Tags: Neil Ward-Dutton, Librarians, Library 2.0, Lotusphere2007, IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Connections, Lotus, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, Communities, Knowledge Managers, Collaboration 2.0, KM 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Dogear, Social Bookmarking, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking

Phew! What a couple of days, folks ! To say that I have been incredibly busy at work is just probably an understatement. I don’t think that I have ever had so many meetings, and conference calls, to attend in such a short time ! So much so that yesterday evening I was so shattered that instead of weblogging I decided to chill out a bit and watch The Island. Today though I have been spending some time catching up with my RSS feeds in between conference calls and whatever other meetings and I just thought I would point you into an interesting article that I have bumped into.

It is actually an article published by Neil Ward-Dutton titled We the librarian and you can find it over here. As I just mentioned above, it is actually an interesting and worth while read, because it describes some of the buzz that went around over at IBM’s Lotusphere 2007 with the release of IBM’s Lotus Connections and its potential impact on Knowledge Management as a new and refreshing knowledge sharing and collaborative tool in the area of social computing. Pity that Neil just restricts the article to librarians, because it would hav e been very much applicable as well to Knowledge Managers.

Still, it is a very good read because it just basically introduces, perhaps, some relevant commentary as to what the next generation of Knowledge Management (KM 2.0) and Collaboration (Collaboration 2.0) tools is like. Here is a quote from the article itself on where we are coming from thus far:

"What no-one is saying is that what’s really going on here is a reinvention of knowledge management that turns traditional thinking on its head. Traditional knowledge management relied on the skill of a privileged team of "knowledge architects" a priori defining information taxonomies, which organisations had to try and conform to in their day-to-day information creation and searching activities. The problem is that information is very rarely the kind of beast that’s happy to be tamed and confined within static structures: its structure and importance morph over time. Most "traditional" knowledge management efforts failed to deliver business value. They created environments that were too brittle, and people quickly became disenchanted. The cost of knowledge contribution and categorisation was just too high."

WOW! I am not sure what you would think about that quote from the article, but I find it a very good description of what traditional KM has been all along. And how perhaps it is time for a change, for a shift towards giving a bit more responsibility and ownership to knowledge workers by empowering them to better manage their knowledge with tools that would fit their needs and not those from the system itself. Yes, that Knowledge Management 2.0 that is very well described over here as well in this quote:

"Social bookmarking [/computing] technologies like Dogear provide a tantalising way to rediscover the potential of knowledge management. With a system based on social bookmarking there is no central librarian, locked away in an office, creating taxonomies that are dead before they’re even used; there is only a group of individuals, collaborating on creating a common understanding of important business information that can be shared by all, at low cost (no tedious or complex information categorisation or search tools are involved). We just tag as we go, and the tags light our way. We are the librarian."

Yes, indeed, pity that he has just restricted that article to librarians alone, because, like I said, I feel it is also very much relevant to knowledge managers alike and it is certainly a good start to prepare the point of entry for the next gen. of what KM 2.0 tools should look like and that we are currently getting exposed to by making use of social software. What do you think? Are we ready for KM 2.0 yet?

Tags: Meme, Metablogging, Jeremiah Owyang, John Tropea, Library Clips, Omea Pro, Bloglines, Blogroll, RSS, Atom, Newsfeeds, Techmeme, TailRank, Megite, Findory, Blogniscient, diggdot.us, Topix, Google News, Pandora, List.fm, Prison Break, House, Heroes, 24, IBM, IBM Lotus Sametime, Sametime, Skype, Google Talk, Damaka, PC-Actual, FON, Canarias7, Euan Semple, David Gurteen, Tony Karrer, Jerry Bowles, Dave Snowden, Web, Music, TV, Communication, Instant Messaging, VoIP, Movies, Magazines, Books, Newspapers

In the last couple of months there have been a couple of times where I have been participating in the different memes that have been going on out there in the blogosphere and I must say that I have enjoyed them quite a bit not only from the perspective of getting to share some more stuff about myself that otherwise would not have been shared over here or elsewhere, but also from the perspective of getting to know some more about the folks who I keep reading on a regular basis. So with all that said, it looks like there is a new meme out there at the moment, started by Jeremiah Owyang, and which John Tropea has picked up and played along a couple of days ago.

