Adventures in Knowledge

Change this.....

I recently came across a site in my web travels called "ChangeThis". I found the content presented in a range of formats to be refreshing both in the viewpoints presented and the way in which they are tabled. I always am willing to view different perspectives with an open mind as it broadens the way I think and injects new thoughts.

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. The authors state that they are on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds. In the same vein as TED they are certainly on an exciting journey.

I encourage you to have a look!

Social computing upends past knowledge management archetypes

I recently was forwarded a trend paper produced by Forrester Research titled: "Social Computing Upends Past Knowledge Management Archetypes". I cannot link or reproduce the entire paper due to copyright, but thought I would provide the Exec Summary which by itself is quite interesting.

"When knowledge management (KM) practices, tools, and architectures burst onto the scene in the mid-1990's, the looked a lot like the old economy business that built them, hierarchical and work flow driven. Now, Social Computing tools are flattening those architectures and extending the reach of KM well beyond the walls of the conventional enterprise to touch customers and business partners. Information and KM professionals are becoming knowledge facilitators, and they must get smart fast to capitalise on this trend. Although disruptive, Social Computing will transform KM, shifting the emphasis from repositories, which are hard to build and maintain, to more intuitive, tacit knowledge sharing. Social computing is becoming the new KM, moving it from an often too academic exercise into the real world of people sharing knowledge and expertise with each other naturally, without even thinking about it."

This paper certainly provided me with much enthusiasm to see what I have been talking about becoming more mainstream. It also left me with a feeling of frustration that a lot of big organisations still are not even in this space, let alone seeing the urgent need to develop social network strategies for corporate knowledge. I continually see a focus on the technology - a "new toy" to play with, yet little thought being placed in the development of a road map for the organisation - what will the impact / value add be of embracing a social network approach to the business - is the culture of the organisation ready to support such a move - how will we educate our people to the benefits of being more networked - does management understand and support this change in the business - just to name a few big questions!

Anyway - ultimately it will be those organisations that embrace this challenge today that will have competitive advantage and an enhanced value proposition tomorrow....