Disability Dialogue with Bill

Are Social and Ethical Problems Important to You

Do you ever wonder if the current way some governmental institutions, political parties and corporations conduct themselves in society is socially responsible or as ethical as they could be? Maybe these governmental institutions, political parties and corporations are trying in some instances to be socially responsible, but need help leveraging their resources in a way to produce positive results?

Do all corporations develop technology that benefits humanity and allows everyone to participate fully and equally so they are able to contribute to help solve our world’s critical problems; like I describe in Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success?

Do governmental institutions, political parties, corporations, organizations and individuals collaborate together to effectively serve all the people, or just a targeted few?

I think some corporations, governments, and individuals do collaborate effectively together to benefit humanity when they make it a priority and put the appropriate amount of resources into their goals. Just one example is Habitat Jam; in which I had the privilege to talk virtually to many people from all over the world. I was able to help make a positive contribution in the lives I was grateful to touch. Along with the many others who participated we truly made a positive difference.

There are many groups of people and numerous opportunities to collaborate together to truly make a difference. Just a short list of examples are below.

List of 8 items
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• Reduce child mortality
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Achieve universal primary education
•Promote usability and accessibility in technology design so everyone has access; including the disabled and elderly.
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Develop a global partnership for development.

I hope that as our world’s population grows, becomes elderly, disabled, goes through turbulent times, endures natural and man made disasters and faces other complicated challenges and hardships we can leverage technological innovations and social responsibilities to help combat and defeat our most critical social and environmental issues we will face.

Just think if we funneled the many billions of US dollars, or equivalent we spend on wars and killing each other towards projects and programs focused on the critical social and environmental issues I listed above. What a world we could create together!

Some of this work will be truly hard and difficult. The work will require the world’s governmental institutions, political parties, corporations and organizations to allocate adequate funding and resources to make positive progress in these critical issues we all face. I relate the difficulties of some of our challenges to something like my experience below.

I almost died multiple times when I got critically sick instantly one day after work, coded multiple times, went into a coma for 3 months, stayed in hospital for 7 months, went completely blind and endured other very undesirable and uncomfortable circumstances. I lost the ability to walk for one year because of that medical emergency. I fell to the ground in pain many times as I tore my clothes and bloodied parts of my body while I learned to walk again with my full leg braces, walker, Canadian crutches and now with 2 white canes. After leaving the hospital I retrained myself very quickly on many new skills I needed to be a successful blind person; with help from many others. I was able to successfully retain a job because of my efforts and desires. I was driven to succeed and failure was not an option.

Some of our challenges that we face as a society are far less traumatic than I endured. Some will be even more difficult and challenging. All involved such as governmental institutions, political parties, corporations, organizations and individuals working together to solve our most complex and pressing social and environmental problems will require the passion and dedication I had during my recovery. It will require leaders who are willing and prepared to walk alone and take well thought out and calculated risks.

One small example of the complexities, barriers and obstacles we will need to fully understand and overcome in a much larger scale can be described below.

In some global corporations teams work globally together across many different business units, time zones, different cultures, working styles, contrasting and conflicting personalities, different rewards and recognition systems, and different policies and procedures. It is essential to overcome some of the same challenges this working group has in a much larger scale to successfully leverage the knowledge of the world’s population to solve our most critical and complex problems. We need to take the lessons learned from working in such a global team and the skills mastered and expand the knowledge and mannerisms of working together successfully in global teams across many governmental institutions, political parties and corporations.

Two local Universities where I leverage knowledge where you can learn more about social Innovation are Santa Clara University - Center for Science, Technology & Society and
Center for Social Innovation (CSI): Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Let’s all work together and start positive change where ever we can! You can start in your community, your work place, educational institute or any organization you may be affiliated with. Do not be afraid to take that first step and walk alone if you need to. When you succeed others will follow your leadership. Who will step up and be our next world leader to help us? Maybe it could be you?

Just remember when I took my first steps after I was able to get out of my wheel chair. I fell many times before I could stand and walk again in my darkness. I hope you are not afraid to stand and walk in darkness and possibly fail along the path to successfully help us find new technology and other social remedies to solve our most critical problems we are faced with today.

Do you have any reference materials that will help us accomplish our lofty goals of solving some of the problems I described above? Any ideas or suggestions to enable groups of people across many governmental institutions, political parties, corporations, organizations and individuals to work together effectively? Do you have ideas of how to create and to allocate the funding needed to accomplish such goals? Do you have any suggestions and solutions to allow everyone to contribute equally and not have external barriers put on them by inaccessible technology? Any success stories you want to share?

