**** The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter (Issue 38, 6 August 2003) ****
I seem to have so much planned between now and the end of the year!
I'm off to Seattle at the end of the month for a 3 week vacation. If
you are based there or close by then get in touch as I am trying to
arrange a local get together.
Shortly after I get back, I'm co-chairing a KM conference in Oxford
and running a knowledge café. And in early November I will be
running knowledge cafés at both KM Asia and KM Europe.
Then on the 26th November, I will be running a second "Gurteen
Knowledge Conference" in London.
My London based knowledge cafés will also be starting up again in the
autumn.
But what is taking up most of my time right now is turning the 8,500
of you who receive my knowledge letter into more of a 'learning
community'.
More in this months issue on all of these events.
*************************** Contents ***************************
1 - The Gurteen Knowledge Community
2 - KM Asia and KM Europe
3 - Thedore Zeldin Webcast
4 - The Second Gurteen Knowledge Conference
5 - Personal Networking Tips
6 - Intranet and KM white papers
7 - Meet with me in Seattle
8 - Portal KMOL Interview with Margaret Haines
9 - Weblogs, Rebecca Blood and Radio Arthur
10 - KM Surveys
11 - European Guide to Good Practice in KM
12 - Posting events on my website
13 - Gurteen Knowledge-Calendar
14 - What's New?
**************** The Gurteen Knowledge Community ****************
I am working to turn the 8,500 readers of this newsletter into a
'global community' interested in the "mobilization of knowledge" in
its broadest sense i.e. not just knowledge management but personal
development, learning, creativity and innovation and the effective
use of information technology.
The form that this community should take is still not totally clear
to me but I am making a start with the aim of letting it evolve :-)
I plan to create a community with two levels of membership: full
members who wish to play an active role and receive some tangible
benefits and who would pay a small yearly fee while people who wished
to take a less active interest would join as associate members for
free.
As a first step, I am making you all associate members of the
"Gurteen Knowledge Community" but this is just words nothing
substantially will change. You will still receive this free Gurteen
Knowledge Letter and access to my site for will remain open. I have
no plans to ever charge for my knowledge-letter and I plan for my
website to always be 95% open. To me it makes no sense to talk about
sharing knowledge and then to lock it away behind closed doors.
Why the change? Two reasons: first it is a first step in building
the community. But second, if I am to do this well I need to commit
myself full-time and the community needs to pay its way. Currently,
my website and knowledge letter are labors of love and I earn my
living as a consultant. But I now find that I am spending as much as
80% of my time building the community and earning less and less
through consultancy. I am not looking to build a business but simply
to earn a living out of doing something that I love and that I hope
will bring benefit to all concerned.
I hope I have your support in this. I would love to receive your
thoughts and feedback so please feel free to e-mail me. But one very
big caveat - I cannot promise to return your e-mail. I already
receive several hundred e-mails each month and cannot cope with all
of those though I do and will continue to do my best.
********************* KM Asia and KM Europe *********************
KM Asia and KM Europe both take place this year in November. KM Asia
will be held on 4 - 6 November in Singapore followed by KM Europe in
Amsterdam on 10 -12 November.
If you are in anyway involved in KM or simply interested in the
subject area then these are must events.
At KM Asia I will be speaking on "Communicating the Value of KM
Throughout Your Organization" and at both KM Asia and KM Europe I
will be running a half-day workshop on "On the role of knowledge
cafes and how to run them".
I will have more to say about both these events nearer the time and I
hope to meet many of you there.
KM Asia 2003
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000ADBC2?open&r=3&p=0
KM Europe 2003
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000E06F2?open&r=3&p=0
******************** Thedore Zeldin Webcast ********************
If you missed Theodore Zeldin's talk at the Tate Modern in London in
June then you can now watch the webcast on-line. I highly recommended
it - Theodore is doing some exciting work!
http://www.tate.org.uk/audiovideo/zeldin.htm
Theodore Zeldin:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0000EDEA?open&r=3&p=0
************ The Second Gurteen Knowledge Conference ************
Yet another date for your diary! I have just started to plan a second
knowledge conference for November 26th.
Based on feedback from the first conference my goal is to make this
one extremely interactive and to focus very much on the people and
community aspects of KM.
I'm delighted that Mick Cope and Victoria Ward have agreed to be two
of my key speakers but I plan that they will be facilitating more
than speaking :-)
Mick Cope:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000020F6?open&r=3&p=0
Victoria Ward:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00509A42?open&r=3&p=0
******************* Personal Networking Tips *******************
In response to my personal networking tips last month, James Dellow
from Australia offers a few of his own:
While some networking skills are very personal - i.e. the ability to
listen - some tips and techniques are quite simple.
