All in knowledge management
Malcolm Ryder has some fun with "Business Intelligence versus Business Knowledge: Who Cares?" I particularly like his thoughts about business intelligence, or more accurately, the process of seeing patterns in the constant wave of data, information and knowledge.
I discovered Anti-Knowledge by Bruce LaDuke recently. What struck me was the central role he gives to the power of the question in his framing of how human knowledge develops.
"Beating the Boomer Brain Drain Blues" is a good overview of the knowledge retention problem facing many companies. It provides some suggestions on how to think about the problem, and there are many examples.
The McKinsey Quarterly has Ten trends to watch in 2006 by Ian Davis and Elizabeth Stephenson, which are really trends to watch over the next decade. Several of these ring for me.
I stumbled upon Eric Tsui's 2002 technology survey, "Technologies for Personal and Peer to Peer Knowledge Management," when writing my earlier article on PIM. I do not recall having read Eric Tsui in the past, but many of his ideas about knowledge management and the emphasis on personal vs. corporation are strongly connected to how I have thought of KM.
I came across "The knowledge management puzzle: Human and social factors in knowledge management" from the 2001 IBM Systems Journal. The authors use the metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle to motivate their discussion, suggesting that IT is only one of many pieces to the puzzle for knowledge management. And they also acknowledge that there are pieces they may not know that create still other pictures when the pieces come together. They also provide a great set of references for the curious.
I've been moderately successful in this consulting gig, however moderately isn't cutting the mustard when it comes to a feeling of stability with another child coming along.
Rather than making a list of my favorite KM blogs, which is always changing, why not make that list available to the public. And instead of a blogroll, why not put it somewhere everyone can use it. Viola, Blogdigger (and others).
Jeff Oxenford tells an entertaining quick story about Capturing Knowledge (attempting to) from his 7-year old daughter and her fun science project. Tears ensued, passion waned. Redemption at the end.
Don Cohen writes about "The Knowledge Technology Trap" at the Babson Knowledge blog: ""Knowledge management projects focused mainly on technology will fail."
Dana Dolan found an interesting quote from Richard Templeton of Texas Instruments, "the biggest thing you do to reward great business people and great technological people is to give them harder problems."
Sylvie Noel has a basic suggestion on How to get better information from an expert: "[I]f you want to understand your local expert, tell her how much you already know about the subject. That way, she can adjust her vocabulary to your needs."
Another article on KM mistakes / myths, this time from Michael Gilbert at Nonprofit Onlines News: "Seven Knowledge Management Mistakes." He also introduces his idea of The Tyranny of the Tangible.
Christian Wagner discusses the problems with knowledge acquisition and suggests that wikis in combination with communities might be a solution for knowledge acquisition where more formal processes have failed.
Joy London points to "Lisa Kellar's MS Outlook: KM Friend or Foe?" The answer to the question posed by the article isn't yes or no, it really does depend on what you want as a result.
Dennis Reyes at ITtoolbox's writes "That Won't Work Here...It's too Transparent!" which suggests change management needs to be a critical aspect of business changes.
SNA expert Robert Cross writes about "Knowledge Loss in Organizations." I like the emphasis on using SNA as a diagnostic tool, particularly as he talks about the differing impacts of Central Connectors, Brokers, and Peripheral Players.
The December 2005 Mindjet Insider Newsletter focuses on the topic of "Tapping into Corporate Knowledge." In all their examples, the use of the mind map goes beyond the single-user to the collective.
Jeremy Hiebert found an interesting article about learning and personal "stuff" management. "Can personal digital knowledge artefacts' management and social networks enhance learning?" by Riina Vuorikari.
Martin Dugage at Mopsos took away "Three questions from Richard McDermott" at a recent conference. He provides his answers, and I figured I'd could take a crack at them too. 1: Is more knowledge always better? 2: Is more connectivity better? 3:How do we deepen our expertise?