Recent heb ik een nieuwe website gemaakt op www.theiland.nl met een overzicht van mijn publicaties. De website besteedt speciale aandacht aan het boek 'Een eigen wereld'. Zo kunt u er een inkijkexemplaar van het boek vinden. De website vindt u hier.
Enjoy! / Geniet ervan!
Thei Geurts
Based on a request of a Dutch newspaper I wrote a concise opinion about the importance of libraries
Libraries are vitamin hubs for the mind. As vitamins are vital for the growth, recovery and well-functioning of the body, so are libraries indispensable for self- and social-reliance and -resilience, the ability to contextualize and to give meaning in a changing society. They are gateways to knowledge and imagination and adversaries of modern illiteracy. ‘Literacy is pattern recognition and action’ (David Lankes).
The
deterioration of the library landscape is alarming. Every authority should
invest in matters that are socially desirable, but (short-term) economically
not profitable. Let’s not forget that a nation that doesn’t teach and
encourages its children to read and to stay literate long-term destroys its own
future.
Please feel free to reflect, react and to share.
Thei Geurts, February 21, 2020
Just published this book about the history of the abbey garden of Our Lady's Abbey in Oosterhout.
It is called: A world of their own; from 'Vredeoord' (Place of Peace estate) to peaceful place.
The text is in Dutch but the 300 pictures are international and mostly self explaining.
It can be ordered here: https://www.boekenbestellen.nl/boek/een-eigen-wereld/32136
]]>
Somewhere around 2002, while I was working on the concept of a Context Value Broker, a colleague asked for my opinion about the future of ICT-systems and services. Not being an acknowledged futurist, that is a hard question to answer. Many who did try were proven wrong, as this prediction of the future of mail delivery in the year 2000 may illustrate.
My answer was that I could imagine a trend in the next decades in which the IT landscape of mainly one-dimensional monolithic solutions would evolve into multi-dimensional ecosystems of pluggable knowledge and function kernels, running on agile platforms. These ecosystems and platforms would provide a collaborative base for new services and solutions that made sense of complex situations and serve users on a 1:1 basis for their individual needs. The actors in this services would be both humans and machines; even although the interpretative capabilities of machines would grow in time.
]]>Recently, I witnessed how a young couple was serviced in their efforts to buy a new house and to take out a mortgage. The quality of service that was offered failed dramatically at all touch points.
]]>Systems of denial are omnipresent in business and public organizations. They are a main cause for blocking innovation and transformation. Systems of denial occur when organizations are confronted with information that challenges their core (competitive) assumptions.
]]>For many years I have created concepts, developed products and written articles related to the domain of accessible, assessable and actionable knowledge. A domain that is near to my heart, being a 21st century librarian. On my desktop I used to have an image that synthesized core elements of my thoughts in one single view. I have often used that image in all kinds of conversations with participants of various levels. It turned out to be it extremely useful as a storyline for presentation, argumentation and discussion. Creating such an image is perhaps useful in your situation as well.
]]>For most product manufacturers, delivering adequate documentation is a constant challenge. The increasing complexity of products and the stricter regulations for product documentation often lead to extensive documentation sets with 500+ pages manuals on-line or in print. The question is: how effective is all this documentation?
]]>
While contemplating about the essence of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), it struck me how strongly GRC can be viewed from the perspective of the traditional cardinal virtues.
]]>
Table of contents
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 1)
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 2) : embracing complexity in the Public sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 3) : embracing complexity in the Finance sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 4) : embracing complexity in the Health care sector
PDF download on SlideShare
Over the last 50 years there has been enormous economic and social progress in Europe and – although there are large regional and social differences – Europeans are living longer than ever before: on average eight to nine years more than in 1960. This coincides with other demographic developments: fewer children are being born, which will mean fewer people paying into state pension and healthcare systems, and a smaller pool of potential carers. The health care industry is relying more and more on innovation and the use of IT to cope with the costs and increased workload. Finally, prevention becomes an important part of the health care policy.
]]>
Table of contents
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 1)
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 2) : embracing complexity in the Public sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 3) : embracing complexity in the Finance sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 4) : embracing complexity in the Health care sector
PDF download on SlideShare
Financial services can be defined as the products and services offered by institutions like banks of various kinds for the facilitation of various financial transactions and other related activities in the world of finance like loans, insurance, pensions, credit cards, investment opportunities and money management.
