At the recent 2008 actKM Conference, Matt Moore sat down with a few practitioners and consultants and asked what advice would they give to someone starting up a KM program.
Wow! My 50th post!
As you are probably aware I am not the most frequent of bloggers so to get to 50 is a bit of a milestone for me.
After recovering from an evening of fun a frivolity (actKM Collaboration Cabaret) it was back to the uncomfortable chairs for another day of sharing and learning.
Day two was another great day at the 2008 actKM Conference with highlights including:
Great day today.
Highlights?
Fun and frivolity tonight with the collaboration cabaret (more about that tomorrow), then I am on just before Dave Snowden tomorrow afternoon.
Wish me luck.
Cory
In a couple of weeks I will be making my way down to Canberra for my first actKM Conference.
I was unlucky not to go last year and kicking myself because it got some rave reviews.
This year they asked if I would like to do something at the conference and I suggested I would like to run a Peer Assist on doing After Action Reviews. This will provide people with a "2 for 1" in using a technique to research another technique.
As a lead up I have circulated a request to submit your experiences in implementing/planning/running/participating in AARs. Feel free to share as many of your war stories as you like.
You can also collaborate on the conferences Ning site.
I hope to see you there.
Thanks
Cory
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:
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
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
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.
Thanks
Cory
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.
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.
Enjoy.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.
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
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
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.
I have come across a number of these tools by monitoring a few blogs/feeds, groups and email newsletters including:
Thanks
Cory
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.
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
Bobbing in the torrent of feeds I found this little beauty from the New York Times.
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: April 6, 2008SAN 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
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
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
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
Posts
All Comments
