Knowledge Management as an ecosystem
I had a speaking engagement today for the Australian Geoscience Information Association (AGIA).
It was a breakfast session at a roof top cafe in Perth city…very pleasant and informal setting.
There were over 30 information professionals, and many were keen to know what enterprise 2.0 is all about, they had lots of questions. Most questions were about management buy-in, adoption, etc…these people want to take it on, but my presentation was an overview, so we didn’t have time to go over details of deploying enterprise 2.0. I did mention that management would like to hear case studies (success stories), and that open source virtually lets you do it for no cost.
I started my presentation explaining how I came to be there presenting:
- I participate (publish my thoughts/ideas/experiences/reviews/news, etc…)
- a person chooses to subscribe to me (I’m considered an expert they like to have in their social filter)
- I have never met the person I was invited by, but we interact on the web
- I was able to be there, because I’m visible (I’m on the map)
I mentioned how siloed systems and search aren’t really helping us, and that we use email to network, yet email is not a very good discovery tool, and again too siloed. So the idea is to use the free-form structure and ease of email and apply that concept to new social tools that allow for a more open way to exchange know-how, in the context of a system (eg. ask a question about HR in HR forums, post news about HR in the HR blog)…actually I have a post called Instead of sending an email….
I talked about pressing issues facing the enterprise like: Baby boomer retirement, understanding the millenial generation, IT Rogues, etc…and that the social tools have come at the right time to enable the flow of know-how. Another reason was that knowledge flow and tapping into social capital is the new competitive advantage.
Some of the key factors:
Wisdom of Crowds
The world is flat
Participation Culture
Knowledge as a flow
Create conditions and increase interactions for knowledge creation and exchange
Connect and Context vs Content and Collect
Distributed vs Command and Control
A “way to work” rather than a task
- not trying to create a knowledge sharing culture, it just happens
Sense-making
It’s not in the nodes, it’s in the networks
Strength of weak ties
Emergence
Autonomy
Social computing is the new KM
- it’s not a request from management, it’s a worker initiative, it’s the new breed of workers adopting this new collaborative and networked way of working, as it’s how they get things done
I’ve uploaded my presentation to Slideshare, this way the people at the presentation can view, download, embed, and discuss the presentation…I told them the discussion doesn’t end here, questions and comments can be left in context of the presentation at Slideshare.
Also check out these other great km 2.0 type slidedecks.
Shift Happens: how to share knowledge in a network centric world
IBM KM Blueprint Workshop: KM Goes Social
The Evolution Of Knowledge Management Km 1.0 Vs. Km 2.0
The Enterprise Knowledge Market V1.2
Knowledge Management as an ecosystem
Here are some of my blog posts that I went through in assembling this presentation…I’m glad I blog about this stuff, in a way I have distilled all the stuff in my head, my bookmarks and reading list (social filter).
![email.png](http://services.nexodyne.com/email/icon/GxbiQvgbwBgCnw%3D%3D/oIp%2BJMQ%3D/R01haWw%3D/0/image.png"){kind=icon}
“What do we mean by “social learning”? Perhaps the simplest way to explain this concept is to note that social learning is based on the premise that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning.”
“There is a second, perhaps even more significant, aspect of social learning. Mastering a field of knowledge involves not only “learning about” the subject matter but also “learning to be” a full participant in the field.”
“In a traditional Cartesian educational system, students may spend years learning about a subject; only after amassing sufficient (explicit) knowledge are they expected to start acquiring the (tacit) knowledge or practice of how to be an active practitioner/professional in a field. But viewing learning as the process of joining a community of practice reverses this pattern and allows new students to engage in “learning to be” even as they are mastering the content of a field. This encourages the practice of what John Dewey called “productive inquiry”—that is, the process of seeking the knowledge when it is needed in order to carry out a particular situated task.”
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823?time=1206676385
Comment by Johnt — April 12, 2008 @ 7:14 am
“The research showed that in an organization, people were five times more likely to go to people than to databases to get answers to their questions. So knowledge workers’ productivity is strongly related to their social networks, in terms of who they know who can help them, and whether there is sufficient trust and reciprocal value in the relationship that they get a response.
It is far more efficient and effective for people to be able to identify the most likely people to help them rather than barraging everyone with the one query and hoping that someone will respond. The early knowledge management systems were largely based on broadcast systems within organizations to be get help on particularly issues. In many cases companies used broadcast emails to get help.”
http://futureexploration.net/e2ef/blog/2008/04/enterprise_twitter_or_how_to_t.html
Comment by Johnt — April 12, 2008 @ 7:16 am
“how to create a knowledge sharing culture?,” is not the right question. It’s more important to ask and understand “what you can do to encourage and facilitate connections?”, supplemented with tools, capabilities and socially-generated context, to help the appropriate information and knowledge be available when and where it is most needed and best used. This means that a much-needed role and focus is as a catalyst and facilitator of connections, helping others see why it is now this way and how things work”
http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/04/11/retrospective-on-km-and-the-impact-of-web-20/
Comment by Johnt — April 12, 2008 @ 7:17 am
“the vast majority of ‘real’ working practices don’t actually follow the process. The process becomes more of a guideline than a set of rules - exceptions to the process are the norm. Once you have an exception (payment terms are 30 days, but they’re a really important client so we won’t send them a nasty letter until 60 days) - the ROI breaks down as humans have to get involved again. Also, because the ROI cost case relies on people following the process barriers are often put in the way of breaking it, making it even more costly to “do the right thing”, be innovative, and follow an exception.”
http://jonmell.co.uk/2008/04/web-20-to-manage-business-process.html
Comment by Johnt — April 12, 2008 @ 7:32 am