]]>
Table of contents
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 1)
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 2) : embracing complexity in the Public sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 3) : embracing complexity in the Finance sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 4) : embracing complexity in the Health care sector
PDF download on SlideShare
The main discriminator between the private and the public sector is the fact that the public sector cannot go out of business. It can shrink and be reshaped, but will not disappear entirely. The same applies to taxes or legislation. The latter will even be rather more than less.
]]>
Table of contents
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 1)
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 2) : embracing complexity in the Public sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 3) : embracing complexity in the Finance sector
Challenges of the Interaction Economy (part 4) : embracing complexity in the Health care sector
PDF download on SlideShare
What is it that keeps a manager awake at night? It is either the myriad of snap decisions he[1] has to made every day on a seemingly increasing variety of issues. Or it is one of these far reaching decisions that directly affect people (employees, customers or partners) and the future of the organization? The answer can be ‘both’. Fact is that most of the managers perceive their current environment as becoming increasingly complex. They have a natural tendency to keep control while the circumstances beyond their control evolve with a mind-blowing speed and magnitude that is virtually impossible to keep track with. It is this short term oriented control bias that leads to the creation of seemingly sophisticated solutions that in the end make life even more complicated and disturb the manager’s good night’s sleep.
]]>Libraries have the ambition to facilitate the creation of knowledge in and for their communities. Taken from a broader perspective, this ambition fits within the trend from meconomics to weconomics as described in The future of business here. Therefore libraries face the same challenge as all organizations in the private and public sector.
They all experience that cooperation, coordination and communication is going to take more and more place in
constantly changing constellations. Participating and
collaborating in spontaneous networks becomes the new normal. The question is whether organizations are capable to deal with this paradigm shift in the way they work.
Libraries were in the vanguard of the sharing economy long before Uber, Airbnb and other 'would-be' channel commanders came on the market. In contrast to these providers, libraries can be regarded as 'merit good', a service that is socially desirable, but economically not profitable (at least at the point of consumption).
In today's emerging digital economy libraries face the risk of gradual extinction. Adapting 'the process of me' concept may help to prevent this.
The intelligent Business Process Management Suite (iBPMS) is a new generation of BPMS enhanced with machine and human intelligence. It is an emerging BPM technology that helps to meet the need of intelligent business operations. The iBPMS expands on the traditional BPMS by adding new functionality to support intelligent business operations, such as real-time business intelligence, complex event processing, deep human collaboration and mobility.
]]>Business continuity is at stake for many organizations in the public and private domain. The pace of change and increasing complexity makes it extremely hard for organizations to sustain business value and assure survival. All public and private organizations experience in their own way the consequences of the fundamental shift that has taken place from a manufacturing paradigm to a services, information and hybrid economy.
]]>
Regulations are growing faster than the GDP. In fact, in a world of economic
decline, it is the fastest growing industry. The rate of increase
exceeds the capability of heavily
regulated industries to integrate them into their environment; leaving these businesses and their management vulnerable to fines, censure
or worse. It becomes
more and more clear that ‘business as usual’ is cancelled. Old recipes don’t work anymore. The business operating
system is coming
to a grinding halt.
There is a lot of attention in the media about the Internet of Things (IOT) and the robotization of out information society. Techno-euforia and technofobia dominate the perception and tend to distract us from what the real fundamental question is.
]]>
The
intelligent enterprise of the 21st century needs the fusion and infusion of
data and knowledge based on contextual intelligence to support decision making at business moments.
The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model that dates back to 1980. It is a well-known model that is used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during types of change. The 7-P model has a similar function to identify and curate the essence of Governance, Risk and Compliance issues.
]]>Recently the HBR Network Blog published an article about the question whether employers should ban email after working hours. In the midst of this article some astonishing Gallup's research results were mentioned. Seven in 10 American workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.
The city of Lanaken in Belgium has a very peculiar way of informing citizens and visitors about their rules.
]]>
Last week a young couple wanted to book a last minute flight on a German low-cost airline. They were confronted with a peculiar arithmetic operation.
]]>The old stereotype of the librarian is changing radically. The male timid keeper of silence working in an environment crammed with books, and the puritanical, punitive, unattractive, and introverted female with her hair in a bun are both gone. Is the world gradually discovering the real nature of librarians?
It is a well known fact that walking the dog helps against obesity. Until recently it was not known that if the dog walks you, the effect quadruples. This has led to a world wide mania in dog pulling.
]]>