Today some of the librarians took a break from Dribbles to learn about BiTs. Overheard in process:
"I sometimes lose my train of thought but other trains come along."

"What's not to trust?" (spoken by someone unfamiliar with the Duchy and the Black Queen)

The Black Queen and GoG have been working for quite some time to vanish Dotland. (No, not vanquish. They want Dotland to DISAPPEAR.) For some reason, the Black Queen, Queen of Air, Darkness, and All Technology, has never understood that Dotland dealt with information, not just books and budgets. She thought that if she could divert the books and budgets, Dotland would cease to exist. Unfortunately, without the information distributed by Dotland, the books and budgets don't quite come together. Just as today's BiTs wouldn't have come together without Dotland behind the scenes moving the information around. The librarians feel lost in a sea of numbers and requirements and rules. They can see books in the distance but can't quite get to them. The Black Queen and GoG aren't much help since they never paid much attention to the details. The Black Queen and GoG also don't understand that the heart of LibraryLand is in the peasants. There were no peasants invited today.
The Black Queen is like the Sorcerers Apprentice standing on a chair raising a perfect storm of confusion and anger. Maybe she's afraid if she stops, she'll drown in the chaos?

More dispatches from Dotland
Silver, ghost or no, was in her cubby all day, humming happily...moving pictures and bits of paper around... scrapbooking, maybe?...answering the occasional question about Folly. (The computer imps persist in calling it Fillet.) Purple, Sage, and Turquoise were going about their dotly duties. Navy, in her new identity of First Dit, sent a pigeon to bring greetings to Dotland. The pigeons are still not flying much. Is it the weather? Or has the Black Queens miasma so polluted the air that the pigeons can no longer fly.

On another note, Indigo and Silver heartily recommend a great article in the August issue of Educational Leadership, "Of hubs, bridges, and networks" by Douglas B. Reeves. No, it's NOT about technology, it about how the org. chart doesn't really show how things work. People are nodes. People who talk and listen to each other are hubs. People who talk and listen to lots of other people are superhubs. The Duke issues proclamations that are supposed to flow down the org chart. They don't because a lot of the folks on the org chart are not even hubs, much less superhubs. (Some of them are barely nodes!) If the Duke sought out the superhubs and listened and talked to them, maybe the proclamations would work better. There are also good hubs and toxic hubs. To quote the article

But whatever his or her merits, a toxic hub is not worth the
cost in heightened aggravation, lowered morale, and poor communication.

Sound like anyone we know?
Is it possible the White Queen has read the article? I'm quite sure that Black Dot Queen Magog and her sidekick, Gog, have not.

Notice:
The 5 line self portrait, recommended as an exercise by Daniel Pink, is apparently an idea whose time has come....and gone.
Sorry, folks!

An uneasy truce?
There is an uneasy stillness in the Duchy. The Black Dot Queen has not been heard from in two days. The castle pigeons are in their lofts with no messages to carry. The village pigeons aren't flying either. The ghost of Silver has become more substantial, only slightly transparent around the edges. The Dots look uneasily over their shoulders waiting for the other shoe to drop. IT'S TOO QUIET!!!

***
The Black Queen is always saying that she wants the Duchy to be on the cutting edge of technology. Beyond revealing an unsavory interest in cutting, this does raise a question. If the Duchy is to be on the cutting edge, shouldn't there be some sharper tools in the castle?

***

Dispatches from Dotland
Things seemed quiet in Dotland and Libraryland today but is there revolt simmering under the surface? Is this the calm before the storm? And which storm, summer rain or Katrina?
Silver is rumored to have been seen with the White Queen. Will the White Queen come to the aid of Libraryland and Dotland? The ghost of Silver was again reported in Dotland, looking somewhat more solid. The Dots wait more developments with bated breath.

