Atle Iversen (fixed spelling, sorry!) has a series of posts on what he is calling Knowledge Management 3.0. I like nearly all of what he has to say. Some relevant quotes:
Collecting and sharing with others is still important, but what you share with your project is not necessary the same as you share with your department, division or your organization.
- There is no point collecting common knowledge if it isn't shared.
- There is no point sharing knowledge if it isn't used.
and later
If you don't know why you want a KM system or what you want from it, you probably won't succeed (and probably shouldn't even try).
I totally agree with this idea. There is no point in doing knowledge management if it doesn't help you get things done. It's hard to believe that you would want to do anything else.
While there may be a 3.0 to knowledge management, this progression doesn't do it for me. (There are many other descriptions of movements in KM that give it three, four, five stages, depending on your point of view.)
If your KM efforts aren't bringing some kind of value or changing the way you do business, then why are you doing it?