for 10+ years now is because it's such a joy to never know what is top of mind for community members until they post their thoughts. It's truly impossible to predict what topics are going to take off - and any sort of question might to come in at any moment of any day from around the world.
My team does proactively post discussions to get the conversation going, much like a host of a dinner party doesn't just let the table sit in silence waiting for someone else to start talking...my team also, on occasion, reaches out to community members 1:1 to solicit questions, including the offer to post on their behalf with their permission. One of our goals is to increase the number of unique contributors here, and I've often found that people are a bit shy to post on their own, but when asked, really appreciate the help getting started jumping in to the conversation.
No one knows what will take off next, whether it's Citizen Developer, AI, or something else, which is another part of my team's process: monitoring what community topics or groups need to be launched and which need to be sunset over time, too.
I'm always happy to share any more about the approaches we take to broaden the types of voices that we hear in the discussion forums, so don't hesitate to reach out 1:1 to dive into these ideas about community management in more detail.
Laura Coscarelli: I know this comment was addressed to Keith but I would like to jump in to first, commend you and your team for the recent efforts you've been putting in engaging with the community. We've definitely been noticing this and feel happy about it.
On another note, one suggestion I have is to filter the posts before any post is being posted on the discussion thread. I know this might add a bit of a load to the moderation team but on average there are 3 to 5 discussion threads being posted daily so shouldn't be a big deal, however, it will make a big difference for the community in terms of ensuring only quality discussion threads are posted, and no redundant or repetitive ones are being posted because lately, there were no many repetitive posts especially when it comes to AI.
My suggestion above is coming from experience as I am one of PMI's LinkedIn Group Moderators where we have more than 430,000 members and on daily basis we receive more than 50 posts which we have to approve before being posted. Out of those 50 posts, we normally find between 3 to 5 to be quality posts, and the rest we reject but we noticed that this approach did increase engagement with the posts. Another approach we took is pacing the posts: We approve one per every few hours to give members the chance to engage with each post. This is something I believe wil be beneficial for this community. You can pick Christopher Eckstine brain on this as well!
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1 reply by Laura Coscarelli
Jan 25, 2024 8:42 AM
Laura Coscarelli
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Rami Kaibni - Thank you so much for connecting us across such similar volunteer opportunities.
Christopher Eckstine has been an incredibly helpful resource as I've gotten started at PMI; there are so many tactics that he's developed with volunteers like you over on the PMI LinkedIn Group that we can apply over her. There are also some tactics that we can't currently apply over here, like Volunteer Moderators, which is simply a limitation of our current tool, but that functionality has been added to our feature request list.
In the long-run, when the feature is available, I imagine we will be able to create more responsibilities for volunteers, like moderation.
As you mention, the quality of the content matters, so ensuring that we're both encouraging and supporting the posting of high-quality discussion posts/comments and also making it easy for community members to find these posts/comments are both growth areas for us on the Online Community Engagement Team this year, in partnership with our product/UX team.
Laura Coscarelli: I know this comment was addressed to Keith but I would like to jump in to first, commend you and your team for the recent efforts you've been putting in engaging with the community. We've definitely been noticing this and feel happy about it.
On another note, one suggestion I have is to filter the posts before any post is being posted on the discussion thread. I know this might add a bit of a load to the moderation team but on average there are 3 to 5 discussion threads being posted daily so shouldn't be a big deal, however, it will make a big difference for the community in terms of ensuring only quality discussion threads are posted, and no redundant or repetitive ones are being posted because lately, there were no many repetitive posts especially when it comes to AI.
My suggestion above is coming from experience as I am one of PMI's LinkedIn Group Moderators where we have more than 430,000 members and on daily basis we receive more than 50 posts which we have to approve before being posted. Out of those 50 posts, we normally find between 3 to 5 to be quality posts, and the rest we reject but we noticed that this approach did increase engagement with the posts. Another approach we took is pacing the posts: We approve one per every few hours to give members the chance to engage with each post. This is something I believe wil be beneficial for this community. You can pick Christopher Eckstine brain on this as well!
Rami Kaibni - Thank you so much for connecting us across such similar volunteer opportunities.
Christopher Eckstine has been an incredibly helpful resource as I've gotten started at PMI; there are so many tactics that he's developed with volunteers like you over on the PMI LinkedIn Group that we can apply over her. There are also some tactics that we can't currently apply over here, like Volunteer Moderators, which is simply a limitation of our current tool, but that functionality has been added to our feature request list.
In the long-run, when the feature is available, I imagine we will be able to create more responsibilities for volunteers, like moderation.
As you mention, the quality of the content matters, so ensuring that we're both encouraging and supporting the posting of high-quality discussion posts/comments and also making it easy for community members to find these posts/comments are both growth areas for us on the Online Community Engagement Team this year, in partnership with our product/UX team.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Jan 25, 2024 12:55 PM
Rami Kaibni
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Laura Coscarelli: Thanks for your response - I trust we are all on the same page. One more thing to mention, we need to find a way to limit bots and fake accounts on this platform because there are so many which can undermine the value of this great community platform especially for new members.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jan 25, 2024 8:42 AM
Replying to Laura Coscarelli
...
Rami Kaibni - Thank you so much for connecting us across such similar volunteer opportunities.
Christopher Eckstine has been an incredibly helpful resource as I've gotten started at PMI; there are so many tactics that he's developed with volunteers like you over on the PMI LinkedIn Group that we can apply over her. There are also some tactics that we can't currently apply over here, like Volunteer Moderators, which is simply a limitation of our current tool, but that functionality has been added to our feature request list.
In the long-run, when the feature is available, I imagine we will be able to create more responsibilities for volunteers, like moderation.
