Jul 14
How Seriously Do We Take our New Intranets?
This is the level of seriousness with which we should take our internal websites/portals/intranets/KM systems. If we did, we’d all have a much better reputation.
Jun 27
Workshop at KM Australia 2011
I’m scheduled to run a workshop at KM Australia on 21 July 2011. In my workshop I’ll be taking participants through the quick steps in designing a KM intervention using our Planning Toolkit. Come?
Jun 27
Knowledge Management in Intranets
Knowledge sharing happens partially with technology, and also successfully without software. For this post, let’s focus on the first: technology. When we look at web-based KM tools, then they are normally hosted in the companies’ intranet. In my experience, these knowledge sharing tools are often add-ons to the classic intranet platform. Recently, many people argue (see also New Edge in Knowledge, chapter 1 ‘Primary Directives’) that knowledge sharing activities should happen in our daily work, in order to overcome usage barriers. Then, knowledge sharing tools that are an add-on might not be the right approach. Therefore, I would like to put some thoughts about corporate intranets together; what are they used for and how can they contribute to knowledge sharing in our daily work.
May 30
The Information Lifecycle
It has been a while now that I talked about my experience of putting incentives for KM initiatives in place. These thoughts are very valid for global activities, though we are starting in our company to look at a second approach: implement knowledge sharing in people’s daily activities without imposing additional work. With the right setup people will be self-motivated to engage in knowledge management.
The base for this approach is to look at the ‘Information Lifecycle’, how is information created from first drafts to published final documents. I would like to suggest four high-level steps for the discussion here: from a person to a team, to a community to the entire “public” (e.g. all employees in a company).
May 24
Odd Things Out
Via Carol Reed and TaxoCop this delightful short (15 min) animated movie based on a children’s book, about a boy who finds “The Lost Thing” – something that just doesn’t fit into the normal (drab, grey, regimented) world. There are other Lost Things lurking in this Oscar winning short, looking forlorn, out of place and apparently invisible to the people walking past them.
Delightful as it is, I got to wondering what sort of message this movie sends about our role as taxonomists. Is the world we taxonomists create quite as bleak as the film suggests? Are we guilty of making odd things invisible and taking the joy and wonder out of oddity by ironing things out too evenly?
Then I remembered: the human capacity for disorder far exceeds our meagre talents. The Lost Thing is an anti-story, and the world of Not Elsewhere Classified is alive and well. And it’s a children’s book. Not to be taken too personally. You can buy it on iTunes. I recommend it.
May 12
We have moved!
Just a bit more work to be done but we have been fully operational in our new office for nearly 3 weeks now. It’s already beginning to feel like home.
Apr 20
We’re moving!
We’re moving office this weekend – just a few buildings up the same street, to a slightly larger space. Of course, moving short distances is good for routines, but in some ways more complicated for the physical move, so wish us luck! Note our new address: 35A Keong Saik Road, 1st Floor, Singapore 089142 – all other contact details remain the same. Drop by and say hello (once we’ve unpacked)!
Mar 29
Knowledge Management is Older than you Think
I have puzzled for some time over the seemingly intractable nature of knowledge management, the confusions it is perpetually susceptible to, and its apparent inability to progress. I have also wondered at its ability to survive with such a disappointing performance.
This month I have a lead article in the Journal of Knowledge Management entitled “The Unacknowledged Parentage of Knowledge Management”, exploring the pre-history of KM, going back to the 1960s (you didn’t know it was that old, did you?). I have tried to show that a lot of the theoretical foundations (not to mention half a century of practical experience) of KM already exist, but are not exploited within the discipline – KM does not practice what it preaches, it does not sustain collective memory of its own discipline, and it does not share insights with adjacent and related disciplines.
If you don’t have access to the JKM, but would like to see a copy of the article, drop me a note in the comments to this post, or drop me an email. Your comments and feedback would be appreciated!
Mar 10
Tea, Anyone?
I love the way the internet occasionally surfaces our Alternate Others.
Apparently I’m now an active member of the Tea Party movement.
Feb 28
Nancy White and Matt Moore on Communities and Networks
Matt Moore has a productive line in global Flipcasting (creating video podcasts using Flip cameras) on the go… to follow the “Taxonomy Fairy Tales” video he did with me a couple of weeks back, here’s a very nice one with Nancy White giving some really practical insights into sponsoring, facilitating and managing communities. Nancy will be in Australia in a few weeks to run some workshops which, having worked with Nancy, I know will be stupendous.
