Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event – In Spring 2008?

23 thoughts on “Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event – In Spring 2008?”

  1. The number one topic I think social media and social networking advocates need to address is not the value of what we believe but the manner in which social media and social networking need to interact and co-exist with traditional media, management, and communication structures.

  2. I’ll agree with Dennis here – there is still largely a disconnect between the social media/networking world and the ways it can and probably should work hand in hand with traditional media, management and comms.
    We can see the disconnect on display in the very many attempts at using social media for traditional marketing message push and the backfire effect this often has. Equally, getting business management on board and mind-shifted to using social tools to leverage the brain power across organisations without deference to notional “position” is critical to social media success in business.

  3. I would love to use an event like this to introduce some of my old school KM 1.0 associates who are not yet comfortable with social media.

    As such, I would ask that it not be exclusively in Second Life.

    Baby steps. 🙂

  4. This is definitely worthwhile. Dennis and Stephen make great points about seriously paying attention to how social and traditional media should work together. Outside the 2.0 world, there are lots of organizations that don’t yet understand why social media/E2.0 tools are better, and showing how they are both inherently better in and of themselves, and can improve the effectiveness of traditional media is critical to really growing adoption.

    I’d love to help out with this event – organize, present, etc.
    Cheers,
    Stewart

  5. Great point kellyd – I think we should stick to the more “mainstream” tools like blogs, wikis, and RSS. Right now, those are the tools many KM 1.0 people are trying to figure out – let’s think of this event as a way to give their efforts a boost!

    Stewart

  6. @Dennis MacDonald – do I hear the siren call of the ‘marketing pig’ dressed up as the social media ‘lamb?’ Hmmm…smells like it from here (LOL)

    This idea has a great deal of potential. Experience I’d share is these things start on the inside and therefore the context of ‘social media’ doesn’t often make a lot of sense.

    I definitely would NOT do 2L. That’s a useful forum but in events I’ve attended with SAP (as an example) they struggle to get 60 people. The 2L interface is way too ‘costly’ and clunky for most people and there is a sense that the personal interaction is lost – even though there’s audio etc.

    I’d treat this as a quasi unconference with limited formal sessions and plenty of time for Q&A/discussion.

    I’d recommend uStreaming it if possible but don’t try be clever on wifi – that’s a nightmare.

    I’d also strongly recommend solid case material. Luis knows about my Notes example from London I wrote a while ago on ZDN. Good story, good outcomes. Also, I’d venture some of the SAP stuff being done in and around SDN/BPX could be cool.

    Pitching it as an event to be held out in GC is so appropriate given the Island’s history and the fact Spain is rapidly becoming an important enterprise market as it jumps from green screen to Internet, missing the C/S world altogether.

    My 2 €/centimos

  7. Love the idea!

    The very fact that this has sprung up from interactions via “social software” is a case study in itself!

    Maybe one of the sessions could be on how we got from idea to realisation?

    I look forward to being able to “attend”!

  8. Thanks Luis for getting this idea into social networking domain. I’d like to add my support and offer whatever practical help I can. For anyone who follows my blog you will know that I have been evangelising the merits of social networking as means to more effective collaboration and knowledge sharing in the (UK) public sector – which is still deeply hierarchical and steeped in the traditions of command and control processes (i.e. just about diametrically opposite to the principles of social networking!). I’d like to see some of this penetrate the minds of senior civil servants – particularly at HMRC and the Dept of Transport, who might realise there is a difference between ‘information’ (or loss of it!) and ‘knowledge’ (learning from the experience of others). Maybe we can encourage some of them to tune into this conference??

  9. As I’ve already tweeted, Luis, I’m there. If you can give me an excuse to travel to GC in May, even better. I agree with the commenters suggesting that 2L might not be optimal.

    As far as content – I’d very much like to see / hear a conversation amongst this circle of people about the question of networked vs. hierarchical social structures. Several folk here have expressed interest in the idea of reconciling SNS with existing structures and processes. The question that I find most compelling, however, is more like: “is that even possible?” And even if yes (it’s software, it can be bent, anything is possible), then: is that a good idea? I’m thinking of things like this bit from the Harvard Business School:

    http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5821.html

    This is (potentially) radical stuff. Are the sorts of networked social structures that SNS tends to encourage compatible with hierarchical, command-and-control organizational structures? Or not?

    If not, of course, then we’ve all got our work cut out for us. 😉 But if there really is an issue here, then surely closing our eyes to it is not the optimal strategy.

    I’d like to see a roundtable / discussion or something like that about this issue. Anybody else interested?

  10. To @Mark Masterson’s point re: hierarchies. The short answer is yes. Hierarchies are not going away so any thought of using SNS and assuming that somehow these will simply deconstruct or crumble existing is a day dream. Besides, what purpose would it serve when we already know that many important functions are carried out through informal networks anyway. This is not a new phenomenon, remember the ‘Johnny down the hall’ who always knew how to reboot your crashed PC? Same thing. The only difference is that SNS provides visibility for those heroes. It doesn’t need to get any more complicated. When it doesm we start to build in rigidity and the good ol’ rust belt of process control.

  11. I like unconference idea and creating a focus of adaption, integration and application.

    If it is run out of Gran Canaria please remember to keep some timeslots that are AP friendly too for people like Stephen Collins and me 🙂 although I would love to attend in person of course!

  12. @Dennis Howlett: I dunno, Dennis. I hear you, and being in an intensely enterprisey position myself, I’m open to that answer. But I also find some of the questions people are asking about the viability of hierarchical organizational structures very interesting. If one accepts the premise that innovation is a good thing, even vital for the long term health of a company, and if one further accepts the premise that networked social structures (and the SNS that support / enable them) are more successful at innovating, then it seems to me that it’s worth thinking about what that might mean.

    I guess my overarching point is that this is (or would be) a complex conversation, worthy of a high-bandwidth, face-to-face event.

  13. To both Mark’s and Dennis’ points, one of the most significant trends I see affecting the hierarchy vs. networks/flatter structure question is the increase in employees working remotely. As more organizations realize the cost and environmental benefits of having employees work remotely, this trend will continue to increase. How does this affect hierarchy? When people are remote, they rely more on networks to get things done and as Dennis said, “SNS provides visibility for those heroes”. Will hierarchy disappear? Probably not. Will hierarchy become less important to the control of information and access to people (leadership), and more of a support mechanism to ensure that the networks are able to function smoothly? I hope so.

  14. Its a good idea but Spring might be too close to build momentum. I would avoid all definitions, buzz words (such as KM 0.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc) and just set up something as KM Conversations or similar. Possibly KM and social computing. The title doesn’t matter if you get most of the main active players in the area bought in to attending.

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