Adventures in Knowledge

Profound Knowledge in an Networked World

I just came a cross a posting in Value Networks by Jay Deragon titled "Profound Knowledge in a Networked World" His opening paragraph:

"The Relationship Economy will require transformation of knowledge, management, media, technology and individual participation.The prevailing cultures that are driving all business must undergo transformation.  The "system" of relationship networks can not understand itself. The transformation to the Relationship Economy requires a view from outside."

certainly has struck a chord with me, as this is the fundamental idea that I have been putting foward in our move to a networked world. Jay goes onto talk about the transformation of the individual as part of a "profound knowledge of the networked world". When reading how he sees an individual being transformed, it certainly mirrored a lot of my experience in changing the way I looked at knowledge in a networked world. Also, in talking about the relationship economy, once again People are at the centre - not technology.

On another note, I will be taking a "short break" from blogging for the next two weeks as I venture to New Zealand for some skiing - hopefully the gods will be kind and bring some healthy snow showers in the coming week!

Web 2.0: Profiting from the Threat

Strategy & Business have just released a new article called Web 2.0: Profiting from the Threat. It quotes a recent Booz Allen Hamilton study showing just how prevalent this interactive consumer behavior has become and, at the same time, puts to rest any notion that social networkers are all 17-year-old boys — or that “average people” don’t read Weblogs. The study found that 50 percent of all Internet users frequent social media sites, and that more than half of the visitors to MySpace, the notoriously youth-oriented social networking site, are 25 or older.

The article goes on to identify three ways that the Internet is altering the marcomms landscape, along with the hidden opportunities in each.

1. Web 2.0 means companies are no longer solely in control of their message. Corporations are unable to rely on traditional one-way methods of communication

2. Web 2.0 is fragmenting marketing channels. The explosion of blogs and social networking sites — some 100,000 new blogs launch daily — is breaking already-fragmented marketing channels into even tinier pieces.

3. Web 2.0 offers a bullhorn for consumer complaints. Learn from computer maker Dell’s mistake: In 2005, it ignored a single blogger’s complaint about its poor customer service, only to see that posting set off an avalanche of negative commentary online that eventually reached traditional media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. 

Indeed this article does show that Web 2.0 is getting increasing attention in the mainstream media and the impact this will beginning to have on corporates. I still do wonder if this is getting the attention at the "C" level that it deserves.....

100 Websites you should know and use

Courtesy of TED, here is a link to a list of 100 websites you should know and use. This list has some great sites! If you have not heard of TED, I suggest you take a look. It has an impressive range of presentations on a variety of topics providing much "food for thought". All are engaging and are able to be downloaded onto your Video iPod.

Future of Volunteering

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been involved in a project called "The Future of Volunteering"

Is volunteering a doomed activity?  Where will the volunteers of the future come from?  What will motivate them?  What might volunteering look like in the future?  What forms might volunteering take (eg corporate volunteering, time-limited or project-based etc)? These are all questions which need to be considered in understanding the drivers of volunteering.

The Future of Volunteering is an innovative  project which will, for the first time in the world, use narrative research processes, tools and proprietary software  Sensemaker ^TM developed by Cognitive Edge to explore an issue of critical public policy.  The project is funded by the Department of Disability Ageing and Home Care (NSW), via New South Wales Meals on Wheels. It is supported by the Minister for Ageing, Disability and Home Care (Minster Keneally), the Minster for Volunteering (Minister Burney), and Premier and Cabinet, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as well as peak organisations in the community care sector.    The Society of Organisational Learning Australia and Cognitive Edge are providing the software and facilitation expertise. (SoLA is the learning partner for Cognitive Edge in Asia Pacific).

The key objectives of the project are to develop an understanding of policy issues and implications given the changes in demographics and patterns of volunteering, as well as guidance for those organisations funding and managing volunteers.   The initial focus is New South Wales (Australia), however there is already interest from other states and countries to replicate the project.

We now are at the stage where we are launching the survey that will be used to collect approximately 10,000 stories: http://www.cognitive-edge.com/surveys/fov/

The survey will be open for a period of four weeks. The more publicity we can get about this survey the better. It is open for anyone to contribute, but the focus will initially be on NSW based input.

Any organisation or individual with experience in volunteering or managing volunteers is encouraged to participate in this programme. The more stories we are able to collect, the greater the pool of stories that can be used to identify themes and patterns around volunteering.

Post the collection of stories, we will be holding three workshops to make sense of the themes and patterns that will emerge.

