Hummm … Well, you may need to think about it twice. It is Friday, the weekend is just around the corner and you would probably be much better off reading something light to get you going, right? Well, here it is. In an era where plenty of people think that Knowledge Management is a discipline that was put together a few decades ago, here is something that clearly shows quite the opposite: KM has been with us for a long while and will continue to be so, whether we like it or not. And here is a living proof of it, dating from about 5,000 years ago! Yes, you read it right: 5,000 years!!

But before I get to share it, I just want to thank Kirti Kapoor, one of the active members from the ITtoolbox nextwork, for sending me an e-mail with the actual slide deck I am about to share on the subject. I asked her if she would be willing to share it in Slideshare, so that everyone would benefit from it, and she right away agreed with it. Way cool!

I could probably say a lot of things about the presentation itself, but, like I said at the beginning of the blog post, I am going to keep it short and just challenge you to see if you can identify some of the main key KM principles that transpire throughout the slide deck. You would be amazed about how much KM was applied a few thousand years ago with this particular Lessons on Strategy from The Mahabharata:

Have a good weekend, everyone! (Oh, and I am writing this particular weblog post while attending remotely the speaker session from Stephen Collins at the Office 2.0 event on "Knowledge Worker 2.0"! Can it get better than this?)

(Thanks much, Kirti, for sharing the slide deck with us! Greatly appreciated to be shown there is no need to reinvent the wheel )

Tags: Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, KM Strategy, Strategy, Mahabharata, Kirti Kapoor, Teamwork, Commitment, Competence, Cooperation, Collaboration, Knwoledge Management 2.0, KM 2.0, Stephen Collins, Acidlabs, Office 2.0

Once more, you will have to excuse me for going off topic over here, but this time around I just couldn’t help it. I am sure that by now you may have heard, read or watched the sad news about Luciano Pavarotti leaving us for a better place at age 71 due to pancreatic cancer. Whether you care for opera or not, whether you have attended an opera live or not, whether you may have listened to any performance of such fine art, or not, Pavarotti was one of those very special characters that transcended his immense talent and reached out to everyone out there!

There are lots and lots of things that I could say about him, about how special he was, about how gifted his voice was, about how such a natural he would ever be in all of our hearts. However, I am not going to do that. I am just going to let you all go to YouTube, and start witnessing what is going on in there! Lots and lots of video clips with his various performances are going up sky rocket in the last few hours with thousands of people watching them through. Quite a remarkable tribute to someone who we all know was rather unique on his own.

As I said, you may be a very big fan of Opera (In which case I know that most of these words will just be obvious to you), or not. The thing is that Pavarotti has been one of those incredibly inspirational folks who can give you goose bumps any given time of the day by listening to him, and in most cases it will make you cry with tears of passion, full emotion and remarkable natural talent.

So here is a small and humble tribute to someone who has made me cried with tears of joy and content by witnessing some of his best performances ever. Now you tell me, after watching the links I have shared below, who cannot sit back, relax, and enjoy such a wonderful experience.

Luciano, wherever you may well be now, you shall never be forgotten. Ever. Thanks much for those little precious moments that certainly made us as human as we could be. We are all more than grateful to you for sharing your talent with us and for helping us partake from these emotions:

Nessun Dorma

Ave Maria

Caruso

Miserere

(Like I said, goose bumps, tears of full joy and intense feelings)

Tags: Luciano Paravotti, Pavarotti, R.I.P. Opera, YouTube, Tribute, Talent, Voices, Life, Nessun Dorma, Ave Maria, Caruso, Miserere, Performance, Ovation, Unique, Singer, Opera Singer

Tags: Lucas McDonnell, Doug Cornelius, Wikis, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Social Software, Social Software Adoption, Social Networking, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Technology Adoption

In the past you would remember how I have been talking about wikis over here to reflect how they are some of the most interesting and refreshing social software tools out there to help boost knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst different teams, communities and whatever other groups. I am a big advocate of them more than anything else because of the strong capabilities they offer to help democratise the way knowledge workers get to share their knowledge with others and collaborate with one another.

However, one has got to realise that wikis may not be the ultimate solution for each and every single scenario while trying to address a specific problem. And that is exactly what Lucas McDonnell has tried to put together over at When Wikis Won’t Work: 5 Questions to Ask. Lucas references a previous blog post put together by Doug Cornelius under the title "Getting Wikis to Work" after commenting on CNN Money’s "Why Commercial Wikis Don’t Work" and which I will be talking about at some point in time. Not to worry.

The interesting thing from Lucas is that he ventures to put together five different questions that knowledge workers should ask in order to establish whether they would need to use a wiki or not. So in a way, he is already helping out folks identify whether wikis would meet their needs or not by answering those questions. To help speed things into what those questions may well be, here you have got them:

"1. Is a wiki the best technology for what I am seeking to accomplish?
2. Is my community cohesive and focused enough to be able to work together?
3. Am I asking my community to create a universal truth based on tangible facts?
4. Is my community going to be able to agree on these facts?
5. Is my community both knowledgeable and interested about the subject of the wiki?"