And, of course, to get the ball rolling John tagged me as well. Thus here I am sharing another weblog post on a new meme which, after having read quite a few entries on it, I am finding it quite interesting and educational as it is allowing me to find out some more about the reading habits from some of the folks I follow. And now it is my turn. This meme in particular has got to do with covering some further details on one’s own media consumption diet so without much further ado here is my take on this meme:

Web: This is also my primary means of getting all of the information / news that I need. In the past I have mentioned how I am currently subscribed to over 700 newsfeeds (Right now 730 to be exact!), of which I am sharing about 480 in my Bloglines blogroll and the rest I keep in my offline RSS / Atom feed client: Omea Pro (Which is now Open Source, by the way, if you would want to check it out). You may be wondering what is the rest, right?

Well, to start with, about 100 news sites from all sorts of different places, including TechMeme, TailRank, Megite, Findory, Blogniscient, diggdot.us, Topix, Google News, etc. and then a few other general related news. I guess just the usual stuff. One thing for sure is that whenever I need to get information on a particular subject the Web is one of the first resources I check.

Music: I guess that, like everyone else out there, I got my entire music collection in my iPod. Several thousand songs in a single device that I take with me whenever I need to be disconnected for an extended period of time (While travelling, doing sports, walking about or just chilling out). And while I am at work with a live Internet connection I am one of the folks who still loves Pandora, as opposed to Last.fm. So between my iPod and Pandora I am getting most of the music I listen to.

TV: I do not watch much TV actually on a regular basis, perhaps only for the news and that would be it. I actually prefer to make use of TV more as an entertainment that a media source I would want to consume. And to that effect, I can honestly say that I am hooked to Prison Break, House (Of course!) and Heroes amongst others. Oh, yes, I am hooked to 24, who wouldn’t, right? … Anxiously waiting for the 6th season to get started over here. Yes, I *know*, pure entertainment.

Communication: This is going to be an easy one, I think. I am actually not very fond of e-mail as most of you already know so I only use e-mail in my notebook. I do not use any other device to check my mail and from what I can see it is not going to be any time soon that I may be doing that. I do use Instant Messaging, and quite heavily actually, specially for work making use of IBM’s Lotus Sametime.

However, for most of my real-time interactions I am still making heaving use of Skype, Google Talk and Damaka. Yes, that is right, getting the best of both worlds: IM and VoIP.

Movies: I normally get to go to the movies every now and then. Lately, I haven’t been going too much though, since the weather has been extremely good and you would agree with me that there are better things to do than going to the movies when it is lovely out there! I don’t rent DVDs since I feel there are already enough TV channels out there to go through during the course of the day than just renting DVDs..

Magazines: Well, since I am getting most of my media from the Web I currently do not subscribe to any magazines, except for PC-Actual, and that was because I got it as a gift for purchasing my FON, so I guess that one does not count.

Books: I enjoy reading books, for sure, but over the last few years I have developed a tendency to only read books as part of my own entertainment, so it has been quite a while since I have been reading business related books. Instead I prefer to read Sci-Fi, historic, epic and esoteric books. Yes, I know, quite a mix, and that is perhaps why I am keeping myself busy reading a couple of them at the same time.

Newspapers: Hummm, hardly ever. Perhaps if I am travelling and do not have access to my laptop. However, there is only one newspaper that I get to read quite often and that is a local one: Canarias7. Why? Simply because they do get what social media is all about.

And that was it, folks. Hope you have enjoyed it just as much as I have done by putting it together. And now off to tag a few others to keep the meme going. So I would love to see if Euan Semple, David Gurteen, Tony Karrer, Jerry Bowles and Dave Snowden would be taking up on this challenge and share a bit of their own media consumption diet. Ready to go for it, folks?

