KM Maturity Models

I am on the hunt for an open source KM Maturity Model. I am looking to do some benchmarking with colleagues and we are wanting to use a common model.

Here are a number of models and assessments I have come across so far:

• APQC KM Maturity Model: More on implementation maturity (roadmap) than capability maturity.
• David Skyrme KM Assessment: 10 areas of assessment
• KMMM: From Siemens AG. 5 levels of maturity, eight areas of assessment (50,000 Euro?! There goes my KM budget.... for the next 5 years!!!)
• KM Self Assessment (Learning to Fly; Collison & Parcell) 5 levels, 5 areas.
• KMmm by TKCI: 6 levels, 4 areas
• 5iKM3 KM Maturity Model by TCS: 5 levels, 3 areas.
• MAKE Awards: 8 areas
• European KM Forum KM Assessment Model and Tool: 8 areas

What have you used/found and how useful was it?

I am keeping notes here. Feel free to add.

Thanks

Cory

Gliffy

I was doing a comparison of a few different open source content management tools when I came across this little gem as a plugin for Confluence.

It's called Gliffy and is an online diagram drawing tool. Free version allows you to share 5 drawings with other users.

The beauty was having it in the wiki environment and it following the wiki way of being able to edit content on the fly. No longer is this just the realm of text. Now we can be modifying diagrams as well.

Cory

2008 Australian KM Salary Survey

After exhausting avenues for trying to discover comparative salary levels for KM staff (and myself) I have decided to run my own KM Salary Survey and see what happens.

If you are a KM practitioner in Australia then please particiate in the Survey.

Depending on outcomes, we'll see if we do it again or with a wider scope.

Let me know of any feedback or questions.

Thanks

Cory

KM OZ Conference

My 1st 6 months - KM Program

Here is a copy of the slides I presented at the KM Australia Conference yesterday.

I wanted to do the presentation using the mind mapping software (iMindMap) but had issues with bringing up sub-maps in the Presentation View.

Conference was good. Caught up with some KM buddies and made some new ones along the way.

After talknig with a few Engineering related KM people will be looking to set up a group to collaborate on industry specific challenges. We'll see how it goes.

If anyone saw the presentation and has any feedback I'd be glad to hear it. Always looking for opportunities to improve.

My 1st 6 months - KM Program

view presentation (tags: knowledge management)

Thanks

Cory

What's on the menu?

I have just had a stimulating couple of days doing some knowledge based process design work with a team in Perth.


At the debrief session in a cafe this morning, one of the team members noticed the following message on the menu.



It reads:

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works.
You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it.
Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.

The quote is credited to Leonardo da Vinci (but I have my suspicions).

Nice work.

Cory

Accepting things at face value

After some discussion with a colleague recently where some teachers are now not accepting references from improperly referenced sources (Wikipedia included), I came across the following quote and found it interesting.

Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as
unalterable givens.

Albert Einstein 1879-1955

Enjoy.

Cory

Its all in the cards

Í saw something interesting appear on the Green Chameleon blog the other day and quickly followed up by buying the pack of cards that it mentioned.

Instead of trying to write the manual on knowledge management, it's seems Patrick and his cohorts have gathered together many of the pieces of the KM puzzle and allow you to put them together in a way that makes sense to you in your situation.

The pack is split into three major types of cards that deal with Approaches, Methods and Tools with the Methods cards broken down further into five sub-groups of Interview, Group, Process, Packaging and Events (index sheet). Trust Patrick to come up with a semi-taxonomy for KM items.

The cards contain brief information on the item but also show relationships to other cards in the pack.

I am very excited and have already ordered a second pack to pass onto a KM colleague. I see these not only as a learning tool to get people to understand KM better but a good way to cluster pieces around a challenge to find the right mix for one or more solutions.

Make sure you get yours quick smart.

Cory

Time on a plane

I do a bit more travelling these days and on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney the other night the 'entertainment' (probably a repeated episode of Myth Busters/Two and a half men and the news) was busted.

