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

It's 2009--do you know where your KM is? Okay, so that was mostly just a lame attempt to say "Happy New Year!" to everyone. But really, where are your knowledge management efforts getting you? If it were up to me, KM would look and feel much like the social communities that we've modeled many knowledge-sharing practices after. Here's an example that I think embodies everything I'm trying to convey: It's the global positioning satellite receiver (or GPSr) community.

On behalf of everyone at APQC, I'd like to wish you a happy 2009! I hope you've all had a relaxing, enjoyable holiday season and are feeling rested and ready for the year ahead.

As some of you may remember, APQC's December KM community call focused on the 2008 Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) study, conducted by Teleos in association with The KNOW Network. We were joined by special guest presenter Rory Chase, managing director of Teleos, who provided an overview of the award's history and announced the 2008 global winners.  The call also included presentations by representatives from four of the 20 global winners: Carla O'Dell from APQC, Tom Barfield from Accenture, Dan Nerison from Fluor, and Susan Rosenbaum from Schlumberger.

With so much great material to cover, our presenters weren't able to answer all of your questions during the presentation. However, as we promised at the end of the call, we've compiled your questions and are posting the presenters' responses below. Thank you to everyone who participated in the call, and a special thank you to our presenters who took time out of the busy holiday season to write such thoughtful replies. We hope you find the answers helpful as you pursue your KM goals for the new year.

How will the current economic crisis affect 2009 knowledge management budgets and priorities?   Until now, no one has had the answer to this question.  On November 20, APQC's KM community came together during its monthly call to fill the void.  We anonymously polled everyone on the call (more than 80 people with every imaginable KM title) about how the economy is impacting their KM budgets and objectives for 2009. Here's what we found.

I recently had the privilege of speaking at the second annual Southern California KM Forum. I met many great people there and learned a lot about their various KM programs and activities. One presentation in particular sticks out in my mind. Given by Charlotte Linde from the NASA Ames Research Center, it asked the question: How long should knowledge last? One month? One year? Five years? Ten years?

Charlotte illustrated her question with the example of NASA's new mission to return to the moon (Constellation). No one realized after the last mission in 1972 (Apollo 17) that it would be 35+ years before we returned again. Much of the knowledge of that mission has not been lost, per se, but mislaid. Some of it is in documents in boxes in people's garages. Some only resides in the brains of the individuals who worked on the mission. Some is recorded on videotapes or saved in programming code that we no longer have the technology to read or decode.

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.