E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

IBM Lotus Connections – We the Knowledge Managers

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?

Media I Consume – Another Weblog Meme I Got Into

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?

Discover What You Know – Will Knowledge Management Ever Change That Much? Does It Really Need To?

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:)