I must say that while I was going through the blog post, and the different questions mentioned above, there were a number of other questions that popped into my mind and which I always ask different knowledge workers, and their communities, before they would start making use of their own wiki. So I thought about creating a follow up weblog post where I could mention those additional 5 questions and make a list of 10 questions to find out whether your team or your community needs a wiki or not to help improve the already existing collaborative efforts.

Yes, that is right. This is a weblog post to indicate how despite all of the buzz and hype around wikis they may not well be your best tool after all. At least, for that particular task. Thus without much further ado, here you have got the additional five questions I would ask as well on whether people would need to have a wiki or not:

1. Does my team / community have got the necessary resources to support and facilitate the participation on the wiki?
2. Is the team / community capable of maintaining the wiki with a robust enough infrastructure?
3. Do team / community members trust each other good enough to be able to update content on top of each other’s content without risking the quality of the knowledge shared?
4. Will the team / community provide the necessary education and training materials on how to effectively make use of the wiki for that specific purpose?
5. And, finally, the killer question: can the team / community perform that task at hand with the same quality and participation using other tools than a wiki? If so, why don’t you would use whichever of those tools?

As you would be able to see, those are some questions that I get to use myself on a daily basis to help guide different knowledge workers on whether they would be ready to adopt a wiki for their daily interactions or not. One of the interesting points from those questions that I try to make time and time again is that I try not to position wikis as the killer application for whatever the scenario or whatever the purpose. Adopting social software does not necessarily mean that you would have to leave whatever you have been doing before in the past, just because someone told you that you needed to be there. Social software needs to meet a set of requirements, of needs, that the group would need to be able to fix and if the current collaboration and knowledge sharing tools do not fit in the profile, then it would be when you can starting exploring those other possibilities.

In such a way that social software tools would become an enhancement of the already existing tools suite, because after all, why would you need to give up on what you have been using already with some good results, if you can improve even more that same experience by adopting different social computing tools, right?

Tags: Twitter, Jose Luis Cabello, Idocente, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Communities, Virtual Communities, Online Communities, Community Building, Community Builders, Nancy White, Etienne Wenger, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0

I love Twitter. Yes, I do, despite some of my twitterings saying how broken the RSS feeds are and how some times I keep missing out on various message exchanges. But I still love it. Honest. Why? Because apart from being connected with those folks I am interested in following up further, and getting to know some more about them for when I have the chance to meet them face to face, it gives me the great opportunity to bump into gems that otherwise would pass by me un-noticed. And just this morning I had one of those moments.

One of those folks I follow in Twitter, and various other places, is Jose Luis Cabello, author of Internet (Como Recurso) Docente, amongst others. Just this morning, and over at his Twitter handle, he shared the following comment: "The Art of Building Virtual Communities", in which he points to the following blog post by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach: The Art of Building Virtual Communities.

My goodness! What a superb article! Stop whatever you are doing. Now! Even reading this blog post and head over to Sheryl’s and read on. Even better. Get a cup of coffee (Or tea!), because I tell you, you are going to enjoy it quite a bit! What a fantastic resource, folks! One of the best, most thorough articles I have seen in years around the subject of online communities. As simple as that.

Sheryl has seriously done her homework very very nicely and she has proved with that particular blog post that building an online community is not an easy job. Even better, maintaining an online community is not as easy as what most people would think. Like, there, pick up your favourite social network and the community members would come to you. Well, well, well, how wrong!

If you check out the blog post that Sheryl has put together you would be able to find out how  most online groups out there are actually everything, but a community. Yet, most people claim to say they are communities, but they are not. If not, have a read through that article and then compare some of the key concepts shared over there towards the groups you may belong to already. Quite a difference, don’t you think?

I must say that as I read through some of those key concepts that I have mentioned above, like tools, structure, incentives, recognitions, community participation, facilitation, etc. etc. are along the same lines of the various community programs I have been exposed to up until now. Yes, the terms are different, but the key concepts are the same ones, which is a good thing, because it clearly comes to prove the point that working your way in an online community may not be as easy and un-demanding as whatever you ever thought in the past. And since community seems to be the new buzzword, I am sure this particular article would be rather educational for those folks diving in for the first time.

And that is certainly what I really enjoyed about Sheryl’s blog post on The Art of Building Virtual Communities. The fact that it is an invaluable source for everyone out there who would want to explore the world of community building and may not know where to start. Some people may place the focus on processes or tools, but certainly Sheryl hits the nail on the head by showing that it is not just the tools, nor the processes, but also the people, i.e. those online community members, the ones that play a key role in the successful implementation of a communities program, pretty much like with Knowledge Management.

In fact, if you care to notice most of the successful KM programs out there are actually still up and running very actively not because of having the best tools, nor processes, but because they have got different community building programs running side by side and with great success. So if you ever plan to come up with a KM strategy and not sure where to start putting together a community building program, Sheryl’s Art of Building Virtual Communities is a must-have fundamental resource.