On another note, I read Daniel Pink's "A whole new mind" and here are some notes from that. He says that we have gone from the Industrial Age, revolving around the assembly line worker, to the Information Age, revolving around the "knowledge worker" and the associated "left-brain" skills, and are now entering the conceptual age where the left-brain skills have to be supplemented with right brain skills. The aptitudes of the conceptual age are "high concept" and "high touch". This blog is very high concept in that it's full of references that will be meaningless to most people in the outside Real World, full of jokes that only make sense in Dotland and LibraryLand. And Dotland definitely has a nonlinear relationship to the Real World. High touch refers to all of those touchy-feely things that techies are supposed to sneer at. Anyway the six skills, "senses", that Daniel Pink says will be necessary in the Conceptual Age are:
Design, not just function
http://www.sagmeister.com
http://www.karimrashid.com
http://www.animatrix.com
http://www.dcontinuum.com
Story, not just argument (this blog is all about Story, the Black Dot Queen is all about argument)
Digital storytelling http://www.iusedtobelieve.com
Symphony, not just focus
The 5 line self-portrait http://www.the5line.com
Empathy, not just logic
Empathy quotient http://www.tinyurl.com/9qdi
Systematizing quotient (male brain) http://www.tinyurl.com/9qdk
Fake smile vs real smile http://www.tinyurl.com/2u7sh
Watch the eyes http://www.tinyurl.com/277vm
Play, not just seriousness
http://www.laughteryoga.org/
http://www.inventionatplay.org/
Humor test http://www.tinyurl.com/6t7ff
Meaning, not just assets
Spiritual Transcendence Scale http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~rpiedmont/stsr.htm
Index of Core Spiritual Experience
http://www.tinyurl.com/5sz7u
Virtual Labyrinth http://www.labyrinthsociety.org

Proclamation from the Duke

Six Strategic Goals for our Duchy

General screwing up

There is no system that we cannot screw up. (Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool)

Administrative Screwing up
All central administration will be promoted to jobs beyond their capability to ensure that they will be able to always screw up under even the most unfavorable circumstances.
Specific screwing up
Each situation will be examined on it's own merits to determine the best way to screw it up.
Special projects screwing up
We must make sure all special projects are not overlooked in our continued quest to make this a completely screwed up duchy.
Site based screwing up
In the interests of site based decision making we must make sure that sites are given ample opportunity to screw up on their own. If they don't take advantage of these opportunities (or even if they do) we will screw them up from the top down.
Multicultural screwing up
We must make sure that all cultures and ethnicities are equally screwed up and over.

Signed
Black Dot Queen Magog for his Majesty the Duke

Another day of unrest in the Duchy
The venerable 10th Street Journal reports that sales of durable goods such as pitchforks, torches, tar, feathers, and rails are up. Sales of office supplies and books are hitting bottom since none of the villages can figure out how to do the new paperwork required to buy anything. The Black Queen's stock is lower than emperor Shrub's ratings. Other Duchy stock is doing slightly better.
In a local note, the ghost of Silver was seen again in Dotland. Voices were heard from her empty cubicle. Calls were mysteriously transferred to a phone no one answered. TITS was heard arranging a 3 way conference call with TITS, a village Dot, and Silver's empty cubicle. The harassed Dots of Dotland refuse to discuss these manifestations. When asked about the "Exorcist Wanted" sign in the window of Black Dot Castle, the Black Queen refused to answer.

Dispatches from Dotland
Rumors are flying in the Duchy. Witnesses claim to have seen a haggard and subdued Silver wandering in Dotland. They believe that Silver narrowly escaped imprisonment in Black Dot Castle and torture at the hands of the Black Dot Queen. However, the Dots of Dotland claim that the witness saw a phantom, the ghost of Silver haunting the cubicles of Dotland.
There is massive unrest in the rest of the Duchy. Peasants have been observed buying pitchforks and torches. They look over their shoulders and make the sign of the evil eye when someone mentions the Black Dot Queen. Where will it all lead? Will the Duchy be torn apart by revolution?

Dr. Frankendot!

See Dr Frankendot bring the terrifying BLACK DOT QUEEN to hideous life

See the BLACK DOT QUEEN escape and terrorize the villages

See the peasant storm Black Dot Castle with torches and pitchforks

Peasants by Ravenloft

Coming soon to a theatre near you!

