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The author in me

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A Rostrum speech I prepared back in 2003 for the Arch Williams.  It didn’t win.

Have you settled down with a good book lately?  I mean, really settled down?  Settled down so that hours pass, your shoulder hurts and your neck is so stiff and sore.  When you promise your significant other that you will read “just one more chapter” before turning the light off and going to sleep – and then checked to be sure that the next chapter is not just a dozen or so pages long, because that would mean you’ve cheated yourself.
I have been there, done that, so many times.  When you have settled down with a good book, the world could explode into big clumpy bits of earth and rock, and you wouldn’t notice.  You would not care a fig.  The book, the author’s ideas and concepts, are all swirled up inside your head, stirring and mixing and educating you, giving you thoughts you couldn’t have come up with on your own.

I have spent a great deal of my life reading books.  All those authors are inside my head, forming one composite author whose influence on me has shaped me for the better.

In today’s fast-paced world of SMS, email, internet pages, and 10-second grabs on television, however, nobody reads properly any more!  People are so busy texting and emailing and surfing they just don’t read a properly constructed book, a book that takes you on a journey and introduces new concepts and ideas.

I believe that you will open up your mind, be better equipped to think, and be better for it, if only you will read!  Tonight, let me show you, through my own experience, why more people need to let an author get inside their head.  And hopefully you will be persuaded enough to let another author inside your head, and pick up a challenging book and read it.

Thinking back through my formative years, the first book that really grabbed my attention, believe it or not, was the Australian nostalgic classic, Cole’s Funny Picture Book.  I was probably about seven or eight.  Lots of pictures, lots of big words – I was hooked.  Today at 33 I can still quote sections from that book – and I haven’t seen it in twenty years.  “Eat live happy food, not dead, dreary food” was one message to make me eat broccoli; in another cartoon a newspaper reported sombrely that “in news just to hand, the world has blown up and everything in it has been killed – more information as it comes to hand”.  Professor Cole is an author right inside my head indeed.  I must have read that book cover to cover a hundred times. 
Later, as a rugged and wild youth of ten, my doting grandparents had me hooked on that classic of boys’ own adventures, “Biggles” – yes, I know, Biggles and his good chum Algy.  This was of course set in a time when there was nothing wrong with having a very good male friend with whom you knocked about for Queen and Country.  Now, Biggles fairly raced around the world in rather fanciful titles such as “Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor”, “Biggles of the Special Air Police”, “Biggles Sweeps the Desert”.  Biggles – he who was always forthright, smart, and cunning, and always won in the end without ever breaking that oh-so-English morality.  I once had an ambition to own all the books in the Biggles series, and was dismayed when I learnt that there were well in excess of a hundred of these books.  But Biggles certainly stimulated my reading, and although it’s quite dated now (fictional Biggles is 102 this year), the author, Captain W E Johns, did manage to teach me various facts about contemporary history, geography, and there was always a strong moral theme to the books.  And besides, Biggles nearly got a girlfriend in one book!

When I was seventeen, it was all Isaac Asimov – science fiction’s Hercules.  Take scientific theories, flesh them out with a bit of boys’ own action adventure (hmmm, a common theme with the books I read), and science looks pretty darn interesting.  “I, Robot”, “Foundation ” – Daneel R Olivaw was Asimov’s favourite character, and fans know that the R stands for Robot.  Asimov can take you floating over the pebbles of Saturn, warping across sub-space, to the depths of Jupiter’s gas clouds and frozen surface, or into the mind of an alien race.  Asimov could ask “The Last Question”, and force your mind to swim across aeons of time and space to contemplate what is indeed the only question of all.  Asimov – stimulated an interest in science for me that continues to this day. 

But then I was off to University, and university students don’t have time for such frivolity; I was bitterly disappointed when I discovered that in all of the University of Queensland’s fifteen libraries, the closest book to fiction was “Business Ethics” – it was the late eighties after all.  But here too, the authors I read have stimulated me, and provided me again with concepts and thoughts I could not have had.  Admittedly, I could do without “Cost Accounting”, but “Transaction Cost Economics” by Oliver E Williamson – now, when you read that, when you truly understand how economics drives the world you live in, you have pushed your mind across the barriers of the petty and small – something clicks inside your head and you are left awestruck by a single glimpse into the author’s mind.  Now, I could try to explain this theory, but you will have to pick up that book and follow the journey that the author set out to demonstrate his ideas and concepts – he does it far better than I.  Let that author into you.
Now, now it’s not all beer and skittles – some books I have read and not agreed with them at all.  But I have read them, considered their arguments, and thought of rational arguments against the author’s point of view.  And such mental exercise is good for the brain, good for the intellect, and good for you. 