Below is a link to a document that provides an overview of the project. I will provide some updates on progress as we move through the collection process and conduct the workshops.

Download future_of_volunteering_overview.doc

Please spread the word!

Social Network for 8 year olds?

ON the weekend, my 8 year old, was telling me about the fun he was having on "Mathletics" - a website that kids can go on to improve their grasp of Maths in a fun way. They get points for winning competitions against the computer for different types of math exercises, which they can then use to buy different cloths and accessories for their character.

The first thing that struck me was the character Nathan had put together was intriguing to say the least - cool clothes, sunglasses, hair colour etc - it gave quite an insight into the mind of a modern day 8 year old! The second thing which amazed me was the way the site has been constructed to allow the kids to play against each other in live competitions. My 8 year old had a phone call from one of his friends asking if he wanted to play him live online. They both went onto the Mathletics site and competed in different types of math games against each other, and other kids as well. This live online competition apparently has taken off at his school - the latest question is  - are you are playing Mathletics Live? If you are, it is "cool".

So are we seeing the start of social networks at this age? and the use of avatars? The mind boggles as to what they will call this generation when they reach the workforce......

On the Road.....

It's been a little while since my last decent post - life's been rather hectic since KM Australia! I just have been on a whirlwind visit to Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur which has put me out of contact more often than not.

I previously mentioned an ONA project that I was doing for an organisation in China. Since then I have been invited to talk about ONA and how Enterprise 2.0 can be used for collaboration, at their annual conference in September where all senior execs from across the country attend. This certainly continues to validate my belief in organisations becoming more network centric. I will post the presentation on slideshare if I can get permission.

On anther note, I have recently been involved in a Cognitive-Edge project called "The Future of Volunteering" where we are looking to uncover the drivers of people volunteering, the policy implications of such and provide recommendations to government. This is a milestone project in that it will be the first time that the Cognitive Edge tools and processes have been applied to explore an issue of critical public policy. We will be using the Cognitive Edge Sensemaker suite as part of the process. I intend to blog more on this as we get further into the programme of activities. This is a really exciting project to be involved in!

Finally :) I will be speaking at a conference Public Relations Summit 2007 in Melbourne (21/22 August) with the MD of Dow Jones Asia - Bruce Macfarlane. The topic we are talking on is The rise of "Turbo Capitalism" and the impact on decision making. This should be an interesting presentation as it really is focussing on the implications for decison making by changes in the way information and knowledge transfer is occuring today. We are intending to make this more of a discussion between us, and try to involve the audience in the discussion.

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Here is another great addition to the Plain English" series from the team at Commoncraft: Social Bookmarking in Plain English . It is great to be able to share these with people who have not beed exposed. Keep them coming!

Shifts Happen - How Knowledge is Created in the Information Era (repost - links fixed)

Here is a link to a blog entry on my presentation at KM Australia, posted by Ralph Kerle at the Creative Leadership Forum titled Shifts Happen - How Knowledge is created in the Information Era.

Thanks for the feedback Ralph!

A shift to new ways of thinking in Knowledge Management

Ross Dawson has a recent blog entry Knowledge Management shifts to new ways of thinking where he makes the case that:

“Organisations have been trying to find ways to make knowledge management more productive, but a lot of problems have stood in the way,” says Ross Dawson, chairman of Future Exploration Network. “But we have now moved into a new phase of emerging technologies.”

Dawson likes to refer to this organisational shift as Enterprise 2.0, where the tools and approaches of Web 2.0 are now captured inside the enterprise. “It’s about getting group input to create an emergent response, getting many people to create input,” says Dawson. “You can click input, tag input and rate input and as you get more input on creating outcomes, emergent results occur. Things get better the more people that use them.”

I think the point Ross makes about emergent outcomes cannot be underestimated, as this is really a fundamental aspect of the network centric world we are moving into. However, it does require the mindset shift to thinking about Enterprise 2.0 application in the business. I have seen examples of organisations who don't "get it" trying to retrospectively fit  / build Web 2.0 applications into content portals with the aim of generating more content in a very structured environment. This kind of effort will burn lots of cash and effort, with little return - return being uptake / participation from employees. Indeed, why would one spend time / effort  in connecting with others if they cannot determine the reasons why they want to do so, and customise their network to reflect their identity. Part of this comes down to a reluctance to losen the "command and control" ties and acknowledge that networks are inherently messy. A better approach would be to provide the tools that allow people to connect, and then get out of the way! If content is the ultimate objective, then this will follow as people network and collaborate.