Humans and animals do not need complete information to act; they can operate on various clues provided there is a sufficient context. Organizational teams can also use this thin slicing technique in conjunction with short messaging to enhance their performance. Malcolm Gladwell’s introspective book Blink digs deep into the abyss of human cognition to illustrate the human ability to think at a subconscious level. The idea of thin slicing is used where one is introduced to only a few snippets of information which lead to a series of conclusions based on moments of rapid cognition – an ability claimed to be intrinsically dormant in most humans. By bioteams guest author Max Bhanabhai.

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Government should look to Open Source for civic engagement methods not just for its software.

Demos, an influential ThinkTank, have published a 77-page report (PDF) 'Wide Open - Open source methods and their future potential' by Geoff Mulgan and Tom Steinberg with Omar Salem.

Sharing broadband via a wireless network with your next door neighbours or even your whole apartment block is the latest social collaboration phenomenon in distributed computing. It can reduce your costs, increase your speed and enhance your download capacity. But be careful to enable your personal firewall and wireless encryption so that only those with the pin can use it and remember to disable file sharing.

Home-shoring is replacing off-shoring

Matt Keating, writing in Phone home for The Guardian (Saturday October 15), reports that “Virtual call centres” (aka home-shoring) where staff work from home over the web can save employers significant infrastructure and accommodation costs and also keep workers happier.He also notes some of the management challenges in keeping the remote workers connected with their employers.