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.

Do you sell technology or fix business problems?

Dennis Kennedy has an interesting observation about IT and the specific implementation of IT to serve a business. 

Ross Kodner has a great post on the differences between legal technology and information technology (IT). It's a great discussion-starter and should make you think. Highly recommended.

The money quote:

A mistake I've observed SO many firms of ALL sizes across the continent is confusing IT and LT - not making, or not knowing there is a fundamental distinction between these two areas of information.

Now that I am working for a company that creates information technology tools for other companies, it is very to slip into this confusion.  Information Technology at my company are not the people doing product development.  Product development is creating tools that our customers need to do their work more effectively.  IT is providing us tools for the same purpose (ideally).

This may be one of the sources of the classic KM problem.  Everyone in KM cringes at the KM-as-technology issue, but it is so easy to make the mistake.  KM certainly looks like information technology to an outsider -- particularly to the vendor who is selling the technology.  But the customer is looking so solve a business problem, not implement another technology suite.

PocketPC, ActiveSync, and network connections

NASA and the potential for lost knowledge