Rated R for mature audiences

To see a different kind of castle, visit the Library Media Castle at Beaufort Middle School

If you like Lego's you'll love this blog..VignetteBricks

True Crime Weekly

Investigation into Dotland Disappearances continues

Is the Black Dot Queen covering up?

The Black Dot Queen attempted to prevent the press from taking photographs of a possible crime scene being investigated by Duchy police in the mysterious disappearance of 4 Dots from Dotland last week.

The Weekly also obtained these exclusive photographs from Dotland. This chalked outline was found in Navy's cubicle. Duchy Police deny finding a body. What do they suspect?

Duchy Police are not commenting on the DNA tests on these stains found in Dotland. What horrors happened here?

In related news, the Weekly received an anonymous tip that Silver has been seen in TITS. The Black Queen had no statement for the press.

True Crime Weekly

Disappearances in Dotland

A cloud of fear hangs over Dotland following the mysterious disappearance of 4 dots during the past week.

At the time of this photograph, Navy and Pink had already vanished, assumed to have become DITS. Subsequent events have called this theory into question.

Navy was the first to vanish followed quickly by Pink. Their disappearances were originally taken as normal for these troubled times. However, when Red disappeared three days after Pink, the other Dots became anxious. Then the Black Queen announced that Silver had "left to pursue other interests". Silver's friends were dubious. Gold told this reporter

"The Notebook is still here. Silver never went anywhere without The Notebook."

The Duchy police are investigating but say

"At this point we have no reason to suspect foul play."

Meanwhile the remaining Dots wait and worry.

The Black Queen's first attempt to fire Silver









The Black Queen's second attempt to fire Silver











The Black Queen's third attempt to fire Silver

Reflections after starting A whole new mind by Daniel Pink. (Warning: this is a long serious digression. Feel free to skip to the next post.)
I think I understand why her Royal Cluelessness went wrong in her evaluation of DotLand. I believe she come in with the preconception that she would be dealing with oldfashioned accountants and library oriented file clerks engaged in oldfashioned Left-brain-directed mechanical activity. The first thing she would see in DotLand is that humoungous wooden card catalog. Far from being an example of oldfashioned mechanical work, that big cabinet is a good instance of the Right-directed activity of managing work with good space design. That big wooden cabinet, unused as a card catalog for over a decade, has been positioned to subtly discourage passersby from rummaging in the tempting shelves of brand new books waiting to go to libraries.
During the various interview and Strategic Planning processes, the words used to describe a lot of the tangible outputs of Dotland were words associated with physical paperwork. I don't think the Queen realized a) the extent to which those apparently physical processes were already automated and b) that the real work and importance of DotLand is in the Right-directed activities of building relationships and providing counseling on library issues. The mechanical is done by software; the work of Dotland is in understanding the whole picture of libraries and smoothing out any rumples in that picture.
I think the Queen believes that only she sees the "big picture". I think that in reality she is still so immersed in the L-directed sequential Information Age that she actually can't see the big picture. DotLand started moving to the Conceptual Age several years ago. The work of DotLand is now sufficiently R-directed that it can't easily be measured or described with the sequential lists and facts of the Information Age. Therefore, the Queen dismisses it as unimportant. I keep thinking "If only we could have told our Story better..." but then I remember that the Queen doesn't think Stories are important.

Exclusive: Baba Wawa Interviews Queen!
Following the surprise departure of Guru Silver, we will be running excerpts from an exclusive interview with Black Dot Queen MaGoG.

Baba Wawa:

What are your plans to fill the vacancy left by Silver's
departure?

Queen:

We don't need a guru. We have had the Folly (pronounced fo-lay)
for Libraries computer software for several years now. It has had plenty
of time to learn the job.

BW:

Some of the villagers have said that computer software normally
doesn't "learn" the job and you have stopped paying the Folly company to
upgrade it.

Q:

I am the Queen of all technology and I know what I am talking
about. Computers learn just like students do. We have given the
Folly software Dibbles. We know that will make it work the way
I want it to.

BW:

What if this doesn't work?

Q:

We will put it on a "Plan of Improvement"

More of this exclusive interview to follow.

