Lego

Well Femke got some Lego (real stuff not Duplo) for her birthday, and we supplemented it with a few of their Creator and Designer kits. And now we are having fun building fish, houses, cars and animals. Great fun. I'm really impressed by Lego, such a simple yet such a complex toy, the designs of the houses for instance have all the correct RSJs, vents, working windows, etc etc. all very impressive. I once attended an Imperial College ball which was hosted by the Science Museum and in there was a Lego exhibition par excellence (walking life size Lego robots - a fully turning fully functional Lego internal combustion engine. I was blown away of the design work.

Now Lego have , of course, an on line shop, and perusing it I came across Lego robotics - yes hook it up to a PC , and build a sensing walking bot! With it's programming language focused at 13yr olds. Marvellous - can't wait till the kids get a little older so I can order a robot kit (mind you at 300 euros it's a bit pricey but hey a programmable robot!)

There is even a Cop supporting the kids in coding these little bots, and perusing around it I'm amazed at how much effort some people go to to help others (some guy has written an 150 page coding handbook for the kids to improve their structured programming). Gee we never get that amount of effort applied in our work CoPs.

That difference is very apparent with CoPs on the internet and the anonymity of the INTERNET, us intra netters can never hide behind such smoke screens or rely on the huge enthusiasm of such kind hearted people (or as I said before maybe they are Johny No Mates?)

It makes many comparisons between CoPs in business (on Intranets) and Internet communities very limited. Pity many of the consultants and know alls in this field have not spotted this difference.

Talking about no -alls (better spelling I feel) is anyone else getting fed up with the dominance of one such  fellow on the Knowledge Board discussions?