This resulted in a large amount of noise being generated in the cabin from conversation. People talking to strangers. Interesting discussion between a 40 odd gentlemen and an early twenties lady behind me. Two colleagues talking work gossip in front. Rabi across the aisle and me on my own (I need the leg room). It did allow me to catch up on some reading over the din.

Maybe we need to turn off the 'entertainment' to allow some real conversations to take place in our organisations.

Cory

Collaborating outside the firewall

I had been asked recently to share my knowledge of some of the collaboration/sharing tools that are out there (beyond the firewall), available for little or no cost and differ from the 'classic' social computing apps (wikis & blogs).

So here are a few I have been stashing away in my favourites when I come across them.

• Aps
  Google Aps - www.google.com/a
• Mind Mapping
  Mind42 (mind for two) - http://www.mind42.com/
  Mind Meister - http://www.mindmeister.com/
• Diagrams/Visualisation
  Sketchcast - http://www.sketchcast.com/
  Many Eyes - services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home
  Swivel - http://www.swivel.com/
• Groups/Discussion
  Google Groups - groups.google.com/
  Yahoo Groups - groups.yahoo.com/
  Grouply - www.grouply.com/
  Tangler - http://www.tangler.com/
• Sharing Documents
  Google Docs - docs.google.com
  Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/
• Sharing Images
  flickr - http://www.flickr.com/
• Sharing Books
  Library Thing - http://www.librarything.com/
• Sharing Links
  del.icio.us - del.icio.us
  digg - digg.com
• Networks
  LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/
  Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/
  Fidg't - http://www.fidgt.com/
  Ning - http://www.ning.com/
  Xing - http://www.xing.com/
• Wiki
  Google Sites (Aps) - sites.google.com
  wik.is - http://www.wik.is/
  Wikispaces - http://www.wikispaces.com/
  Wikimatrix - http://www.wikimatrix.com/
  
• Blog
  Blogger - http://www.blogger.com/
  Wordpress - http://www.wordpress.com/
  Live Journal - http://www.livejournal.com/

I have come across a number of these tools by monitoring a few blogs/feeds, groups and email newsletters including:

• XML Daily Newslink - xml.coverpages.org/newsletter.html
• actKM Forum - http://www.actkm.org/
• Online Facilitation Group - tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/onlinefacilitation
• ComPrac Group - groups.yahoo.com/group/com-prac

Thanks

Cory

Free Resource

Always happy to come across a free resource. Yes the quality varies but this one seems to have some value.

Quantum²

Quantum2 is the Thomson Scientific leadership development program for information professionals. It provides the resources to help you transform your organization...the power to lead change.

Thanks to Denise Cadman for the introduction.

Cory

Which knowledge to use?

I have had a picture in the front of my notebook for a while now and finally had the opportunity to turn it into something a bit more presentable.

Original Sketch

Slides

It talks to a concept along the lines that people make subconscious decisions about what sources of knowledge and information they will use to find answers.

This ranges from a person's own tacit and explicit sources, personal networks, local resources (team mates, team folders, colleagues) to enterprise wide sources and beyond the walls of the organisation.

It mainly talks about some of the factors that effect which sources people decide to use. These can be based on trust, ease of access, ease of use, reputation and previous experiences.

No empirical evidence to back this up. Just a concept I thought about a while back that makes sense for me. What do you think?

Thanks

Cory

I knew it...

Bobbing in the torrent of feeds I found this little beauty from the New York Times.

Writers blog till they drop

By MATT RICHTEL
Published: April 6, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

I now feel vindicated in only doing the occasional post when I have the
time. It's purely for health reasons.

Cory

Speaking of Google...

You know how you have those friends that send youstuff that gets passed around on the tide of email? And most of the time it is either chain emails, kittens doing stupid things or depp and meaningful quotes?

I have a couple of those and occasionally they come across something that surprises you.

I received such an email today and it was a presentation containing some photos of the Google Zurick offices. I love the ski lift meeting rooms. I was amazed and immediately started thinking about what we could be doing in our space to provide fun environments where people are happy, productive, collaborating and sharing what they know.

What can you do in your space? Have you seen environments that you think would be so cool to work in? I want more. Send them to me (cool workspaces that is, not the stupid cats).