Tags: Knowledge Management, KM, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, IBM, IBM Lotus, Lotus, Nimmy, Thinking Inside The Blog, Jack Vinson, YouTube, Videos, Alan Lepofsky, Ken Porter, Intellectual Capital, KM Strategy, Explicit Knowledge, Tacit Knowledge, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, KM 2.0, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0

One of the latest Knowledge Management weblogs that I have discovered has recently become one of my daily reads, and in case you may not have it yet, when you get to add it I am sure it would become a daily read for you, too! It is actually a weblog nicely put together by Nimmy and it is called Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog]. Goodness, did I say how much I like that title, too? It reminds me of all of those different ah…ha! moments that we keep bumping into every now and then and which makes things quite interesting. Don’t they?

Like many of the different weblog posts Nimmy has been sharing already. Lots of great stuff to read over there. Go and check it out because it surely is going to keep you entertained for a while.

Take, for instance, one of the latest entries that Nimmy has been sharing and which Jack Vinson also noticed as an interesting read (Referencing stuff as well that Alan Lepofsky has been sharing over at his YouTube account). In Lotus … Located on YouTube you would actually be able to watch a video clip put together by IBM Lotus, Ken Porter, that shows how IBM has been seeing Knowledge Management for quite some time now. Yes, you may say that there are lot of buzzwords over there and everything and I would agree with that statement, but you cannot deny the fact that even though there may be plenty of buzzwords over there it still delivers a very strong and solid message of what KM should be all about all along.

If you notice it is a video clip that shows very clearly some of the stuff that I have been talking about in the past myself, where I have been mentioning how KM is no longer about sharing and reusing explicit knowledge (i.e. Intellectual Capital) but more about capturing as well tacit knowledge, i.e. the know-how, and being able to find a balance between the two so that we can all take the most out of both worlds.

Yes, I think we would all agree that is where the main challenge is nowadays and perhaps there may not be a final solution for it, but the way I see it there is something that the video tries to put together and which I would agree with: a successful KM strategy for whatever the business is something that hasn’t got to do anything with the tools nor the process, but more with the people themselves. Yes, indeed, that people thing again ! But this time around with a little twist. Not people disconnected and distributed all over the place, but more knowledge workers gathering together and building communities they could become part of and with which they would be willing to share knowledge and information with others at the same time they would manage their own knowledge while collaborating with others.

That is right, that is the challenge. That is where social computing is going to define if Knowledge Management will come back or not, or if we will be looking at something else. If you watch the video, and despite the fact that was shared several months ago, it looks like the original KM was not far off from where we may be heading nowadays. You may be wondering now, while the weekend is just around the corner, what happened in between? Where did it go wrong? Could we be making the same mistakes again? Gosh, I hope not, because otherwise I doubt there would be another chance to bring back KM from where it has been in the last few years. Something that I would not want, for sure. I guess that is some food for thought for us KMers for over there weekend. I know. Have a good one !

(And now, here is the embedded video, in case you may want to watch it right away:)

Tags: ITtoolbox, elsua, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Awards, IT Community Choice, Explicit Knowledge, Tacit Knowledge, Voting, 2006

If you would remember, a bit over a year ago, I created a weblog post where I was actually mentioning how I had started my second Internet weblog, that time around over at ITtoolbox: elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog and dealing with the same topics that I have been sharing over here as well. From there onwards I mentioned over here as well how during the course of last year there were a number of months where that particular weblog was a super star weblog and how nowadays it is one of the popular weblogs currently available.

I must say that overall it has been an incredible experience all along as it has given me the opportunity to be part of one of the finest professional networks of knowledge workers available out there: ITtoolbox. Over time I have been able to grow over there a healthy social network of webloggers and contributors to the overall community who we have shared the same passion all along for Knowledge Management. In short, an incredible experience overall!

So imagine the shock I went through when in the last few days I have found out how elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog has now been nominated by the ITtoolbox folks as one of the candidates for the Best New Blog for 2006 award as part of the overall ITtoolbox’s IT Community Choice Awards! W00t, indeed ! There are four other candidates, whose weblogs are providing some incredibly good quality to the overall network of professionals and right from the start I know it is going to be a very tough call. It is not going to be easy, but that is actually something that I am feeling quite comfortable with.

