I attended the first official meeting of the new Knowledge Management Community of Practice board meeting today - last meeting was very brief and informal, and dealt with introductions, appointment of members, arrangements to be addressed in terms of signing authority for the bank accounts, etc. Members of the KMC can expect to be hearing from me in my new capacity of Secretary.

Knowledge is one of those things we take for granted. It's far easier to recognize its absence than to define what it is, or to capture or record it. All of this means (to quote Joni Mitchell), that we don't known what we got till it's gone.

Keeping timesheets up to date is one of the least favorite activities for most developers I know. Most of them regard it as a pointless activity, done only under duress, satisfied by doing the minimum at the last possible moment. "The stuff I have to fill in just duplicates information in the issue tracker, e-mail, source code control system. No one reads this stuff, anyway." At the same time, many of these developers are very meticulous when it comes to change logs, bug reports, and blogging about issues that matter to them.

Joel Spolsky has become something of a legend among the current generation of software developers. His common-sense, tell-it-like-it-is, experience-rich, narrative teachings have helped tens of thousands of followers to better software and better software organizations, since well before the great dot-bust.

The point of this article is to enjoin software developers everywhere:

Write immortal code

This seemingly simple goal unpacks to explain every guideline and rule ever invented to legislate better software. At the same time, it is very easy to apply: just ask yourself, "What can I do to help this chunk of code I'm writing to outlive me?"

As Canadians lurch towards a January Federal election, the various political parties seem to be grasping at straws to distinguish themselves from each other.

Strangely, not one has given a clear message about one of the most critical issues facing Canada in the next ten years - building and maintaining a sustainable, competitive, technological economy.