Thanks

Cory

It has finally arrived - Google Sites

A while back I started a little site on Google Apps (www.auskm.com) combined with a group on Google Groups. This is a private group of people who are involved with the coordination of a variety of groups related to Knowledge Management in Australia.

Whilst having a look at Google Apps today I noticed that they have finally added the long awaited Google Sites functionality. This is based on JotSpot that Google bought over 18 months ago and had since been integrated below the radar.

This probably doesn't mean much to people on the surface but what it means in the market is that Google is now offering a wiki solution. Imagine for a minute what that means?

Thanks

Cory

Defining KM

Ray Sims has recently done some work on collecting 43 definitions for knowledge management.

This has been a recurring theme on the actKM list that gets debated every now and again.

It is interesting when you plug them all into the Many Eyes toolset from IBM and see what the tag cloud looks like. Also try the two word view.


Thanks

Cory

Using patterns

I reflect on an enjoyable day where I have been refreshing my knowledge about First Aid.

It has been near on 20 years since I undertook my last First Aid course and I still remember going along with my mother and a number of her work mates to several weeks of night classes at the Emerlad Ambulance Station.

I can say the recall on a few things was there and some were even displayed without concious effort (putting a person into a recovery position).

Only a few things have changed and in a more simplified matter. It was a contrast to have an instructor which took an outcome approach. Where as in the past training had been quite pedantic on how to bandage and where to tie a sling, this approach was more about 'fit for purpose'.

The one thing that did ring with me though was his marking of the end of day quiz. The instructor would have spent no more than half a second in browsing the results of the 10 question multichoice quiz to ascertain a persons score. For those of us who passed (> 8/10) this was supported but for those who did not do so well, they questioned how the instructor was able to arrive at the mark with only a cursory glance.

His response was along the lines of "I have marked thousands of these tests and know the pattern of the answers." He was comparing the pattern of valid answers with what appeared on paper as opposed to item by item comparison and validation.

I found this quite refreshing and look forward to the second and final day of my First Aid refresher.

Thanks

Cory

Two sides of the same coin

I had a fantastic conversation today with the Manager of our strategy area. This is the first opportunity we have had to talk face to face since I started two and a half months ago and was thoroughly enjoyable.

Our conversation ended up highlighting two sides to the same coin in relation to the role of a Knowledge Manager.

On one side of the coin we talked about the "influence gig", the evangelist. The role of the manager to work with parts of the business on developing their understanding of knowledge management and the benefits it can provide as well as supporting the development their strategic plans. This is an enterprise wide activity that not only involves the areas of the business that are delivering to customers but also the corporate service aspects of the business (HR, IT, Finance etc..).

On the other side there is the "service provider". Supporting the business by providing the services, knowledge and tools they need to execute their strategies and deliver quality outcomes.

At this point in time I am a team of one and not necessarily able to excel in either of these areas whilst Í am constantly spinning the coin. It is an ability to be able to switch between strategic and operational roles but it is not necessarily a sustainable endeavour.

So in developing our KM strategy I need to look at this balance. How can I provide in the role of advisor and supplier? What roles and resources will we need? It will be through some great conversations, like the one today, that I hope to collaborate with my stakeholders and consumers on a suitable solution.

Thanks

Cory

Done and dusted

It has been a great couple of days at the conference where I have met some new KM friends.

Thanks to all those who attended and participated in the discussions.

It has been thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to catching up in the future.

Thanks

Cory

In Melbourne

I find myself in Melbourne for most of next week presenting and attending a conference on Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Retention in the Modern Workplace.

I'll be posting my presentation on Understanding the new breed of employee to Slideshare after the event for those who might be interested.

If you are attending let me know and come and introduce yourself. I'm not shy.

Thanks

Cory

QKM Forum

For those who may not know, I am currently championing the Queensland Knowledge Management Forum as it's Chairperson.

Currently we get together for coffee on the fourth Thursday of the month and track down any KM gurus to share their knowledge when they come through town.

The group has an online home at http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/qkm.

So if you are in Brisbane and you have an interest in knowledge management come and say hello.

Thanks

Cory