This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

PKM a paradox

Denham Grey talks about PKM (personal knowledge management)

PKM to me is a paradox - knowledge in my world is socially constructed - it is not about organizing your thoughts, learning to use tools or developing individual competencies - it is about dialog, community and collaboration.

He has some interesting comments here. Strictly personal knowledge management is mostly information management - keeping track of things I've read and seen before; categorizing; filing.

However, where it becomes more than information management and flows into KM is in how I integrate my "PKM system" with my life. Do I use the information I've squirrelled away to improve interactions with my colleagues and friends? Does my system extend my capabilities with these people?

Even more - what if a workgroup all use a similar set of tools for PKM? Can that set of tools be integrated to share knowledge together? In my mind, this is where we can begin building common ideas, common understandings across the group. I suspect that the ability of this kind of combination to work across large groups (greater than 150?) diminishes, as eventually there is a loss of common language and interest - or the commonality is at a level that does not have enough detail. But then, there are communities with hundreds or thousands of members that seem to do fairly well.

I do agree that many of the systems I consider as PKM are those that help me be more effective with what I have and with my interactions with others.

e-Notebooks are like blogs

PhD on Personal KM