Months ago, at a book launch I had a brief conversation with Norbert Klein, an editor of Cambodia’s Mirror. As an affiliated member of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), he’s also a key player in contributing to Information and Communication Technologies in Cambodia, where he resided since 1990. Norbert also assisted in creating the first dial-up Internet connection from Cambodia in the early 1990s; two years later Norbert established the “.kh” country domain. One of his latest major works is his involvement in the standardization of the Khmer script on computers.
Norbert Klein (taken by Joi Ito)
We were talking about a few things, one of which is: recording the work of what we’re doing; and he pointed out this: ‘publish or perish‘. Norbert referred to this topic after a conference he attended in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where he met Merlyna Lim, whom I also met in person before then in Phnom Penh. Assistant Professor of the Consortium of Science, Policy and Outcomes and the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, Merlyna’s research interests are the mutual shaping of technology and society, focusing particularly on social, cultural, and political dimensions of the new media and information and communication technology.
I was reminded to find out more about ‘publish or perish’ after I came across a piece of writing by Ed Boyden, an assistant professor in the MIT Media Lab and MIT Department of Biological Engineering. Ed discussed ways we can better manage our brain resources in this digital age. The article, ‘How to Think,’ outlines 10 useful rules that he sometimes to talk to his students.
I’m not going to copy and paste the text from his site for the sake of ‘publish or perish,’ but I, however, list only the ten points he made:
1. Synthesize new ideas constantly
2. Learn how to learn (rapidly)
3. Work backward from your goal
4. Always have a long-term plan
5. Make contingency maps
6. Collaborate
7. Make your mistakes quickly
8. … write up best-practices protocols
9. Document everything obsessively
10. Keep it simple
Rule number 9 is an interesting one among many others that I’d prefer to think about. Incidentally, I’ve recently just started to read an autobiography, which I’ve just bought, that led me to find the idea of publishing or not even more fascinating. Edgar Allan Poe, an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, had a very considered opinion (extracted from the print autobiography):
”If any ambitious man have a fancy to revolutionize at one effort the universal world of human being thought, human opinion, and human sentiment, the opportunity is his own–the road to immortal renown lies straight, open, and unencumbered before him. All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple–a few plain words–My Heart Laid Bare. But this little book must be true to its title.
Now, it is not singular that, with the rabid thirst for notoriety which distinguishes so many of mankind–so many, too, who care not a fig what is thought of them after death, there should not be found one man having sufficient hardihood to write this little book? To write, I say. There are thousand men who, if the book were once written, would laugh at the notion of being disturbed by its publication during their life, and who could not even conceive why they should object to its being published after their death. But to write it–there is the rub. No man dare write it. No man ever will dare write it. No man could write it, even if he dared. The paper would shrivel and blaze at every touch of the fiery pen!”
I think I read more novels than guides to self-development or personal development (well, I read IT how-to document, too) but this ‘How to Think’ is brief and straight to the point for consideration. Now I remember that I found this Technology Review site through an article titled ‘The Japanese Model‘. The piece of work, written by its Editor in Chief and Publisher, looked into blogs being used in Japan as a business tool. I found it a good read for a couple of reasons. First, it tells the different uses of blog, a tool used to publish commentary or news on a particular subject, in Japan and the rest of the world. I thought this is because of Japanese people are more individualistic than those in other countries. Thus, it seems that how people use a tool relies on their perception and culture. Where we come from, where we live, and who we are can define how we look at the world.