When asked to comment Silver said "Dybts!" (The correct DotLand pronunciation is diebits, not to be confused with die b****. Despite a long stay in DotLand Silver still retains traces of a Techie accent and sometimes pronounces it dibbits.)

More headlines:
Turmoil in DotLand!
Black Queen accuses DotLand of skimming.
In a press conference from LibraryLand Black Dot Queen Magog said DotLand had been skimming the cream from the tithes for years. She claimed a long investigation had uncovered the plot and ended the nefarious practice.
Photo by Steffe
DotLand refutes claim in prepared statement from palatial retreat in Bora Bora.
DotLand pointed out that the tithes were homogenized so there was no cream to skim. The Black Queen is still unavailable for comment.

In a related story, Silver has been sent from DotLand to DesignLand. Notice of Silver's departure was posted on the LibraryLand Notice board after most villagers had retired to the pubs for TGIF. Silver's comment: "!!!"

souvenir of Dotland

Social Column
Queen MaGoG recently hosted a small but exclusive gathering in her modest suburban ranch house. Photo by antkriz





Classified
Wanted: Experienced Guru. Must be willing to work for free. Must sign loyalty oath. Send resume, security clearance, blood and DNA samples to:
Black Dot Castle
Box 666
Attn: Black Dot Queen

Headline:
Chaos in LibraryLand! 19 villages without a peasant!

Seen on the back of a donkey cart in the village:
Where are we going and what am I doing in this handbasket?

Another sad day in DotLand. It seems like all of LibraryLand is having problems of one kind or another and we of DotLand are having trouble finding them in order to help. The Black Queen has been promising us a list of newcomers to LibraryLand for over a week but the list does not come. And we need a list of all of the inhabitants of LibraryLand, not just the novices. We petitioned the Black Queen to allow us to send a message to LibraryLand so we could create our own list, but she put us off yet again. What does the Black Queen gain by preventing us from doing our work?
We hear that the Black Queen promises her superiors that technology will solve all problems and that Destiny is the ultimate technology. Technology would solve some problems, if we were allowed to use it. However, a lot of the problems are caused by people who think they know what they are doing. That's not a problem that technology can solve. Training maybe, but the Black Queen doesn't allow any of that either.
Black Dot Castle's front notice board announces to all that we are a Classroom Centered Duchy. The Black Queen's entry in the Monday Proclamation says that the critical parts of the duchy are Great Desert software and SquishyFolks financial software.
Perhaps we Dots need to repair to the village pub and drink ourselves insensible!

I am so angry and depressed. There seems to be no end to the Black Dot Queen's unthinking casual vandalism. Neither GaG nor GoG seems to have ever understood the difference between a library and a reading room. A reading room is a room full (hopefully) of reading material. A library is a room full of reading material organized for quick information retreival. The internet is a sea of information. An internet library is an organized sea of information. The key is organization and organization with a purpose, quick retreival of information. Check out a bookstore. Book stores are organized to sell books, not to supply information quickly. Traditionally the organizers of information for quick retreival have been called librarians. Providing the tools of organization to libraries has been called library technical services. DotLand has been fulfilling that role in the Duchy for many years. First the Duchy was small and organization was provided by a few librarians working more or less alone. As the Duchy grew, it became clear that some organizational tools could be provided more quickly, easily, and cheaply by a small group working centrally, hence DotLand was created. The economics of the situation are well understood and practiced by Walmart, Target, and every grocery chain in the United States.
The Black Dot Queen tells us that the issue is local control of library money. Let's see, the people of the Duchy always did have control of how the library money was spent, as long as it served the libraries. Does the Black Queen mean that library money can now be spent on football uniforms and trips to Cardiff-by-the-sea? We have been assured that this is not so, but then we were also told that only one person from DotLand would be sacrificed to the RightSizing Gods. Instead both Pink and Navy have gone to appease the endless hunger of GaG and GoG.
Open letter to the Black Dot Queen:
Dear Madame,
You are an idiot.
Very Sincerely,
An Angry Dot