We all look forward to hearing from you to help make this world better for everyone!

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Look At My Ability- OBLN video

Hello everyone,

Below is a video I think you will enjoy.

The Oregon Business Leadership Network and the Oregon Business Plan are co-sponsors of Look At My Ability, a new 2 ½ minute video on the largely under-tapped skilled labor pool of Oregonians with disabilities. The video addresses the work ethic and skills represented by this labor pool.

Watch or listen to Look At My Ability.

Did you like the video? Do you have any thoughts you want to share with us after viewing; or listening? I am sure you found other beneficial information on the Oregon Business Leadership Network web page. They are a great group and I think they are doing excellent work.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Education for Success

Have you ever walked through an unfamiliar building in complete darkness with no flashlight. Attended a class with complete strangers in complete darkness? Read on to learn more.

One goal I always have each year; like the ones I refer to in New Year – Plans and Reflections is to continue to learn, increase my awareness of issues that impact the worlds population and to try to make a positive difference in my workplace and the community.

I love knowledge and enjoy pursuing my education. This education can be for personal or professional benefit. The education I talk about can come from a standard formal classroom, on-line training, real life experiences or from a wide variety of excellent sources.

As some of you might know from reading the other messages at this blog; I am completely blind. If you do not know others who are blind or visually impaired you might wonder how a completely blind person can attend formal public courses. I am sure some of you know others who are blind or visually impaired and have attended public courses quite often and have an idea of how this can be accomplished. For those of you who do not know and wonder how a blind person can successfully attend a public course I want to explain one method. My experience and tips might help others with no external visible challenges.

Taking public courses in unfamiliar buildings with people I had never met is relatively new to me. I used to have perfect eyesight not too long ago. Now walking in darkness inside unfamiliar buildings can make me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Proper Planning is the Key to Success
I believe that proper planning is the key to success. I am a project manager at a large corporation. I wanted to increase my project management skills to improve my value to my employer, and to myself. To help me insure success in my learning experience I did some research and planning prior to attending the course.

Research Prior to Registration
I talked with the vendor who was putting on the courses I was interested in. I told them I was completely blind and talked about the assistive technology I would be using in the course. I talked about the materials and presentation styles that would be used for the courses I was interested in. I wanted to see if the tools used in the course would allow me to effectively learn the materials presented; or if any adjustments needed to be made. I educated the vendor on accessible materials; since in my experience accessibility is a new concept for most people who do not work with the disabled. Once I found a course I was interested in and all of my learning objectives could be accomplished ,I signed up for the course.

Preparing Instructor so We Could Both Succeed
I talked with the instructor of the course I would be taking prior to attending the course. I told him I was blind and would be using my assistive technology to participate in the course since I could not read the printed materials all the other students would be using. I told him I needed my course materials in a format that was compatible with my assistive device. I told him I needed the materials ahead of time to allow me time to convert the documents and transfer them to my Braille note taker.

I talked with the instructor about his teaching techniques so we could reduce any difficulties we might run into during the course. A lot of instructors may not have ever had the opportunity to teach a blind or visually impaired student before and I wanted to insure success for myself; as well as the instructor. As it turned out; my instructor had never had a blind person in any class he had taught and welcomed my ideas to help him help me.

Preparing for Course

I converted over 60 files that I was sent by postal mail on a CD. I sorted the files by file content, naming the files in such a way that all like content would have the same file prefix. I had files for reading materials, lessons, exercises, reviews and other materials for each chapter. I also had files for appendixes, bibliographies and additional reading. I did this file naming convention for all the files within each chapter and section. Then I placed each file into its unique folder. I did this so I could get to each lesson and backup materials quickly in the class like the other sighted students who had the materials in a printed binder with tabs that separated each section.

Pre Orientation

I called the facility where the course was to be held. I asked where the classroom was in relationship to the lobby and to the front desk. I asked what floor the classroom was on so I could prepare myself mentally and give myself more time the first day of class to find the room if I had to orientate myself to any elevators. Luckily my class was on the first floor, which would make finding the room a little easier. I asked if their building complex had a place to get breakfast, snacks or lunch. I am diabetic and need to be concerned about eating at regular intervals to keep a constant blood sugar level to allow me to think clearly and absorb the course materials to the best of my ability.

