Contents
1 Introduction
2 Its degrading
3 ADVERTISEMENT: ebic 2008
4 RioTinto Community of Practice success story
5 JOB AD: Knowledge Management Specialist
6 Open salaries
7 KM Global Directory from Ron Young
8 The Gurteen Perspectives, Scibd and Calameo
9 SLA Conference Seattle
10 Victor Newman is blogging!
11 My Upcoming Activities
12 KM Event Highlights
13 Subscribing and Unsubscribing
14 The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction (top | next | prev)
I am always on the lookout for exciting things taking place on the web: organizations, websites and services that I think will have a major impact on the way that we see the world and on the way that we share our knowledge and work together.
The TED Conferences and associated TED talks is at the top of my list and I have talked about them much in the past.
The TED talks are awesome. There have been 50 million views since they debuted on-line two years ago and they have become a powerful cultural force. Here are the top 10 most-viewed TED Talk videos from June 2006 to May 2008.
- Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
- Jeff Han's touchscreen foreshadows the iPhone and more
- David Gallo shows underwater astonishments
- Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth
- Arthur Benjamin does "mathemagic"
- Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
- Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen
- Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do
- Al Gore on averting a climate crisis
- Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks
Its degrading (top | next | prev)
Its great to see Michele Martin blogging on the work of Alfie Kohn when she talks about De-Grading the Workplace as I hugely admire Alfie and his work and frequently quote from him.
We have a tendency to want to find "incentives" that will encourage people to learn and engage in new workplace behaviors, but these incentives are often external, such as prizes, financial incentives, good performance reviews, etc. Kohn's research indicates, though, that linking learning to external rewards actually has impacts that are the opposite of what we are generally trying to achieve. Instead, we need to appeal to intrinsic motivators, such as people's desire to help others, getting enjoyment out of the task, feeling like they belong to a cohesive group and feeling like they're contributing to something meaningful.Michele is talking about the negative impact of external rewards on social media participation; I talk about it more in the context of KM while Alfie tends to focus on education but Alfie's views apply right across the board. Let me conclude with one of my favorite quotes from him (the bolding is mine):Credit: Michele Martin
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.Credit: Alfie Kohn
ADVERTISEMENT: ebic 2008 (top | next | prev)
ebic 2008 is the key networking event for people working in the Knowledge and Information arena. Berlin is the venue for the 17th ebic conference.
Between 1-3 October 2008, outstanding speakers and facilitators will work with Knowledge and Information management (KIM) leaders and influencers to explore the trends and drivers that are determining the future of our organisations, market places and societies.
They will 'imagine' how the KIM community can play a significant and positive role in this future.
The theme of the conference is 'Connecting with the future' and the underlying focus is innovation. For programme information or to register please visit www.tfpl.com/ebic
RioTinto Community of Practice success story (top | next | prev)
Mark Bennett of Rio Tinto in Perth, Australia has told me about a brief (5 minute) video which describes a Community of Practice success story.
I think that everyone who has embarked on a CoP Programme has struggled with communicating what success looks like, and so when we (Rio Tinto) came across a great example of how our Maintenance CoP fixed a vexing problem by quickly transferring knowledge across the world between people who didn't know each other, we decided to make a video to communicate what happened by telling the story using a video medium.
Credit: Mark Bennett, Rio Tinto, Principal Adviser - Communities of Practice
JOB AD: Knowledge Management Specialist (top | next | prev)
The Knowledge Management Specialist will be responsible for the strategic development and implementation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) Knowledge Management and Intellectual Property Strategies and Policies both within the NDA and its wider estate. In addition they will lead the creation of a sustainable learning and knowledge culture.
To join us, you should be educated to degree level in a Science, Engineering or Business related discipline and have substantial practical experience working as a professional Knowledge Manager. In addition to this, you’ll have experience acting as an agent of change within a large organisation and have a thorough understanding of financial, contractual and commercial issues.
To find out more about this role please visit http://www.nda.gov.uk/recruitment
Closing date: 11th July 2008.
Open salaries (top | next | prev)
Now here is simple yet powerful sharing concept - a website Glassdoor.com that allows you to share your salary details with others! Here is how they describe themselves:
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers -- all for free.I have always admired the one or two organizations that I have read about who have been prepared to be open about their salaries but this is another way of getting close to achieving the same end.
What sets us apart is that all our information comes from the people who know these companies best -- employees.
Credit:: Glassdoor.com
It reminds me that some years ago I came into the office early and on going to the print room found the whole of the organization's salary details sitting in the print hopper. Of course I rescued them and delivered them safely to the MD who had printed them out late the night before and then forgotten about them. Of course, not before I had thoroughly digested them and realized the downright lies that were being told by senior managers about how salaries were managed but of course I couldn't act upon it.
Alexander Kjerulf, in this article has some interesting thoughts on the subject and on openness in general:
I believe on a very fundamental level that openness is better than secrecy, in life and in business. I’m not naïve enough to share all information all the time, but my chosen approach is “Let’s make everything open by default and only make those things secret that absolutely need to be”. Would I share my list of prospective clients with my competitors? Nah. Would I share it inside the company? Heck, yeah!
Credit:: Alexander Kjerulf
KM Global Directory from Ron Young (top | next | prev)
Ron Young of Knowledge Management Online has created a Global Community of KM Practitioners where he invites KM practitioners, consultants, students and interested parties, to join, create and upload their own web page about themselves, their KM interests, and their KM needs, problems, issues and challenges to his website.
Post your own profile and take a look at the people who have recently joined.