For example, I've learnt a couple of simple methods that help me to
use other people's business cards more effectively.
When you receive a business card from someone, later make a note on
the back about where and when you were introduced and something about
their interests.
And from Asian business culture I've learnt to take time to study a
business card and ask questions based on the information on the card.
Its a great way to build rapport with someone because it shows you
are taking an interest in them.
Business cards are a very simple form of knowledge management
technology if you like. However, some people like to hand out glossy
business cards with no space on the back to make notes ... which just
shows that even the simplest KM technology can easily become unusable
for its purpose.
Personal Networking:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00370002?open&r=3&p=0
Australia:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000A6F92?open&r=3&p=0
***************** Intranet And Km White Papers *****************
More whitepapers from James Robertson of Step Two Designs in
Australia:
* Stakeholder interviews as simple knowledge mapping
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_interviews
Stakeholder interviews are a very effective way of gaining an
understanding of an organisation, and can be considered a form of
'knowledge mapping'
* Specifying technology in a CMS tender
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_tendertech
While a CMS tender should focus on business requirements, technology
issues will need to be specified, but in a way that ensures the best
system is not knocked out of the running.
* XML and content management systems
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_xmlandcms
This article explores the role of XML in the context of content
management systems, focusing specifically on the business issues.
* Selecting staff for stakeholder interviews
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_interviewselect
This briefing focuses on who to select for stakeholder interviews. It
provides some general guidelines, and lists some areas of
theorganisation to involve.
******************** Meet with me in Seattle ********************
I will be in Seattle on vacation from 28th August to 14th September.
If you would be interested in getting together one evening for a
drink or a meal or if there was sufficient interest a knowledge-cafe
- then drop me an e-mail.
I will only be available on the evening of Thursday 4th September as
that's the only day that my girlfriend is allowing me to do business
- though somehow I don't quite see meeting up with a bunch of
interesting people as business :-)
Seattle:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00241FA2?open&r=3&p=0
********** Portal Kmol Interview With Margaret Haines **********
Portal KMOL is a website dedicated to Knowledge Management and
Organizational Learning. It is run by Ana Neves and although mainly
directed to the Portuguese-language community - much of the content
is also in English
Ana often interviews interesting people in the KM field and her most
recent interview is with Margaret Haines who until recently was the
Acting Director of Knowledge Management for the Modernisation Agency
in the British Department of Health.
In this interview Maggie talks about her role, some of the projects
she has led, the main obstacles to KM in the public sector and her
priorities in defining a KM strategy for the NHS. Take a look!
http://www.kmol.online.pt/pessoas/HainesM/entrev_e.html
Portal KMOL:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000A541E?open&r=3&p=0
Portugal:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0013DC2E?open&r=3&p=0
************ Weblogs, Rebecca Blood and Radio Arthur ************
Danny Bradbury, a journalist in Saskatoon Canada, phoned me in July
to talk about the role of weblogs in business. Afterwards, I took a
look at his website "Radio Arthur". Its really cool.
What is Arthur. Arthur is an Internet and terrestrial radio show
covering a broad range of arts and cultural topics.
Of particular interest is his recorded interview with Rebecca Blood
on weblogs in his archives. Take a look, I think you'll enjoy.
http://www.radioarthur.org/listen.php
Weblogs:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00143812?open&r=3&p=0
************************** KM Surveys **************************
If you are in the mood for taking a KM survey - I have two of them
for you this month :-)
The first is from the Knowledge Management Consortium International
which has entered into an educational alliance with the University of
Vermont (UVM), through which training and workshops will be offered
to KM executives, managers, and other constituents in business.
http://learn.uvm.edu/survey/kmci/kmci_survey7.htm
Based on the results of this survey, KMCI will be working closely
with UVM to design educational offerings that reflect market needs
and interests.
And the second is a dissertation survey from Vittal Anantatmula of
the George Washington University:
http://km.gwu.edu/km/vsurvey
This research will be used to identify useful criteria for measuring
knowledge management success in organizations.
************* European Guide to Good Practice in KM *************
The 2nd draft of the European Guide to Good Practice in KM is
available for review on the KnowledgeBoard website:
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=115452
***************** Posting events on my website *****************
I regularly post a large number of events such as conferences,
workshops and seminars on my website but it is becoming increasingly
time consuming and many good events are not being posted as I cannot
find the time. To overcome this, I have developed a system where you
can post your own :-)
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x005bcb66
Knowledge Events:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000033AE/
