Results tagged “KMWorld” from KM Edge: Where the best in Knowledge Management come together

There were some great keynote speakers at this year's KM World, but the biggest "a-ha" for me did not come from a speaker--it came from the exhibitors. Based on the number and excitement of vendors and attendees, the future of KM belongs to streaming video. Always too expensive previously, Web video is now literally in the hands of millions of people. YouTube and big bandwidth have made video a feasible and desirable medium for millions of "average" people to teach, learn, and share.

Web analytics firm ComScore released its data for online video usage in October 2009: Google/YouTube continues to dominate with over 125 million monthly viewers (and over 1 billion views per day). According to YouTube's blog, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Video has come of age as a primary way for people to share information, whether they're uploading a recording of baby's first steps or participating in populist journalism (CNN's iReports is a great example). The "show me, don't tell me" nature of video makes it far superior to text when you want to convey something physical (e.g., how to open a banana like a monkey).  Video is also terrific for communicating emotion. Now the buzz is to use it for a wide range of internal communications, rather than just the stiff annual CEO speech.

Cheap, immediate, with almost no barriers to use or distribution--why wouldn't you incorporate video into your KM approaches? 

Lessons learned: The very name of this knowledge-sharing approach implies that knowledge is being reused--that each lesson drives an action designed to improve a policy, procedure, process, or practice for future users. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Many organizations have lessons learned processes in place, but admit that what they actually have are lessons captured but not yet applied.

So, what prevents organizations from optimizing and reusing these valuable lessons to reduce risks, lessen costs, minimize reinvention, and improve key business processes? Tomorrow, November 17, I will be at KMWorld 2009 to present the results of APQC's latest Collaborative Research study, which focused on lessons learned processes and systems. Please join me to learn about the results of the study, including examples from the three best-practice organizations--Credit Suisse, U.S. Army ARDEC, and U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned (CALL).

About a year ago in this very blog, I extolled the enjoyment I got from attending the annual KMWorld conference, meeting new folks and catching up with old friends. I say now, as I did then, that Jane and Hugh (if you're reading this, you already know who they are) put on a great conference. It's easily my second favorite conference of the year (I'll let you guess which conference is my top pick). Sadly, this year client commitments will prevent me from attending KMWorld--but a client commitment is a good thing to have these days, so I can't complain too much.

However, what this amounts to is akin to getting a free upgrade to first class for everyone else attending. I was scheduled to participate in the panel discussion. Luckily, I was able to convince our president, Dr. Carla O'Dell, to step in and provide her insight into the future of knowledge. What an upgrade! By the way, Darcy Lemons, our top KM researcher, is also scheduled to speak at the conference. If you want to find out why your lessons learned program doesn't work, be sure to attend her session.

KMWorld is an annual event that I always enjoy attending. No, not because San Jose is a beautiful, comfortable place to be during September (although it is both), but because it's a place to learn, to collaborate, to meet new folks, and to catch up with long-time KM friends. Jane Dysart and Hugh McKellar always put on a good show here in central California, and this year has been no different.

What is different from 2007 is the sense of what's hot, if that's an appropriate term to use in this area we call KM. (If you're wondering why I would even ask that question, note that "Is KM dead?" was also asked at the conference.) What I'm feeling here--or not feeling to be more precise--is the overwhelming number of sessions devoted to the topic of Web 2.0 social networking applications. To be sure, there are some breakouts devoted to connectivity via social tools, but overall, there seems to be more balance between technology and "softer" topics this year. Practical advice such as how to gain sponsorship, real world case studies, and techniques for improved knowledge sharing seem to be just as prevalent topics.