Dealing with the Black Dot Queen is just exhausting. Her ability to send pigeons on pointless trivia while ignoring all real questions is mindboggling. Blue and Silver were both bruised by angry pigeons. Purple was dispatched to LibraryLand and returned exhausted from battling the chaos spread by the Black Queen. Pink has become a DIT and been sent to LibraryLand permanently. What will the Dots do without her? The White Light is becoming dimmer. Is this why GoG has been sending pigeons? Black Dot Castle promised Dotland that GoG would no longer harass them but she's been sending pigeons AGAIN. GoG has proclaimed that she will be visiting all of the new inhabitants of LibraryLand. Some of them are attempting to hide, but GoG is relentless.
Alan November told us wonderful stories of 21st century technology and well educated happy children. The Black Queen, the Queen of Teaching, Learning, Reading, Listening, Thinking, Air, Darkness, and Technology, assured us today that there will be none of THAT in this duchy.

Navy and Pink have been allowed to come back to us but for a short time only. The Black Queen has turned Navy from a Dot to a DIT and ordered her to BusLand. Pink's fate is still unknown. We will surely miss Navy and her sweet voice. Our allies in LibraryLand will surely miss her expert knowledge of the powerful armorers, Baker and Taylor. Does the Her Blackness think to weaken LibraryLand by diminishing their access to the arms and armor of their profession? Is LibraryLand the ultimate target of her scheming? Or is Queen MaGoG merely a pawn in GoG's plot to turn libraries into elementary reading rooms?

The Black Dot Queen is intercepting all messages from Dotland...and furiously sending pigeons back to DotLand in reply. This is puzzling to our Dots since she ignores messages sent directly to her. If the Dots send their questions to the rest of the Duchy instead of the Queen, will the Queen then give them the information they seek?
Both the Black Dot Queen MaGoG and her lady-in-waiting, GoG, are pledged to the service of the Duke of Black Dot Castle. You might ask why Queen Mag (you know, it might be easier just to call them GaG and GoG) would beseige other loyal subjects of the Duke. Remember the case of the Witches of Loudun. Loudun was one of the last walled cities in France. Cardinal Richelieu had succeeding in destroying most of the remaining city walls in the rest of France but in Loudun he was opposed by the parish priest, Grandier. Grandier was accused of witchcraft, Richelieu's minions came to investigate, and, oops, the walls vanished in the resulting furor. The Dots have long known that GoG works against them in secret, but Queen Mag professes to be an ally. Will the Dots ever learn MaGoG's true motives? What about the Duke? Does he know what Queen Mag is trying to do? Does Queen Mag know what she is trying to do?

DotLand has traditionally supplied the libraries in the Duchy with their little (and sometimes big) necessities. Turquoise sent a message to the libraries telling them which merchants of the outside world could provide for them, now that Dotland is under siege by the Black Dots. But the message was intercepted by the Black Dots! The Queen Black Dot sent a carrier pigeon to DotLand with the proclamation "Henceforth, only positive messages will be sent from DotLand."
"Oh DIBTS! (pronounced dibbits, meaning Do You Believe This S***) exclaimed Purple.
"Well, I'm positive we're out of glue." Turquoise replied matter-of-factly.
Oh, DIBTS, indeed!

We haven't mentioned all of the Dots that make up DotLand yet. There's the sensible Red, the orderly Gold, the exotic Indigo, and the gentle Cornflower. Together our Dots have been a shining White Light emanating from Dotland protecting the Duchy from the black pall that sometimes creeps outward from Black Dot Castle. The Black Dots have attacked again, capturing Pink and Navy, wounding Silver. Will Pink and Navy be able to escape back to DotLand or will the White Light be forever dimmed by the loss of their brilliance?

Someone commented recently that we were going through a grieving process. Since I was then in denial, I thought that was an exaggeration. Now I've moved on to anger. I am so angry. A year ago we were a wonderful department, a smoothly functioning, adaptive, innovative team. Then a few petty administrators came through like vandals looting a museum looking for TV's to sell. In a effort to make miniscule savings in their "own" budgets, they will increase the overall budget a hundredfold...and they don't care! Since we were an intelligent, innovative team, we are all aware of the pressures public education is under. We know about NCLB and the 65% solution and the 75% solution. If the same administrators had had a vision of how the district could deal with these pressures and shared that vision with us, we could have spent this last year building support infrastructure. Even without a vision from the top, if we had been allowed to communicate with the stakeholders, a shared vision WOULD have developed spontaneously because that's the kind of people we work with. Instead we were cut off from stakeholders and diverted by "strategic planning requirements", requirements that seemed to have fulfilled their purpose of keeping us from serious planning for a year. Any attempt on our part to develop real vision, plans or possibilities has been rebuffed, stalled, postponed, or just completely ignored. I am so mad!!!

