John Stephen Veitch - The Network Ambassador

Article Summary

John S Veitch
The Network Ambassador

Describing yourself is a basic literacy skill, we all need to learn.
I wasn't a rebellious teenager. I tended to trust my parents and my teachers, and I believed what that told me. I was successfully indoctrinated.
I was held back by family pressure. Nobody in my family had ever been to university. There was no expectation that I should go. I didn't go.
Later, I trained as a teacher, despite my committment, I always found the teaching profession difficult.
In a process of self evaluation and future planning I began to keep a journal of interest. That journal now runs to 49 volumes.
The opportunity came in mid-life to get a university degree by correspondence at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
I began as a business consultant. The next 5 years were to teach me a lot about the limitations of my training, and the wrongness of most of my ideas.
I learnt that it's vital to understand who you are, and what the environment you work in is like. Most of us assume we "know" but few of us do.
My interest in innovation led to the development of the Veech Innovation Model, and to some writing on the subject.
These years introduced me to Professor Reginald Revans of the UK, and his little book on Action Learning.
People can find ways to solve their own problems if they engage in a process of continuous learning.
W Edwards Deming and Joseph M Juran, both stressed the value of collecting good data and the use of statistical methods.
We all need to engage in continuous learning, to gather the best ideas and wisdom you can find, together, and to build it into our daily lives.
In Christchurch in the early 1990's I experimented with the Revan's idea of getting managers to talk to each other. It's too difficult to organise, but it works.
I built huge web site devoted to dancing. NZdances was very popular. The site attracted contributions from over 700 people from around the world.
I was heavily networked into the online dance world. People helped me in lots of ways, always free of charge. That proved for me the value of networking.
Knowledge management is actually a social phenomenon. It's really when people come together to share their knowledge and to learn from each other.
In 2003 I did some basic research interviewing 15 people who used the Internet. Only ONE of those was on the road to Internet literacy.
I've always had high hopes that people might use the Internet to achieve useful things in their lives. Mostly that's failed to happen.
I personally interviewed 60 people in 2007. NONE of them use the Internet in any way that's making a substantial difference in their lives.
I put a lot of effort into making my knowledge of this dismal failure available to the NZ Digital Strategy, "creating a digital future for all New Zealanders".
The NZ Digital strategy is a failure. We're focusing on the wrong things.
Most people fail to understand how online social networks work. The success rate is somewhere between 8% and 2% depending on your viewpoint.
I've spent a lot of time helping people with very basic Internet Knowledge.
How to learn almost ANYTHING
Rule One: join groups of like minded people. Social networks are a great way to start.
Rule Two: Be proactive, talk to people. Allow other people to find and talk to you.
Opportunity knocks only for those who are already ready. I repeat: "already ready"; you need to prepare before the event.

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