Time to Pack my Duffle Bag for My Learning Adventure

The course was three days long. I lived in the area where the course was to be held; so I took my local paratransit to and from the course each day. This meant waking up a lot earlier and getting home later each day; but I saved money by not having to stay at the hotel.

I loaded my duffle bag with 2 drinks in plastic bottles with screw on tops, my lunch, snacks, Braille note taker, voice recognition organizer, cell phone, business cards with Braille and glucose pills, just in case of a low blood sugar episode. I brought my lunch each day. This would allow me to work through lunch if I needed to. This removed any extra stress on me; wondering where I would eat each day.

Arrival and Getting Oriented

I arrived early at the hotel where the course was being held. I checked in at the lobby’s front desk and asked where the class was to be held. With a big smile, duffle bag over my shoulder, my long white cane in my right hand and my white support cane in my left hand I followed the person who guided me down a hallway to the classroom. I followed my guide by listening to their voice as we talked; or the sounds of their shoes tapping on the floor as they walked. Along the way to the hallway that lead to my classroom I noticed there was very few turns we had to maneuver through to get to the room that would be my classroom for the next three days. I also realized that the surface we walked on was smooth and hard with something that felt like either tile or another hard surface. If I got off track while walking through the lobby I stepped on a carpeted softer surface. Following a smooth surface outlined by carpeting made my navigation much easier. When I left the large open area of the lobby to walk down the hallway that lead to my classroom the acoustics were great. I could tell I was in the hallway because the echoes and the extra noise left the air. From that point I followed the right hand wall to the first door to my classroom. Since I had arrived early as planned, I asked where the restroom was. I practiced finding my way to and from the restroom from the classroom so I would have the route memorized. I took some extra time to orientate myself within the restroom to make sure I could find everything. During the brakes I did not want to delay the class by getting lost on the way to, or from the restroom.

Time for My Continued Learning Experience

When I walked into the classroom there was only one student and the instructor. I pleasantly introduced myself to the instructor and the other student with a friendly handshake. I sat at a table that had a clear path to the door. I then got my Braille note taker set up and organized my other items I had brought to help me throughout the day for quick and easy access. Soon the other students started arriving to the classroom. I could tell others were arriving by listening to the new voices that entered the room. As I sat there in my darkness I was wondering how I would tell the others students I was completely blind. The thought of telling them made me a bit nervous. Since I was sitting down I do not think the other students knew I could not see a thing. I wanted them all to know so I would not catch them off guard or make them feel uncomfortable when we started working together and they found out on their own.

I had my opportunity to let the others know I was blind during the introductions. They had never seen a Braille note taker and were interested in how it worked; so I told them a little about the device I would be using to participate in the course. Everyone was very inviting and friendly.

Success!

Soon the three days had gone by. I had successfully completed every individual lesson. I participated in the group lessons with the other sighted students. We sat around the table and held lively conversations while we worked on the lessons and solved the problems. I was able to keep up with the other students because of my file system I had created on my Braille note taker to find the reading materials, lessons and exercises the others were referring to in their printed binders quickly and easily. While the instructor showed Power Point slides on the overhead, I followed along on my Braille note taker with the files I had received ahead of time and took notes. After the course was completed I even passed my final exam!

A very short list of some sources to help you further your education, knowledge, discover meaning in your life and work follow.

• Attend formal training
• Reading, or listening to audio books
• Attend seminars or conferences
• Family and friends
• Co workers
• Professional or Personal Associations
• Volunteering
• From yourself by reflecting on your past experiences

I hope nothing stops you from continuing to learn. Not even complete blindness or other challenges. With proper planning, preparation and determination; anything is possible.

We would all like to hear others stories and experiences of your continued learning. Any other tips you have to share with us to help us be successful in our continued learning? I only talked about how a blind person might go about attending a public course. We would like to hear how others with other types of disabilities or challenges (permanent or temporary) prepare and attend courses. Even if you do not have any disability; we would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

We all look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

How One Super-Store is Saving the Disabled

Hello everyone,

I just listened to a video I think you will enjoy very much.

ABC News: How One Super-Store is Saving the Disabled
At first glance, the Walgreens distribution center in Anderson, S.C., seems ordinary enough. But upon closer inspection, it's anything but. More than 40 percent of the 700 workers here are disabled.

