New KM Links

Looking at the Tension in the Collaboration Process

By Bill Ives on September 1, 2008

Bruce Lewin writes the blog Four Groups, and he recently posted a long piece on The Tension in Collaboration. He started with these four questions:

• Should we be putting people first, before technology, in our efforts to collaborate?
• Does collaboration benefit from a more formal process?
• Can collaboration be encouraged in a replicable and systematic manner (as much as anything concerning people can be repeatable and systematic)?
• Does the lack of a formal process for optimizing collaboration hold back productivity and performance?

Dancing and Knowledge Management

By Mary Abraham on August 28, 2008

In a recent conversation with Patrick Lambe and Dave Snowden, Larry Prusak described the three stages of knowledge management: content collecting, organizing and searching; collaboration; and ad hoc development tailored to the needs of a specific organization. But how do you move systematically from one stage to the next?

Collaboration--What's in It for Me?!

By Matthew Hodgson on August 28, 2008

In response to my post on ROI for social computing, Atul Rai suggested we need to address 'the what's in it for me' factor, rather than just 'build it and they will come'. So what do people get by collaborating? Various theories from social psychology have been used to explain this 'what's in it for me' factor to better understand how to successfully introduce social computing tools into corporate environments.

Collaboration: Leading by Example

By James Robertson on August 28, 2008

Collaboration: by stealth or by design, to a few or to all, in some form or other organisations are getting into it. Those that do, realise that there is more to collaborating than the mere introduction of tools. There is undoubtedly a large amount of online chatting, blogging and social networking going on out there on the world wide web. Even so, organisations often find it difficult to dig these people out from within the internal ranks. So what is required for effective online collaboration? And what are some strategies for achieving this?

The Future of Work ... Dave Snowden on the Impact of Web 2.0 and the Future of KM (Knowledge Management)

By Jon Husband on August 27, 2008

It's clear to me ... that the future of knowledge work involves a great deal of continuous collaboration, which implies social computing, which implies the use of Web 2.0 tools and services. ... One of the more popular posts I have made in the last several years contained an interview with Dave Snowden, in which he looks forward to issues regarding the construction and use of knowledge in an era where social computing tools, services and dynamics are beginning to be adopted for use in knowledge-intensive workplaces.

KM in Pharma, Another View

By Jack Vinson on August 26, 2008

Knowledge management has been interesting to pharmaceutical companies for a long time.  In the 1990's Monsanto and Novartis were well-known for their efforts at taking advantage of the intelligence of their people to come up with the next great innovation.  Both companies were also looking for innovation across varied disciplines.  Now the focus seems to be on stemming brain drain, moving scientists away from paper and enhancing the use of online tools.

PharmaManufacturing.com has a recent article that talks about some of the needs from today's perspective, Pharmaceutical Knowledge Management | Brain Rein by Doug Bartholomew.

[Note: Although the article focuses on the pharmaceutical industry, a lot of the content is relevant to any organization struggling to improve knowledge retention and transfer.]

KM Principles at the US Army

By Jack Vinson on August 25, 2008

The US Army has a set of Knowledge Management Principles and an accompanying paper (pdf) that describes the details (date stamped June 2008).... In the details of the paper, each principle is described with a brief rationale and the implications of the principle.  I particularly honed in on the idea described under the "core principles of collaboration," where they suggest that there needs to be a shift from the idea of "need to share" to a "responsibility to provide." 

Can Communities Focus?

By Rachel Happe on August 25, 2008

After years of working in various size companies, one thing that I am struck by how immensely difficult it is to maintain focus.  It is very difficult to keep two people on the same page, let alone hundreds or thousands of people.  To combat this, companies organize themselves into a decision-making and responsibility hierarchy.  One thing I wonder is that in a community environment, where there is even less ability to directly motivate members, is it even more difficult to maintain focus?  And if it is, how does a corporate entity who wants to incorporate communities gain traction in any one direction?

Releasing the Power of Networks

By Oscar Berg on August 25, 2008

Hyperlinks connect content with content. Social networks connect people with people. RSS feeds connect people with content. Together, these technologies can be used to make information flow between people in an organization almost like water flows in a metropolitan water system. ... How come then that many organizations are still not seizing this opportunity as fast as they possibly can? I believe that a major part of the answer is quite simple; the people who build their power on keeping information for themselves feel threatened.

The Problem with Low-Hanging Fruit

By Mary Abraham on August 22, 2008

When I first started in the knowledge management business, I asked a group of senior New York law firm knowledge management experts what advice they would give me. One extremely pragmatic colleague said: "Collect the Low-Hanging Fruit." Nearly a decade later, I still find I keep an eye out for low-hanging fruit. However, now I have a better understanding of the limitations of low-hanging fruit.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

By Chris Brogan on August 20, 2008

We really can't deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it's a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I'm not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I'm going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by "business," I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer.