Being as knowledge is power, we have been utilizing an internal education program to facilitate the passage of knowledge between colleagues in a casual mentor/apprentice style. Meaning, that if one developer found it necessary to learn new technology in order to best accomplish a project or solution he had undertaken, he puts the word out that he knows something new, and does anyone think they can benefit from the knowledge?
IT is a superdynamic environment, where new technologies arise all of the time. One day it's HTML 5, then C# 5, then the next day two of the three top web content management providers have released the beta version of their next upgrade through an ethereal whispernet, Windows is partnering with Virgin to put laptop computers on Mars, and tomorrow the Twittersphere is going to light up about Web 4.0 smartglass bioware apps. It's like that, which makes it essentially impossible for one person to track all of the emerging tech. A handful of people, however, a dedicated team, a dedicated company, poised hovering over the keyboards to follow the wave wherever it goes, is the kind of machinemind thinking that an IT company needs in order to cut the edge.
That's why we have integrated a self-educating component into our business structure. For example, Boban finds out about JavaScript Knockout on Twitter, buzzes Tekpub for a screencast series to pick up a little insight regarding its practical application and discovers that it is indeed the real thing. It's next-door neighbor friendly with the all of the mainstream browsers that people actually use, and it layers onto already existing web structures without piling up like a plate of spaghetti code.
Boban jetplanes it to the company inbox, say, and Igor picks it up because it implements like a sweet dream with a project he's already on. Boban is Prometheus, and Igor's toolkit keeps growing. The mentor creates another mentor, mentors, and now whoever else needs to access JS Knockout to get the job done can walk up to any number of doors, and POW, we have somebody else primed to spread the word. It's like cell division, IT mitosis, and it works with every new technology that one person is able to pick up on.
The word-of-mouth approach is a great way to get the word around, of course, but in order to cover the aspect of a comprehensive and company wide education, when the new technology proves itself to be worth maintaining in the company's greater library of tools, we organize presentation-style classes so the learning process is expedited, and the machinemind evolves equilaterally. Shortly after Boban and Igor's successful exchange, Boban taught a class about JS Knockout, and everybody that needed the knowledge was educated and brought up to date. We will continue in this method of one-on-one mentoring, and classroom style learning with future technologies. There is a lot to look forward to.
We're calling it an internal education program, but really it's just the most superior method to keep everyone here up to date on as much technology as we can stream into the office, from as far as our imaginations and our computers will take us. And it's not proprietary knowledge. There's no Vega Method. We're spreading the word, and if we can inspire you to share everything you have with as many people as you can reach, then it's a victory for the philosophy of free information.
Do you want to know something? Just reach out. Reach up.
The university is in the clouds.