Walgreens employee Julia Turner has Down's Syndrome. Derrill Perry, who works right next to her, is mentally retarded. Garrick Tada has autism. Luann Bannister, one of their training supervisors, is in a wheelchair.

Learn more about how happy and valued Walgreens disabled employees are by watching the video and reading the rest of the story on ABC News.

What did you think of the story and video? Do you know of other companies that value their disabled employees like Walgreens does? Why are these employees so happy? Why do you think it is so hard for some companies to see the value and benefits of hiring the disabled? We all look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Celebrating Charlotte & Others with Down's syndrome

Hello Angela and all,

Angela, thanks so very much for sharing your story with all of us. Charlotte sounds so beautiful and very well loved by everyone from your description in your story.

Your complete family sounds very caring and supportive from your descriptions. I felt like I was there with you and your family as you got married, got pregnant and then gave birth to your lovely daughter, Charlotte.

I was feeling your nervousness when you gave birth to Charlotte and you noticed she was blue. I was feeling anxious when you told your Mum that Charlotte had Down's syndrome. I remember how anxious I was and how I was at a loss for words when I had to tell my friends over the phone after my illness that I was now completely blind. These friends did not even know I was in hospital since it was not a planned event; so it was a big shock for them to say the least.

Your story did so much to help educate me on Down's syndrome. I ride with people with Down's syndrome often when I ride in our local Paratransit. I had no idea there was 3 types of Down's syndrome.

I hope you all read Angela and Charlotte’s story at Down's Syndrome is Not the End of the World. I am so very glad that Charlotte has such loving and caring parents as you and Chris.

Does Angela‘s story of Charlotte bring up any thoughts from other parents of children with Down's syndrome? What about any other parents with children with any other challenges?

This story sure enlightened me and I appreciate hearing about such a loving and caring family.

We all look forward to hearing from others.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Disabled - Ideas for Retaining or Seeking a Job

Hello everyone,

Since National Disability Awareness Month and Disability Mentoring Day is this month, or coming soon for many countries, I thought we could talk about how the disabled can be successful at work. Can talk about finding meaningful work as well. We can share what has worked, and what has not. These ideas and resources we will share are not only for the disabled; all can use to be successful.

I have to admit others might have better ideas than I do and always welcome your thoughts. I went completely blind instantly in 1999, lost the ability to walk for one year, have diabetes in which I need to take insulin twice daily, neuropathy in both legs and other complications from the illness which took away my eyesight one day after work instantly, and forever.

I was working at the time of my illness. After leaving the hospital 7 months later, I was delayed because I was in a coma for 3 of those long months and had to have 4 surgeries , I immediately immersed myself in all of the blindness related training I could find to be a successful productive employee again. I started this process of reskilling myself while still in a wheel chair. I did not want to wait until I had many hours of physical rehabilitation and orientation and mobility training and was able to walk again.

I immediately began to build my network of people to help me make the connections needed to reskill myself as this new person without eyesight as quickly as possible. I found local organizations’ like the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Sensory Access Foundation and the Silicon Valley Council of the Blind to help with my blindness skills, assistive technology and interpersonal relationship and networking skills.

Because I desired to return to work as quickly as possible, I did not go away to a blind school where I could get around the clock training. Because of this I am not an expert in all blindness related skills.

Some things I did to help me return to work
You can use this same set of skills if you are trying to retain your job or find a new job like some of the students that will be participating at the many disability mentoring day events around the world.

1. Build and maintain a network of people who are knowledgeable in the areas you are interested in; or people you can learn from. Read Networking Forum: Tapping Your Network in Time of Need to get some ideas on how to build your network.

Once you have built this network you need to nourish this resource or it will go away. Maintaining a network is like growing a rose; if you do not provide water your rose will not be healthy and will eventually die. Read Best Ways to Reciprocate for Help to learn how to keep your network healthy

2. Make sure you have all the training and tools you will need to be productive and successful. Put in the time to learn your assistive technology thoroughly. Read Accommodations to learn more about what might make your working environment, just a bit easier.

3. Learn to adapt and figure out what works best for you. Nothing is easy. Sometimes you have to use your ingenuity to solve your own problems instead of waiting for help from others. You can get some ideas of some workarounds that have worked for me by reading Working Remotely- Challenges.