Today all of the dots in the entire duchy heard a truly inspiring address by Alan November. At least it would have been inspiring if the dots had been able to hear the address. The sound system was so bad that most of the time nobody could even tell someone was talking. However, if they had been able to hear they would have heard him talking about the importance of creativity and global connectedness. They would have heard him asking good questions, like "Who owns the learning?" Our dots know who owns the learning in Dotland and it's not them. Our dots would like to at least be able to rent some learning occasionally but unfortunately that's out of reach as well. Alan November thinks students should own the learning. Our teachers think NCLB owns the learning. Our dots know who owns the learning but we won't speak of that.
He told us "The world is flat" (Thomas Friedman). The Duchy is not flat. It's in fact quite mountainous with steep precipices where unwary dots fall to their deaths, figuratively if not literally.
He told us we could communicate globally with email and Skype. The Black Dots don't even want us to email our friends, the librarians.
Maybe he would have been more inspiring in a duchy where such things are possible.

Chapter One - Why are the dots agitated?
Once upon a time there was a group of hard working, fun-loving dots in a large school district. They were smart and funny and played well with others. They labored, not on the front lines in the classrooms, but in the background, helping the district's school libraries to be rich and inviting places. School libraries use a lot of colored dots, so I'll introduce our dots by their colors. There was Blue, the leader; Purple, the web wizard; Turquoise, the video queen; Navy, the singer; Silver, the itinerant guru; Pink, the scribe; and finally, the learned Sage.
Summer, when schools are empty, Dotland is a busy place with all the dots scurrying around getting everything in place so all the librarians would come back to boxes of new books and videos to delight students in the coming months. One day, in the middle of this pleasant flurry, Blue got a call from a dreaded Black Dot, announcing that Dotland was GONE, destroyed in a flood of Bureaucracy emanating from Black Dot Castle. Since Blue was standing in the middle of Dotland, this was puzzling, but Blue was assured that FEMA would be there the very next day to rescue them... or something. This was before New Orleans, so Blue and her crew were still not unduly alarmed.
As promised, the very next day, FEMA and assorted Black Dots from Black Dot Castle arrived only to discover Blue and her crew busy rescuing themselves. They were armed with facts and figures, job descriptions and cost-benefits analyses, and had erected a sturdy dam of hard, sticky, inconvenient facts to hold out the ocean of Bureaucracy. Foiled, the Black Dots announced a year of "strategic planning, wherein all of Dotland's dams would be severely tested to determine whether or not they could hold up to coming storms of underfunding from the Realm.
Unable to weaken Dotlands dams, the Black Dots settled into a long campaign of harassment and , yes, agitating the Dots. Black Dot agents kept spreading the rumor that Dotland was gone, completely destroyed by FEMA. Blue and the other dots countered by posting pictures of their dams and details of their construction.
So it persisted through the year. The Black Dots armed with RightSizing Swords attacked DotLand repeatedly but always retreated from the sturdy shields of those inconvenient facts.
When summer came and Dotland's librarian friends scattered to the four winds, the Black Dot agents laid seige to Dotland with the dreaded 65% Solution. Our Dots are becoming very tired. The Black Dots are big and powerful. But does the Duke of Black Dot Castle know what his minions are doing? What about the peasants in the outside Realm? Would they be happy knowing that part of their hard earned tithe is going to pay for shipping and handling, when our Dots could bulk order to get free shipping? Our Dots truly believe that their cause is just and that saving the duchy purse 250000 coins a year in labor costs is important. Will they be able to break the seige? Will their Cloaks of Logic withstand the dreaded 65% Solution?
Stay tuned!