One of my daughters, Sarah Ives, writes for the National Geographic web site. She recently sent me an article, “Did Quilts Hold Codes to the Underground Railroad’ that provides evidence of a very smart way to encrypt messages, using the materials at hand, to prevent them from being accessed by the wrong people. In the book, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, published in 1998, Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard suggest that slaves in the US South used quilts to convey messages to help other slaves in their move to freedom. For example, a wrench pattern meant that is was time to gather your tools and get prepared to leave. However, there is a bit of controversy over the existence of this practice since it was never written down and only discovered in interviews. There was no quick reference guide to the code because of fear that it would fall into the wrong hands. Instead, it is claimed that generations passed it down verbally.
She also writes for the National Geographic kids’ web site. One recent article, completely unrelated to knowledge management, covered the annual competition to see who can grow the world's largest pumpkin. The current world record belongs to Steve Daletas of Oregon. His pumpkin weighed 1,385 pounds. She wrote that participants mentioned that to get one this size, you need the right seed and the right soil—and a lot of hard work. One of the contestants is quoted as saying, "You have to have a lot of dedication. It takes a real commitment," he said. "It's like a baby. You look at your baby every day." Sarah has given me pointers on writing for the web which I will share in another posting.
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