Mar 23
Widgets for Building Conversations and Community
Beth Kanter has published a really excellent 17 minute tutorial on what widgets are, how they enhance interaction and participation in blogs and other sharing platforms, and most important of all, giving screen by screen demonstrations of how to install and configure them. Here’s a quote:
“Think of widgets as bridges. They can extend your content and amplify conversations. They are easy to install… and most of them are free. However, to be effective you must deploy them strategically and match them with your content and audience.”
It comes with a resource sheet with lots of links as well, so this is really one of the most practical KM-related tutorials I’ve seen in a long time.
Beth’s post also happens to be an excellent example of simple, straightforward and very powerful elearning design. It’s informal, direct, and well supported by links and other places to go to follow up. A great example of a craftswoman making her craft visible.
Mar 22
A KM Safety Briefing
I’m writing this mid-air over France, en route to a workshop in Warsaw. I’ve done my preparation, and the somewhat lengthy journey has turned my thoughts to more whimsical matters. Forty-two hours of travelling for an eight hour workshop gives plenty of time for whimsy.
It struck me, during the pre-take-off safety briefing just now, that we don’t give safety briefings for KM projects, and maybe we should. After all, KM projects are notoriously disappointment-prone, and this must pose some risk to the brave knowledge managers who venture out on them. A few things have probably primed me in this thought, not least the recent reminder that KM activists would do well to be bullet-proof, and the rapid turnover we’ve seen of KM staff in some organizations we know.
So what would such a safety briefing look like? Maybe something like this:
Mar 15
Managerial Delusions and Complex Decision-Making
Just caught up on my McKinsey reading and came across this interesting read on the halo effect in organizations and other managerial delusions. Described as the tendency to make inferences based on a general impressions, the halo effect with its inherent flaws including that of mistaking attributions for contributions, could lead to 2 specific delusions for managers - absolute performance and lasting success.
Mar 12
My Taxonomy Book Finally Published
Friday was a great day… my new book finally arrived in two solid boxes from the UK. Ok, it’s a little self-indulgent to read your own book, but if you’ve gone through so much labour, it’s hard to resist! You too could pose for a picture like this… just visit Amazon.com or amazon.co.uk!
Mar 12
Super KM Champion
This delightful creature was constructed by a bunch of KM activists in a client organisation, and then rendered by our regular artist Joseph Tey. Note the bulletproof skin! Being a KM champion is obviously not an easy task – we’ve drawn up a set of Guidelines on how to spot potential activists, appoint them, and support them, but if you like, just print out this picture and go looking!
Mar 01
Language and Assumptions
It suddenly seemed odd to me that we are still using terms today for which there is no longer much relevance. I was asked by my son recently what “cc” means in an email. Answering what “cc” implies was easy enough but after I explained that it stands for “carbon copy”, I was caught in web of questions which eventually led me having to describe how a typewriter works.
Mar 01
Media Tag
I’ve been tagged again, this time by Dave Snowden, to expose my media consumption diet. So here goes, in order of most intensively used down…
Feb 28
Participatory Conferences: Getting in on the ACT
After last year’s debates on “death by powerpoint” conferences, participation and professional development in conferences are the theme of the month, it seems. David Gurteen blogged on this recently, and Ark group’s KM Australia has a much more interactive format this year. Now the ACTKM Conference is issuing a call for papers/proposals, with a really nice, integrated format spanning KM research to practical sessions on tools and techniques, and case studies and presentations. I plan to be there, do you?
Feb 26
A Project Closeout We Can’t Get Enough Of
We had just recently completed a KM pilot for a client to create an information neighbourhood, albeit on paper first, for one of their strategic business areas. Although the project was completed in early January this year, it took the team several weeks to schedule the project closeout and for good reason too…
Feb 25
Cynicism and the Propaganda of KM
I just don’t get it. Bloggers whose views I otherwise respect have been waxing lyrical about a slew of IBM and Lotus videos on KM released onto YouTube. One in particular, made by Lotus in 2000 (back when KM was still chic) particularly gets my goat. It’s a saccharin sequence of beautiful KM words accompanied by world music and beautiful people fading in and out to each other, or playing with Matrix like holographic computer screens. Pleeeease… get real… it’s exactly this nirvana-like image of KM that got people disillusioned in the first place. So the parody below is entirely deserved in my view – it’s the Lotus video with a slightly more realistic voiceover…