Now, as you can probably tell by now, I’m enthusiastic about the books that authors write.  All books (with perhaps the exception of “Cost Accounting”) stimulate the mind and take you on a journey.  Captain W E Johns and Oliver Williamson could not be more different.  You won’t be transported to another world if you read a text message or email.  When you click on a link in a web page, you aren’t following a journey constructed by an author.  No.  As I have shown tonight by laying bare my reading history – Biggles and all – there are many authors inside my head, authors that form a composite whole.  By reading, I have opened up my mind, I am better equipped to think, and I am better for it.  I have read books from beginning to end, in a sitting or over weeks, as laid out by the author. 

So please, accept my challenge.  Build on that author in you, and stretch your mind, go on that journey.  Pick up a book, read it cover to cover.  Spend the precious time thinking through the author’s thoughts.  Let their ideas and concepts swirl and mix inside your head.  Float amongst the space dust, or dissect the economy as a contractual nexus.  You will then come to appreciate the author that is in you, just as I appreciate all the authors that are the author in me.

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What are the AIFRS changes?

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Just a note I’ve prepared based upon my PhD project.  You’ll either get it or you won’t.

AIFRS Changes

At the core, AIFRS is made up of two factors:  Auditing Standard changes (ASA’s) and Australian Accounting Standard changes (AASB’s).

Therefore, there are two components impacting upon IT audit methodology:

  • More information to be recorded by the business on the basis of changes to the Australian Accounting Standards, being the Share Register (AASB101 and AASB103), Asset Register (AAS25, AASB3, AASB5, AASB6, AASB102, AASB116, AASB117, AASB119, AASB127, AASB130, AASB131, AASB132, AASB136, AASB137, AASB138, AASB140, AASB141, AASB1023, AASB1038, AASB1049, AASB1050, AASB1051, and AASB1052), and Liabilities Register (AAS 25, AASB2, AASB3, AASB4, AASB 119, AASB130, AASB131, AASB132, AASB137, AASB1004, AASB1050, and AASB1052).  These AASB’s are not definitive.
  • Modifications in the Audit Standards that affect the processes that the auditor should use in considering all of the financial information relating to the formulation of its opinion on the financial statements.

Audit Methodology

  • The project makes direct reference to the need to identify IT Audit methodologies.  When discussed with practitioners, they did not distinguish between audit methodologies and IT audit methodologies. 
  • Accordingly Lynne Gehrke has adopted the Cushing & Loebbecke (1986) approach to the audit methodology.  Although ISACA through its CISA program has an audit methodology that it outlines, there is not really such a thing (so it seems) as a seprate IT audit methodology.  Accordingly, the implications need to be examined upon the audit methodology as a whole.

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Season’s greetings from Micheal Axelsen & applied insight pty ltd

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Click here for a full screen version of the eCard.

Just for you, I’ve created my very own Australian-themed Christmas card this year, complete with the Kingswood I had in 1992.  We’d gone on a trip to Northern New South Wales, mis-read a Refidex, and what can I say – apparently Kingswoods aren’t four-wheel drives, but I do like the photo.

applied insight pty ltd specialises in working with clients to deliver significant improvements in the governance, management and development of their business information and data.

applied insight pty ltd’s consulting services are all about using business information better –building good and useful databases, using social networking and online sharing tools for business results, and helping users create and retrieve documents and information more powerfully.

applied insight pty ltd increases the maturity of the client’s enterprise governance of information.

The third of three types of ambiguity: imaginary ambiguity

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Imaginary ambiguity occurs when a word with a fixed meaning seems to have a different one.  Imaginary ambiguity derives from the optional interpretation that the recipient of the communication places on the information received.  Two distinct types of ambiguity can be categorised as imaginary ambiguity:  emphatic and suggestive. 

Emphatic Ambiguity

The question of ambiguity deriving from accent, or emphasis in speaking, is an ancient one (Hamblin 1970).  When a phrasing is rendered in the written form, the verbal emphasis may only be crudely indicated.  Significant meaning and context is lost.  Rescher (1964) provides the following example of emphatic ambiguity: 

The intended meaning of the democratic credo "Men were created equal" can be altered by stressing the word "created" (implying "that’s how men started out, but they are no longer so"). 