As you mention, the quality of the content matters, so ensuring that we're both encouraging and supporting the posting of high-quality discussion posts/comments and also making it easy for community members to find these posts/comments are both growth areas for us on the Online Community Engagement Team this year, in partnership with our product/UX team.
Laura Coscarelli: Thanks for your response - I trust we are all on the same page. One more thing to mention, we need to find a way to limit bots and fake accounts on this platform because there are so many which can undermine the value of this great community platform especially for new members.
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1 reply by Laura Coscarelli
Jan 26, 2024 9:29 AM
Laura Coscarelli
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Rami Kaibni - You have your finger on the pulse of what's top of mind for us!
Heather McLarnon could deliver a master class on managing bots/fake accounts on the site. We recently met with our head of security to learn more about the industry best practices for managing the challenge and right now we're doing the best we can with the combination of technology and people (Heather's diligent work) managing suspicious activity.
The challenge of bots is an overall issue in the online community world, especially in forums like ours where anyone can create an account and start posting, but as you know, there are also profound advantages to this type of community structure, with a great deal of "openness" overall.
As we evolve the community architecture and add private groups, it will be easier to determine identity in more specific groups tied to membership data, for example, which is why some alike organizations keep their online communities totally closed - for this very need to do more to ensure the integrity of the community members' identities as they engage online.
For now, we do not plan any changes to the "open" structure of the discussion forum, but please do use the "report" button or contact our Community Support Team directly if you find an account that strikes you as suspicious.
Laura Coscarelli: Thanks for your response - I trust we are all on the same page. One more thing to mention, we need to find a way to limit bots and fake accounts on this platform because there are so many which can undermine the value of this great community platform especially for new members.
Rami Kaibni - You have your finger on the pulse of what's top of mind for us!
Heather McLarnon could deliver a master class on managing bots/fake accounts on the site. We recently met with our head of security to learn more about the industry best practices for managing the challenge and right now we're doing the best we can with the combination of technology and people (Heather's diligent work) managing suspicious activity.
The challenge of bots is an overall issue in the online community world, especially in forums like ours where anyone can create an account and start posting, but as you know, there are also profound advantages to this type of community structure, with a great deal of "openness" overall.
As we evolve the community architecture and add private groups, it will be easier to determine identity in more specific groups tied to membership data, for example, which is why some alike organizations keep their online communities totally closed - for this very need to do more to ensure the integrity of the community members' identities as they engage online.
For now, we do not plan any changes to the "open" structure of the discussion forum, but please do use the "report" button or contact our Community Support Team directly if you find an account that strikes you as suspicious.
On the right side, under newest, at least 50% of those profiles are clearly fake so why not remove them directly instead of waiting for someone to report them?
We run into the same issue at the PMI LinkedIn Group (100s of bots daily) but we introduced a filter which helped and while I understand that capabilities and filters on LI are different, yet, there must be some sort of filter that you can introduce in order to make the profile creation process a bit more tight. Just my 2 cents! Saving Changes...
Laura, First and foremost, I too greatly appreciate your and other staffs' efforts to both moderate the posts and promote engagement. I have recently seen more proactive engagement and have reported a couple posts myself, like one asking how to commit cybercrimes.
As for proactively providing posts to encourage contributions from others, I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. All forums where I participate introduce topics of current relevance to spark conversations and often bring in experts to contribute in the forums.
I would caution against "shilling" however. Transparency is key to maintaining trust. If a PMI employee/volunteer discloses their relationship to the organization, all is good. Asking members to start a specific topic and even drafting the post for them *without* disclosing that relationship starts to cross ethical boundaries.
The practice of promoting interest without disclosing that it is on behalf of another party who has something to gain from it is a common technique in many shady businesses, including some criminal. Best case, it is like hiring people in an audience to cheer or laugh, or a speaker who has a plant to ask what sound like tough questions to set up a prepared answer. Worst case, it resembles the behavior of a team con-job and people used to spotting scams can be immediately turned off, regardless of how innocent the intent. People don't like being conned, and they typically don't like being a party to them even more.
As an alternative, why not post something like a question of the month, actively moderated to promote quality over quantity. A lot of questions here are dead ends where a question is asked, members share their time and experience to answer, and there it ends. There is no healthy debate, follow up questions, indication if a solution worked, etc. It's not even clear if the answers were read. A good moderator will listen, paraphrase for clarity, probe deeper, and lead the conversation in interesting directions. It's not much different than moderating discussion in a professional workshop. A person just asked to post a question is unlikely to be that moderator since it does require a lot more work.
Another idea that aligns with the PMI champions (?) concept is posting comments as a round-table with active members agreeing in advance to provide their input. If for example you had concurrence from a few of the most active posters to participate in a discussion on the topic of the month, then everything is fully transparent. It is not somebody pretending to be interested in a question to generate interest in others.
edit: One additional thought I forgot to mention is when someone resurrects a long dead thread, suggest they start a new one. That keeps it current and relevant.
Just my respectful and hopefully helpful two cents. Keithbr type="_moz"br type="_moz"
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1 reply by Laura Coscarelli
Jan 29, 2024 10:59 AM
Laura Coscarelli
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Rami Kaibni - Super helpful to hear how you're tackling the bots/fake accounts challenge on the LinkedIn Group, and although we don't have perfectly-alike functionality to apply here right now, I'm confirming that I've submitted your ideas to our enhancement request portal for our developers - we are on the same page over here and would love to improve in this area to preserve the integrity of the collaborative experience in the community.
Keith Novak - It sounds like you have a very clear vision for effective community management, so I look forward to you continuing to model these practices here, especially as we broaden the scope of the voices who participate.
Community Champion