4. Have a good attitude. When solving your problems think in the bigger picture. If by solving your own problem; think how can you help others with your same resolution who might be in your same situation? Even though you might be having a really bad day because the tool you are supposed to use to do your job does not work with your assistive technology because that tool was not designed following accessibility guidelines like the ones at Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Do not get discouraged. You will have better days; usually very soon. Read Living Positively to get encouraged to have a better attitude

What has not worked for me
1. Do not try to force things to happen. At times if things are not going exactly the way you want; take a break; and come back later to take another look with a fresh mind. At times your ideas are not ready to be accepted by others; do not give up. Just look for the correct opportunity to present yourself.

2. You might have to alter your style of engagement to get the results you are looking for. Look at the personalities you are working with and make adjustments for best results.

3. Try not to make enemies along your paths to accomplish your goals. They might be your allies in future.

4. Put in the hard work and effort. Most things do not come easy. It takes a lot of hard work and time to succeed. You may need to get additional training to accomplish your goals. Get that training so you can be the best you can be.

5. Have faith in yourself. Never, ever give up! You can do it if you give yourself the chance!

Does anyone else have any helpful tips to help the students? Any tips that will help others looking for work or changing jobs? Any ideas to help retain your current job or get a promotion?

We all, very much, look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Disability Mentoring Day

Hello everyone,

Are you a student with a disability preparing to go into the workforce? Do you have a relative or friend who has a disability; minor or major? Are you an employer looking to hire talented employees? Are you a disabled person who is successfully working? Are you interested in volunteering some of your time to make a Differnce in the life’s of others, helping your community or employers in your area?

If any of the above sound like something you are interested in; or fits your situation I think you will be interested to know in the United States Disability Mentoring Day is October 17, 2007.

What is Disability Mentoring Day(DMD) from DMD web page.
Job Shadowing and Hands-On Career Exploration

Empowering Students and Job Seekers

Promoting a Diverse Workplace

Recruiting New Talent

International Efforts
In addition to helping Disability Mentoring Day to take root in all 50 states and all US territories, AAPD is pleased to lead in international efforts to
help transplant DMD around the world.

DMD Participating Nations and DMD Coordinators
http://www.dmd-aapd.org/docs/international.php

Do any of you have any plans to attend any Disability Mentoring Day events? Is your company planning on holding events for this day? If you have attended such events in past how did you like it; what did it mean to you; how did it help you?

To learn more about Disability Mentoring Day and get access to many related resources look on below URL.
http://www.dmd-aapd.org/

We would all love to hear how you are connected with Disability Mentoring Day.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Balancing Your Team for Innovation

Hello everyone,

I hope you have enjoyed and found useful the following two articles/ messages:
1. Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success

2. Meet the Professionals - Shawn Henry- Web accessibility

We have been talking about the importance to include everyone without external limitations for positive results. Talked about the value of collective intelligence and swarm behavior. I think the following article from eSight Careers Network
will add to our discussion of this very important topic.

Balancing Your Team for Innovation by Jim Hasse.

Just a few highlights from article
Technology has broken down the walls between jobs in companies and between businesses on a global scale. Survivors in today's competitive business climate have learned how to harness teamwork among people to produce products and services at a better, faster and cheaper clip than their competitors.
Fostering diversity and valuing differences have become so crucial to innovation, the engine of economic growth in the U.S. and many parts of the world.

What has changed is that teams and diversity on those teams have come into their own. Yet, diversity initiatives are still among the first "frills" to get cut as a variable cost in corporate budgets during economic downturns because they're considered not critical.

The C.A.R.E. Profile approach introduced me to the concept that successful team members do the right thing at the right time -- not the same thing at the same time. While team members work together toward a common goal, individuals still must play their individual parts in the process.

Fahden and Namakkal's instrument identifies an individual's most natural team role so he can work from his strengths. Here's how Innovate with C.A.R.E. Profile describes those strengths:

As an employer, recognizing the value of this "hand-off" process and the diversity it requires at the team level will help you avoid getting stuck with too many team members playing the same role at the same time. It means valuing differences -- instead of the sameness -- in people and how they help your team approach a problem and find a solution for it.

That means diversity in thought processes is a key to innovation. Since innovation is crucial to being competitive in today's marketplace, it makes ethnicity, gender, sexual preference -- and physical ability -- not relevant.

Read the complete article, Balancing Your Team for Innovation to learn more at below URL.
http://www.esight.org/view.cfm?x=472

Do you see any limitations which prevents diversity in thought processes? Has anyone seen any obstacles which prevents balancing your teams for innovation? Do you have any success stories you want to share about how you best harnessed teamwork by reducing external limitations, like inaccessible tools to help you produce products and services at a better, faster and cheaper clip than you’re competitors? How are you fostering diversity and valuing differences?

