The power of Google has shown up in the comments on my KM at Novartis from David L. Chu. He was one of the key people involved in creating Novartis' Knowledge Marketplace with Joerg Staheli. He describes the environment and his involvement in detail in the comments (read the rest of them in the original post).
I worked with Joerg Staheli, whom I consider to be my mentor, to create the Knowledge Marketplace. I, too, was a technology scout and my contribution was in knowledge management. I had proposed a Knowledge Office for Novartis Pharma Research during the merger process. And as a result I was named the first Knowledge Officer of Novartis Pharma Research. I had already re-architected the technical architecture of the Knowledge Marketplace in Notes and later for the event documented by CIO re-engineered the Knowledge Marketplace for the Web.
"Knowledge Networking" was a term that I had coined in 1995 when I first joined Sandoz. I had also coined the phrase, "Knowledge without Action is useless. Action without Knowledge is dangerous." There was a big news group discussion/argument between two camps on the international scene. One camp wanted to call the knowledge effort "knowledge management" and the other thought it was to controlling.
He also offered to make some of his writing / presentations available. He's given me permission to post an abstract from 1996 and a presentation from 1998 on the topic.
The Organizational Mind (pdf, abstract) for an internal Sandoz presentation by Dave Chu and Guy Talbot of the Central Technology group at Sandoz.
What is the most powerful tool at our disposal? No, it's not Notes - although we Notes evangelists sometimes may come across as suggesting it. The most powerful tool is of course the contents inside those round containers atop our shoulders - our minds. Not just one mind but our combined minds - the virtual "organizational mind." ...
"Wholistic" Knowledge Management at Novartis Consumer Health (pdf) slides from a 1998 presentation at the European Conference Board Conference on Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. These lay out the thinking behind KM at Novartis in the mid-1990's. Note that some proprietary-content slides have been removed. They start with a great quote from one of Dave's ancestors that inspired his "Knowledge without Action is useless. Action without Knowledge is dangerous."
Knowledge and action always require each other. With respect to order, knowledge comes first, and with respect to importance, action is more important... - Chu Hsi, 12th Century