The Gurteen Perspectives, Scibd and Calameo (top | next | prev)
Over the past two years, I have written about 20 Gurteen Perspective articles for Inside Knowledge magazine and it seemed somewhat a waste to not do more with them and so I have merged them together with the profile that was written about me recently into a little twenty page saddle stitched A5 booklet.
I have had a batch of these printed off in color and plan to give them away to people at workshops and conferences. They really look quite stunning and I am delighted with them!
To top this, you may recall I recently mentioned the Scribd iPaper utility that allows you to publish PDF files on-line. This is a great little service and I have loaded all my PDF files up to the site including all my past Inside Knowledge Perspectives where they can be viewed individually; downloaded and even embedded in other sites or weblogs.
But since then I have come across yet another great site called Calaméo. It turns PDFs and indeed other files into on-line interactive web publications such as magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures and more.
So its a perfect medium to publish my Gurteen Perspectives booklet.
SLA Conference Seattle (top | next | prev)
I had a great time at the SLA coneference in Seattle last week. Started out on the Saturday with a boat trip on the Seattle waterways thanks to Paulette deGard and her family. It was a beautiful evening as you can see in the photos.
Dave Snowden gave a keynote talk on the Monday morning that was well received and that he has podcasted. However, many times I see Dave and hear the children's party story I always come away feeling motivated and energized.
I had been a little nervous about my talk and knowledge cafe as it was to be held in a room with lecture style seating for up to 200 people. In the end I need not have worried as we the only had 100 or so people and as everyone told me - librarians love to talk. So just getting people to turn to each and talk where they sat and to move between groups worked just fine.
The only real down side was that we could not have a whole group conversation and people had to report back via the fixed microphones. But the event pretty much proved what I have often said that a knowledge cafe cannot go far wrong as long as you have a good facilitator, a bunch of people and an interesting theme. Nothing else matters!
What some others said about the Knowledge Cafe: A big thanks to Donna Gibson, Dianna Wiggins, Nerida Hart, David Stein and Karen Huffman for making the trip possible and looking after me so well.
Victor Newman is blogging! (top | next | prev)
I am sure that many of you know Victor Newman and will be delighted to hear that he has started a blog. He has put his blogging-toe gingerly in the water with a slightly controversial article: "The Innovator's Got To Do It!". Well worth a read, especially if he can keep it up as I hugely respect Victor's insights and his wit.
There is also, online, a video of him explaining 4 Faces of a CEO to an audience of Chairmen of CEO mentoring groups from the ACE (Academy for Chief Executives) franchise. It lasts under 20 minutes, and he claims only to have made two mistakes!
My Upcoming Activities (top | next | prev)
This section of my Knowledge Letter highlights my planned activities over the next six months or so. Its prime purpose is to allow you to know where I will be and to contact me if you would like to meet. I also use Dopplr to allow people to track my travlels more closely and to potentially meet up with me. You can see a list of my immediate activities below or a full list here.
SE Asia Trip
12 - 21 Jul 2008, Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta/Bali 6-15 July to run a workshop & speaking at MAKE Award; Singapore 16-18 July
World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council
13 - 17 Aug 2008, Québec, Canada
I will be giving a talk at this event
Brazil Trip
23 Aug - 01 Sep 2008, São Paulo, Brazil
I will be giving a keynote talk at KM Brazil in São Paulo 23 Aug - 1 Sep
Kunnskapstinget 2008
22 - 23 Sep 2008, Oslo, Norway
I will be giving a keynote talk & facilitating a Knowledge Cafe at this event
Australia Trip
06 - 24 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia
I will be visiting Australia & New Zealand about the week of the 6th October for 3 weeks
South Africa Trip
10 - 21 Nov 2008, Cape Town, South Africa
I am planning a two week trip to South Africa, the week of the 10th November
KM Event Highlights (top | next | prev)
This section highlights some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.
Social KM Cafe
09 - 10 Jul 2008, Jakarta, Indonesia
I will be facilitating this workshop.
The 2008 Indonesian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Study
15 Jul 2008, Jakarta, Indonesia
I will be giving a talk on KM goes Social at this award ceremony
KM Australia 2008
21 - 23 Jul 2008, Melbourne, Australia
I won't be attending this event in 2008 but I can highly recommend it.
KM Brasil 2008
27 - 29 Aug 2008, Sao Paulo, Brazil
I will be giving a keynote talk at this conference.
9th European Conference on Knowledge Management
04 - 05 Sep 2008, Southampton, United Kingdom
I have attended this conference for the last 3 years. I will likely attend this one.
Implementing a Knowledge Cafe
10 Sep 2008, London, United Kingdom
I am looking forward to facilitating this Masterclass in September.
KMWorld & Intranets 2008
22 - 25 Sep 2008, San Jose, United States
I attended this conference in 2007 and hugely enjoyed it but I will not be attending in 2008 as it clashes with the KM Conference in Oslo at which I am keynoting.
Kunnskapstinget 2008
23 Sep 2008, Oslo, Norway
I will be giving a keynote talk at this conference.
ebic 2008
01 - 03 Oct 2008, Berlin, Germany
KnowTech 2008
08 - 09 Oct 2008, Frankfurt, Germany
actKM Conference 2008
14 - 15 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia
I am pleased to say I will be participating in this conference again this year.
Subscribing and Unsubscribing (top | next | prev)
You may subscribe to this newsletter on my website. Or if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter or if you wish to modify your e-mail address or make other changes to your membership profile then please go to this page on my website.
The Gurteen Knowledge Letter (top | next | prev)
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for Knowledge Workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.
It is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England.
You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