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Meet the Professionals - Shawn Henry- Web accessibility

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a chance to read Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success.

We talked about how collective intelligence can facilitate increased productivity if all can have equal access to the tools needed to do his or her job efficiently and effectively. We talked about why it is essential to develop, maintain and procure accessible and usable applications, including web pages with universal design following such standards like the ones that are available at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Maybe you are new to accessibility and usability and want to learn more about this topic. Perhaps you are looking to improve your knowledge in this aspect of technology. You want to fully embrace the benefits of Collective Intelligence so you can take full advantage of your skilled workforce to allow you to better compete in your local or global marketplace. I went completely blind one day after work in 1999 because of a critical illness that hit without warning. I have used computers with eyesight for many years as a application programmer, systems administrator and network engineer and now without eyesight as a project manager using screen readers and truly know the importance of usable and accessible tools. If any of that sounds like you; I think you will find the following video useful.

The Professionals" video series, Shawn Henry of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) talked with Kazuhito Kidachi about:
• Shared responsibilities between web site developers, browsers, and assistive technologies.

• The importance of authoring tools supporting accessibility.

• Different types of authoring tools, including content management systems.

• How WCAG 2.0 and WAI-ARIA address the more difficult aspects of Web accessibility.

• WAI's outreach resources.

• What led Shawn to accessibility?

The video has English audio (after a short Japanese introduction) and Japanese subtitles. Text transcripts are available in Japanese and English. To watch video open URL below.
http://videocast.mitsue.co.jp/english/archives/2007/000056.html

Did you learn anything new from video? Do you feel you have more tools to aid in allowing all to participate so you can take full advantage of Collective Intelligence? Do you have any success stories you want to share about implementing usability and accessibility programs for your internal tools? Any other thoughts or comments. We all look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success

Hello everyone,

Want to be more productive at solving complex problems in groups? Work better in teams? Utilize all of your resources at their fullest potential, no matter how different some individuals might be perceived to be? Maybe you should study the way some ants bury their dead, ways fireflies in some parts of the world light up in synchronization, or the way field honey bees fly from flower to flower, collecting pollen and sweet juices, or nectar to produce honey. Read on; I am serious!

Have you ever been in a meeting and hardly anyone talked? Maybe the few outgoing people were the only ones voicing their opinions. As you might be sitting back in the meeting and listening and thinking to yourself, my thought is not valuable because it is quite different than all the other ideas that are being brought up; so I do not speak up in fear of being different.

I’ll bet you do not know how much your different point of view helps to make the outcome better for all! Without your different perspective the complete group may fail because you followed the opinions of only a few in the group; right or wrong.

If you have a disability or other unique viewpoints on the topic in discussion, or project, or program you are working on, it makes your input even more crucial to produce the very best output possible. I might even argue that if you are disabled, or have other challenges your thoughts are more important, since others do not have your unique viewpoint to offer such help or guidance.

This is true with software or hardware development as well. You would not want to develop inferior software or hardware products that are not accessible or usable by all people. In this highly competitive global market it is best to not limit your customer base to only a portion of the world’s population allowing your competitors to gain an advantage in which you may never have the opportunity to catch up. Include people with disabilities, we are brimming with innovative ideas!

With so much room for improvements in the current approach to working together, some groups and organizations have started to look at nature for resolutions and new ideas. Nature has done well when many members interact with each other with no one person directing, like the ants, fireflies and bees I mentioned

Do you wonder how such positive collaboration can happen?

Have you ever heard of swarm, or collective intelligence?

Swarm, or collective intelligence in one definition; is interacting as one large, self-organized group of computers or groups of people with all individuals fully participating, without infrastructure limitations. This is an emergent behavior, where complex group actions arise from simple local rules.

From Stephen Strogatz: Who Cares About Fireflies? We see fantastic examples of synchrony in the natural world all around us. To give an example, there were persistent reports when the first Western travelers went to South East Asia, back to the time of Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s, of spectacular scenes along riverbanks, where thousands upon thousands of fireflies in the trees would all light up and go off simultaneously. These kinds of reports kept coming back to the West, and were published in scientific journals, and people who hadn't seen it couldn't believe it. Scientists said that this is a case of human misperception, that we're seeing patterns that don't exist, or that it's an optical illusion. How could the fireflies, which are not very intelligent creatures, manage to coordinate their flashings in such a spectacular and vast way?