I know that I may not win the award, the quality is just outstanding, for sure, but I think that, to me, the real price is actually in the nomination itself. Why? Well, more than anything else because when I first created the weblog over at ITtoolbox I had the sole intention of sharing my knowledge and experiences about Knowledge Management with the intention of showing people how KM is a whole lot more than just tools and processes. Yes, indeed, you know where I am going. I have been incredibly excited all along during the course of the last few days because that weblog has been given some recognition with that nomination for the award showing how KM is all about the people. Yes, once again, the people.

During all this time I have been trying to share some further insights to help demonstrate how KM is a whole lot more complex than just focusing on tools, processes, explicit knowledge, etc. etc. It is actually a combination of everything, i.e. get the best of tacit and explicit knowledge and put it all down to the service of the ones who know how to manage it: i.e. the people!

And that is exactly what I have been trying to show all along. So you can imagine what my shock has been when I found out about the nomination. WOW! More than anything else it is certainly an incredible boost for my motivation to keep things going and share with everyone what my own thoughts on KM are all about. And along the process have some incredibly refreshing and helpful conversations that would help enrich most of the already existing discussions.

So, in my case, the best thing of last year’s awards is actually not winning the Best New Blog for 2006, since I know that is going to be tough, but to actually encourage you all to take a couple of minutes and cast your votes. Let the best one win! There are some other nomination categories with an impressive line up of ITtoolbox webloggers as well who are worth while subscribing to. So you may want to have a look into those as well. And from here I just wanted to thank every single one of you who have been participating and engaging in the different weblog entries that I have shared all along over there and for sticking out with me through thick and thin throughout all this time. It is greatly appreciated and really means a lot to me. It tells me that there folks out there who enjoy what I publish and I guess it cannot get better than that, right?

Here is to another year of successful and engaging weblogging! And all of that, thanks to you! So thanks for that!

(Previously, on elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog at ITtoolbox)

Tags: Wikipatterns, Atlassian, Confluence, Wikis, IBM, ShortCuts, Podcasts, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Communities, Patterns, Best Practices

Over the last few days I have actually been reading off my RSS feeds on a new offering put together by the folks over at Atlassian, the same guys behind the fine Confluence wiki engine, that I wish it would have been made available some time ago. Yes, that is right. I am talking about Wikipatterns that Stewart Mader has put together with his team and which he announced over at Introducing Wikipatterns.com a couple of days ago. What fantastic resource, indeed !

Reason why I mentioned above that I wish Wikipatterns would have been made available some time ago is because it would have been a really nice and handy resource that I would have been able to reuse for the several podcasting episodes I have been doing lately with my colleagues from ibm.com over at IBM Shortcuts around the subject of wikis and getting the most out of them.

Yes, that is right. I have mentioned this in the past, although over at my other Internet weblog. For the last couple of months I have been participating in the IBM ShortCuts podcast sharing a number of different tips on making the most out of social computing tools, and lately, have been talking a bit about wikis and how different teams and communities can make the most out of the whole experience.

And this is exactly why I would have loved Wikipatterns would have become available sooner so that I could leverage with some of the great stuff that has been shared over there. But what exactly is Wikipatterns you may be wondering, right? Well, it is, of course, a wiki page where a number of different patterns have been put together that detail how you can get the most out of wikis with the least effort possible. That is, with this particular offering you can read all about the dos and don’ts of participating in a wiki. What is good for the team or the community and, much more interesting, what is not that good for your team or your community when making use of a wiki.

However, what I really like about this particular Web site is the fact that for the first time there are a number of different roles identified from different wiki users. So by observing pretty close how the rest of your team is collaborating in such a shared space as a wiki you have got the opportunity to identify those "people patterns" or "people anti-patterns" and be able act upon them if you may need to. Not only from the perspective of helping find the most active and participative wiki collaborators, but also those other folks you would need to watch out and perhaps act upon them at some point in time.

