This website is a form of blook. It is a hybrid of a blog, a website, and an online book. I created a “blook” and defined the blook format as I could not find anything that met my needs.
Read anytime, anywhere, on any device.
I tend to read everything online on my laptop, iPad, or iPhone. I have a Kindle but find it a rather dull reading experience and no longer use it.
Multimedia
A web-based “book” is a multimedia experience, including text, photos, images, audio, video, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, and more. Also, I can connect to other interesting or relevant material on the web through hyperlinks.
A book embedded in the web environment is crucial to improving the reading experience and the ability to read it anywhere, time, or on any device.
Working out loud
Crucially, I have created an environment where I can work out loud. I can publish a small amount of material that people can access and read and give me feedback, and I can iteratively build on it over time.
Dynamic
When a conventional book is published, it is set in stone. It does not change. On the other hand, my blook changes daily as I add material, edit, and improve it. It is alive. So much so it will only stop changing and growing when I die, though I plan to ensure it lives on after my death.
The Structure
My blook consists of chapters like a book, but without sections or pages. Each chapter is a collection of short posts resembling blog posts. Each post can be read in 5 to 10 minutes, stands alone, and is hyperlinked to other posts for further reading.
The blook’s modular structure allows for easy navigation, bookmarking, printing as PDFs, and clipping to Evernote or Onenote, enhancing its accessibility.
Navigation
Unlike a book, the blook is not meant to be read linearly. It can be navigated in a wide variety of ways.
When I was teaching at Columbia University, techno-prophet Marshall McLuhan came down from Toronto to lecture there.
He talked about how the linear pattern of information resulting from print technology limited the thought patterns of people who learned from printed books.
Word follows word, line follows line, paragraph follows paragraph, page follows page, chapter follows chapter, in a single necessary order from the first page to the last.
Learning through a medium that is a one-way street prevented creative, flexible, associative, open-ended, multi-directional and multi-dimensional thought.
Instead of just being authoritative, books became authoritarian, demanding thinking in straight lines from a fixed point of view.
The book medium became a stronger message than its content.
Designed to be read in privacy, in seclusion from others, the book ended dialogue.
It conferred the values of isolation, detachment, passivity, and non-involvement.
Credit: Mel Alexenberg reporting the words of Marshall McLuhan
Creative Commons license
I have licensed it under a Creative Commons license, allowing people to share or remix the material freely.
Write any time, any place, any device.
The power in the blook format, for me, for example, is working on it while sitting in the car waiting to pick my wife up at the station. I can edit it from my iPhone if I have a small piece of new material I wish to add or a minor improvement.
Feedback
I also find it invaluable to get feedback that I can incorporate into the text as the blook develops.
Blog
I have also moved my Gurteen Knowledge Blog to the site. So I now have both a blook and a blog. This is a powerful combination.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, I love the format for the creative freedom the book format allows me and the improvement in the reader’s experience.
Tags: blook (3) | Creative Commons (2) | Working Out Loud (1)Blook Search
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Photo Credits: Gerhard Gellinger (CC0 1.0)
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Hi Everyone,
Wishing ALL a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
cheers,
thomas kuan
Hi David,
You were quite right to send a reminder :)
Unfortunately I’m not following you blook on a regular basis although I find the concept and indeed the process fascinating.
There are several “chapters” that I find particularly interesting and some of the insight you are sharing with us, your readers, are quite relevant to what I do. Thank you for that.
Cheers,
Dan
Thanks, Dan, the blook has a long way to go. Pleased to hear that what you have read so far has been interesting :-)
best wishes David
David,
I cannot count the number of times I sat through extensive PPT briefings attempting to elicit discussions on solving a given issue, with little to no discussion occurring because everyone was focused on reading the information on the slide (or listening as the briefer read the slides to us – which in my opinion is the true poison of any PPT presentation). You comments about the pub conversations is spot on – we called this bar napkin calculus – as many of the ideas we eventually ended up acting on were sketched out on the back of a bar napkin during conversations in the evenings “after work.”
I am still working my way through the blook, and so far I am delighted by the form you are using.
Have you extended your cafes to the British military, and if so, how were they received? From my experience, KM in the US military is too often confused with Information Management – focusing on tools like SharePoint to store vast quantities of information, which sits idle. I can see the value of the café format…but am concerned that applying it to a time-limited decision cycle may not be the best process to use. I’d be interested in your thoughts on this.
Regards…
JD Koch
In all my corporate existence I can not recall when we were ever given Café like opportunities to discuss things in small groups. As you say, the real conversations and insights take place informally over coffee or down the pub later. But it is just a change of mindset that is required.
KM is far too often confused with IM. See:
https://conversational-leadership.net/knowledge-human-mind/
No Cafés in the British military.
My thoughts on lack of time – we need to slow down a little and take the tome to “sharpen the saw” :-)
https://conversational-leadership.net/no-time-myth/
A big thanks for your comments David
Fascinating. I intend to set aside moments to come back here regularly! Trying to convince a set of dispersed facilitators on ‘Capitalisation of Experiences’ to adopt many of your recommendations, both among themselves and together with those they work with… Peter
PS. should comments be ordered latest first or vice-versa… a dilemma? I tend to prefer the latest on top and go back into time from there.
Hello David, it has been awhile, but my leadership research brought me back to your newsletter. In your recent discussion regarding our hyper-connected world you bring up 3 significant issues. My reply from experience, learning and teaching, while not as significant is:
We have to listen, give a person the opportunity to voice their opinion, and we have to learn to admit we might be wrong. If you disagree with someone, do a bit of research before sounding off. Do some real research, not just one view, but look at other views that contradict your own view or the views of others you are comfortable with. We sometimes have to be uncomfortable to find truth, or we can agree to disagree. Never make your argument about one person or one position. Always be open to alternatives before we make our final decisions. And remember conversation is a two-way street, with stop signs, yield signs, curve signs, and lights to remind us to stop, proceed, or slow down as we appreciate others on the road to conversation.
I couldn’t agree with you more on the importance and power of listening Peter – as you have probably discovered, I have written so much in this blook on the topic.
https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/listening/
You make some great points about questioning our own beliefs … totally agree … here is what I have written on the subject
https://conversational-leadership.net/rethinking-our-beliefs/
a big thanks for your feedback David