And in case you may not have enough with it, which I doubt it, check out as well the different references to some incredibly helpful resources from some of the top leaders in this space like Nancy White or Etienne Wenger. Or browse through as well, why not?, the entire set of comments that people have put together so far and which help make the original post an essential reading for anyone out there getting involved with online virtual communities. Priceless!

Tags: Barcelona, Cancellations, Holiday, Twitter, Baloncesto, Basketball, Basket, Eurobasket2007, Eurobasket07, Championships, Warriors, Crown, Spain

You would remember how a couple of weeks back I mentioned that this coming Wednesday I was planning to take some vacation and head over to Barcelona, hoping to be able to meet up with a few folks who I have met in real life or on line in the past. Alas, I am afraid that I will have to wait for another opportunity, because over the course of last week a personal emergency has kicked in and shifted around all of the different plans and priorities. So much so, that earlier on this morning I cancelled the hotel reservations and had to postpone the holidays for a later time. Yes, I know. A bummer.

I cannot talk much about that particular personal emergency, other than mentioning that things are going all right, although with a slow recovery process (Don’t worry, it is not me), but I am hoping that once it is all over I may be able to share something over here on the kind of impact this experience has been having on all of us over here. Stay tuned for some more.

I am not sure when I would be able to make it to Barcelona again, but I am hoping that perhaps some time in October or thereabouts I would have the opportunity, so if you would still be around by that time I will let you know, just in case. For those folks who contacted me to get together, I have been twittering the main cause of it and know you would understand why I had to cancel it. I am hoping though we would be able to meet up at some other point in time and catch up. Thanks for sticking in and for all of your understanding

So, I am not going to go to Barcelona after all, and I surely was looking forward to it. What can I do in the mean time to console myself? Well, I may have just found it. I do know that this is completely off topic, like it was exactly a year ago, but I just couldn’t help mention, even if it is just briefly, how over the next few days I shall be enjoying one of my other passions in life: basketball (Or like a well known wise man would say — BA - LON - CES - TO!!!).

And all of it because of this particular event that got started today and, of course, because of these guys:

Pictures courtesy of Kaplan DF

Our warriors!

(Good luck to everyone and let’s play!!)

Tags: Facebook, Mitch Joel, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Communities, Euan Semple, Quechup, Control, Privacy, Web Presence, Matt Moore, Engineers without Fears, Interactions, MySpace, Orkut, Ziki, Social Media Adoption

You bet! Let’s see… Over the course of the weekend Mitch Joel twittered the following question: "Can you claim to be in Social Media and not have a Facebook account?". Of course, that made me think about it for a bit, since it is not the first time that I am confronted with such a question when people keep asking me why I am not in Facebook just yet. And here is the thing.

Facebook is not the ultimate social networking application. In fact, it is not even a social network  -*love* this blog post from Euan Semple on this very same topic; to start with "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you", taken directly from its homepage and clearly not mentioning the terms social networking or social media at all, because, to me, it also breaks the number one rule from any true social computing application: you always in control of your own privacy. (Anyone reading up on the mess that quechup has provoked lately?)

Yes, that is right. Facebook does a pretty lousy job respecting the privacy and Web presence from the individual. And if you want to read a really good story about it and the kind of stress that it can provoke not respecting that privacy, check out the superb weblog post put together by Matt Moore on this very same topic: I want to stay hidden, where one of Matt’s comments is just spot on about my own sentiments regarding the adoption of Facebook:

"I think we all need to own our boundaries as much as we can. And respect the boundaries of others. I don’t have any issues with LinkedIn, Facebook, etc at the moment but I do want to control my interactions with others - I want to retain the right to say "no" or even to say nothing at all. And if that right gets taken away from me then I will leave" (Emphasis mine)

Thus, to the question put together by Mitch on whether you can claim to be in social media with or without having a Facebook account, the answer, to me, is very clear: Of course you can! Facebook is just another Web application that helps you aggregate content about the stuff you are interested in and that you may want to share with others. But that is it. Social Media has been running for years. And it is not going to stop there with Facebook. In fact, the latter has been running for years already in the past, but no-one made such claims before till 2007. Thus what happened then? Why did we all lived social media in the past, and why can’t we go on like that all of a sudden, just because Facebook is there?

To me, it is just pretty much like MySpace, Orkut, Ziki, or whatever other offering you would use to aggregate your content into a single Web space. Like many of those offerings, at the very beginning you decide whether you would want to stick around with it or not, and that would be it. Facebook just doesn’t cut for me. Not before, not now, not later.

But that does not mean that I am not interested in listening or reading about the kind of impact it’s having (After all, most of the folks I hang out on the Web do have their accounts in there already, so I get to learn a lot about it as time goes by). Just because I want to protect my privacy and my own Web presence does not mean that I cannot claim to be in Social Media. Because after all, how soon would it be before Facebook is taken over by the next big thing on the Web 2.0 space? (Pretty much like it happened with Orkut or MySpace or … <please insert name here>).