Impressive, eh? You bet! I think that Wikipatterns is going to be one of those services that will prove incredibly useful for all of those businesses that are still struggling with the adoption of social computing within the enterprise as it would allow them to get the most out of the already existing collective knowledge and experiences put together by other knowledge workers who have been making use of wikis for quite some time already.

So Wikipatterns is the perfect Web site to point people to, who may be a bit skeptic about the whole thing of sharing knowledge and collaborating in an open environment where everyone is at the same level and encouraged to add content on top of each other’s content. Like I said, I wish this offering would have been made available several months ago because I would have been able to make use of it to convinced a few on why they may need a wiki, or not, instead of having to do it the hard way. Either way I am hoping that Wikipatterns continues to grow further showing, and demonstrating successfully, to people how wikis could become one of the most powerful collaborative and knowledge sharing environments to date.

And all of that, not to worry, without you having to worry about anything. Just leveraging on the already existing experiences from different knowledge workers. Way cool, eh? I now just wish I can find some time to help out and add some further content to it, because there more there is to it, the much better it would be for everyone else to learn how you can improve your own wiki experience. I already signed up (Only takes a couple of minutes!) and I am surely looking forward to find some spare time to add further up into it… How about you? Are you ready to share your best, or not so best, wiki experiences?

Let’s do it!

Tags: Explode!, Explode, MyBlogLog, AutoRoll, Metablogging, Techcrunch, Marshal Kirkpatrick, Steve O’Hear, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Software, Web 2.0, Tagging, Profiles

As if we didn’t have enough already with both MyBlogLog and AutoRoll, a couple of social networking offerings for webloggers that I have talked about in the past here and over here, respectively, here we go with a third one that, of course, I had to give it a try and see how it would work. This time around this particular new tool is coming from the same group of folks who have put together the fine service of Elgg and it is called Explode!. There have been already a good bunch of folks already talking about it, but here you have a couple of reviews by Techcrunch (By Marshall Kirkpatrick), Steve O’Hear or the very same folks at Explode in case you would want to do some further reading.

Pretty much like you would do with MyBlogLog and AutoRoll, Explode! works in such a way that it would allow you to build up a social network with the readers of your weblog since you can add this offering as a widget to your weblog template and see how it builds up your own network of friends. You can basically search for folks who you think are already part of the application and you can add them to your own network. Or, alternatively, you can also browse through the directory to see if you recognise some of the different names and establish a connection with them.

However, one of my favourite features from the entire service and something that is essentially different from any other service is that you can search for contacts you would want to add not just searching for them or the networks they belong to, but based on the different tags they may have used for themselves. That is right, Explode! actually allows people to tag themselves when they actually create a profile. You get to add a one liner about who you are, and then you can add a number of different tags based on whatever you would want to share and how you would want people to find you. Then you can also add the link to your weblog so that folks know where you are coming from and you are ready to go.

As I said earlier on, you can add a widget to your weblog template and it actually takes about one minute to set up. One other nice thing, which I am sure is going to address the issues that have lately put MyBlogLog under some trouble, i.e. spam, is the fact that you can actually moderate your friendships with a number of different options, so you can say that you are always in control of what is actually happening. Nice one!

Finally, there are a couple of other handy features that would be worth while exploring further. First one is that you can get some really nice and handy stats about who visits your profile so that you can build up from there and also you have got a section for comments where people can drop a comment or two and work through your social network. These features are pretty similar to what MyBlogLog does as well, actually, but it is good to see that they would also add some value to this particular offering.

So that was it, folks. Just a quick introduction on some of the nice features put together thus far. Of course, and like I have mentioned above, so far I like what I have seen, thus I have decided that I will be giving it a try and going to test it out for a couple of weeks, like I am doing with AutoRoll at the moment. At that time I will then decide if I am going to stick around with it or not, but I must say that from what I have seen so far it looks like I may like it, after all. We shall see.

Again, if you would want to see how it works here is my profile. Here are my friends (Yes, I know, pretty empty at the moment, but hoping to build it up from there) and if you are reading this weblog entry from the RSS feed head over to elsua.net and you will be able to see Explode! running as another widget in the left column of this weblog template.