The verbal emphasis creates an inference of meaning that is a legitimate interpretation of the phrasing.  That is, changes in intonation can yield different interpretations. 
In the case of an information request, emphatic ambiguity occurs in the example information request of "A report of our good clients".  Ambiguity can derive from placing different emphases on the words.  Depending on the context or on emphasis used, "good clients" could be legitimately interpreted to be clients that pay on time or clients that have the highest dollar-value sales.  Indeed, with an ironic emphasis on the word "good", this request could be interpreted as a list of our worst clients – those that do not pay.  The information necessary to resolve the ambiguity is often difficult to convey using only printed media. 

Suggestive Ambiguity

Despite the apparent clarity of the sentence in question, suggestive ambiguity creates diverse implications and innuendos that can produce different implications (Walton 1996).  Fischer (1970) provides an example: 

The First Mate of a ship docked in China returned drunk from shore leave, and was unable to write up the ship’s log.  The displeased Captain completed the log, adding, "The Mate was drunk all day".  The next day, the now-sober Mate challenged the Captain over the entry, as it would reflect poorly on him.  The Captain responded that the comment was true, and must stand.  Whereupon the mate added to that day’s log, "The Captain was sober all day".  In reply to the Captain’s challenge, the mate responded "the comment is true, and must stand" (derived from Trow 1905, pp 14-15). 

The phrase "The Captain was sober all day" contains suggestive ambiguity.  As a further example, the statement, "The President is now an honest man", is perfectly clear, and yet considerable innuendo exists.  The fact that the President’s current honesty is worthy of comment implies that the President was previously dishonest.  

Both phrases are perfectly clear, and, indeed, true.  However, considerable innuendo exists.  The fact that the Captain’s sobriety, or the President’s honesty, is singled out for special comment implies that such a state of affairs is unusual (Walton 1996).  The statements are suggestively ambiguous. 

In the case of an information request, an example of this ambiguity is, "A report of the clients of this accounting practice that have lodged taxation returns in the past five years in accordance with the requirements of the Australian Taxation Office".  The request for information is quite clear.  By definition, however, all taxation returns should be lodged in accordance with the Australian Taxation Office’s requirements.  The extra phrase introduces suggestive ambiguity into the information request by suggesting that the report will not consist of all taxation clients, because some clients may not have complied with the Tax Office’s requirements. 

Image from Flickr User only alice.  Some Rights Reserved.

But maybe I’m a knowledge labourer after all

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For some time I’ve been one of those accounting/ICT people who delves into the world of knowledge management every now and then.  This is an area of practice where buzz words abound – communities of practice, centres of excellence, and the venerable ‘knowledge worker’ to name a few.

In the past week I’ve had cause to think of these terms, particularly ‘knowledge worker’.  It sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it?  After all, you work with knowledge to create all sorts of good things of value for the business.  However recently I’ve been swotting up on the ‘theory of technology dominance’ and a presentation by Steve Sutton in 2006 implied another term for when you work with ephemeral ‘knowledge-based’ stuff but with little latitude for exercising professional judgment due to the constraints of technology:  ‘knowledge labourer’.

And then there was the video recently relating to the ‘mother of all demos’ where Doug Engelbart referred to ‘intellectual workers’ in 1968.  Clearly that term didn’t much catch on – possibly there are elitist overtones.

It seems that we have as a result three terms here that apply – I’ve tried to put my twist into the definition:

  • knowledge labourer:  works to rule creating and storing information and data within the rules set by an information system, and as a result getting little opportunity to develop or exercise professional judgment.  Such people can be recognised by a bureaucratic insistence upon rules and an oft-stated desire to unplug the computer.
  • knowledge worker:  has more freedom to create ‘knowledge’ such as documents, strategies, and developed information, but in response to a business need and with a commercial imperative.  These people spend a great deal of time trying to explain the value they provide to the business, and generally look nervous in recessions.
  • intellectual worker:  tends to be working on several high-brow things at once, mainly because it interests them rather than out of any commercial necessity.  These people use their intellectual smarts to advance the body of knowledge rather than their bank balance.  Such people can usually be recognised as frustrated PhD students who used to have higher-paying jobs as knowledge labourers or workers before becoming ‘bored’.

By my definition I’m at risk of being an ‘intellectual worker’.  Although @sjjoyner probably put it best when describing a ‘knowledge labourer’: "@maxelsen Here I was thinking you were being witty. Now it sounds serious and a deeply awful occupational class."

I wonder how many people are more knowledge labourers than knowledge workers…