The answer on how this can happen is swarm, or collective intelligence.

In the May 1, 2001, Harvard Business Review, Swarm Intelligence: A Whole New Way to Think about Business by Eric Bonabeau and Christopher Meyer talks about the following.

What do ants and bees have to do with business? A great deal, it turns out. Individually, social insects are only minimally intelligent, and their work together is largely self-organized and unsupervised. Yet collectively they're capable of finding highly efficient solutions to difficult problems and can adapt automatically to changing environments. Over the past 20 years, the authors and other researchers have developed rigorous mathematical models to describe this phenomenon, which has been dubbed "swarm intelligence," and they are now applying them to business. Their research has already helped several companies develop more efficient ways to schedule factory equipment, divide tasks among workers, organize people, and even plot strategy. Emulating the way ants find the shortest path to a new food supply, for example, has led researchers at Hewlett-Packard to develop software programs that can find the most efficient way to route phone traffic over a telecommunications network. Southwest Airlines has used a similar model to efficiently route cargo. To allocate labor, honeybees appear to follow one simple but powerful rule--they seem to specialize in a particular activity unless they perceive an important need to perform another function. Using that model, researchers at Northwestern University have devised a system for painting trucks that can automatically adapt to changing conditions. In the future, the authors speculate, a company might structure its entire business using the principles of swarm intelligence. The result, they believe, would be the ultimate self-organizing enterprise--one that could adapt quickly and instinctively to fast-changing markets.

Listen to NPR: How Ants Bury Their Dead by John Nielsen - All Things Considered, December 9, 2006, the weekly Science Out of the Box segment considers the well-ordered world of ants. Their knack for carefully stacking their dead has sent researchers scurrying to see if humans can learn lessons in efficiency from them.

Ants work together in large groups performing very complicated task with no one leader. They fight battles find food and stack their dead in intricate precise patterns; and re-stack them sorting them as they do so. This research is helping to build robots that have intelligence like ants, among many other very exciting projects.

At the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence they are bringing together faculty from across MIT to conduct research on how new communications technologies are changing the way people work together. They are collaborating with other educational institutions, organizations and individuals to better understand and find new ways to leverage collective intelligence.

Just a few of the factors that facilitate collective intelligence from MIT’s Handbook of Collective Intelligence.

• Diversity

• Shared vocabulary and other infrastructure

• Awareness

Some of the factors that inhibit collective intelligence from MIT’s handbook.

• Biases

• Implementation issues

As you have read or listened, swarm or collective intelligence can be interactions between computer to computer, computer to people or people to people just to name a few of the possible interactions. I would like to focus our discussion on improving collective intelligence between people to people and people to computer.

Collective intelligence can facilitate increased productivity in community, global (multiple organizations and individuals) and corporate project, or program teams. Can aid if you do work in Diversity, looking to leverage all employees uniqueness’s effectively or work in Human Resources and you desire your highly skilled and valued workforce to be agile to allow your employees to use their talents when and where best needed at any particular moment. Explaining why it is essential to develop, maintain and procure accessible and usable applications with universal design following such standards as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and leveraging resources like the ones at Trace Research and Development Center and Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) special Interest Group on Accessible Computing to facilitate and allow all people to contribute equally and effectively. Such standards can leverage IT investments, save time, money and reduce duplication of efforts. It is best to leverage what nature has already perfected. People are just starting to understand and utilize techniques to improve outdated processes. Focus your efforts on actions that will facilitate collective intelligence and resolve any barriers which will inhibit your positive results!

If all people cannot equally participate fully with accessible and usable tools you are inhibiting collective intelligence. You need to create ways to facilitate collective intelligence so you can more easily find highly efficient solutions to your most difficult problems. Then you can adapt automatically to changing markets and environments with agility and grace. Make sure the disabled, or others with challenges can fully participate like all others efficiently. These individuals are your most valued path to your success in fully utilizing the benefits of collective intelligence.

Is anyone seeing results with swarm, or collective intelligence? Are you having implementation issues? What parts of your personal or professional life is this helping with? Do you see how it can help the disabled or others with special needs in their personal or professional life?

I look forward to hearing from you.

To read more about Swarm Behavior look at the excellent resources on Learn More - National Geographic Magazine.

Bill Tipton
Contributing Author,
Global Dialogue Center
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com