*** The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter (Issue 79, 21 January 2007) ***
Let me start this newsletter by wishing you a happy New Year. Yes,
its a bit late but I always leave the January issue of the knowledge
letter until late in the month to get well clear of the Christmas
period!
I never do seem to be able to keep new year's resolution but maybe if
I publically declare this one I will stick to it. I am trying to blog
a little more - at least once a week. So far so good - eight postings
since the new year. See:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/knowledge-log
And of course the other thing about a new year are the predictions -
well just one from me. RSS will really take off in 2007. For a start
it is fully integrated into Vista. And if you have upgraded to IE7 (I
use Firefox and IE7) then take a look at how RSS has been
implemented. MS have done a great job and RSS is very much an
integral part of the browser.
Also if you have still not figured out RSS take a look at my "idiots
guide" I wrote recently:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/rss
And if you are looking for a simple easy to use on-line RSS reader
then although I have always recommended Bloglines take a look at
Google Reader - its clean, slick, fast, and simple. I like its so
much I might just move to it.
http://www.google.com/reader
*************************** CONTENTS ***************************
1 - Six Networking Tips
2 - Geek Video
3 - The death of old speak
4 - Knowledge Forum Update
5 - Linked-In Tips
6 - Social Entrepreneurs
7 - Futurist: To fix education, think Web 2.0
8 - Why KM initiatives fail!
9 - Lesson of the Month from Fifty Lessons
10 - KM Event Highlights
********************** SIX NETWORKING TIPS **********************
Gautam Ghosh in his blog recently gave Six Tips for Networking in
2007. My favorite was "Let yourself be found". Its the easiest thing
anyone can do and has the most leverage. Can I suggest you Google
yourself and see just how easy it is to find and make contact with
yourself. If its difficult or impossible then take steps to rectify
the situation such as creating a public profile on LinkedIn.
I thought that I would post six tips of my own on my weblog to
complement Gautam's see
Gautam's six tips:
http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2007/01/six-tips-for-networking-in-2007.html
My six tips
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/nw-tips
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com
************************** GEEK VIDEO **************************
There is so much great video on the web these days. If you have an
techie bent you will just love the Whiteboard Videos on the ZDNet
website. Each video is less than 5 minutes in length and an expert
explains some technical issue at a white board. If You want to know
more about AJAX and security or mobile viruses - just the place to go!
http://news.zdnet.com/html/z/wb/whiteboard_archive.html
******************** THE DEATH OF OLD SPEAK ********************
I met Stowe Boyd at a Unicom Social Tools conference I chaired last
year. I was impressed with what he had to say about social tools. I
felt that unlike many other people he really understood what they
were and what they were about. So I did one of my mini-interviews
with him and asked him "What are social tools?" to which he gave a
great little reply.
But he has just written a great blog post entitled "Enough Already:
Getting Social Media All Wrong" in which he "has a go'" at some of
the corporate marketing types who "still have not got it" and are
trying to use social media to their old corrupt ends. I have
commented a little about this on own blog.
Stowe's blog posting: Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong
http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2007/01/enough_already_.html
My blog posting
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/old-speak
My mini-interview with Stowe
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/mp?open&mf=L002713
And if you are based in the UK and still wondering what Web 2.0 and
social tools are all about then get along to the Unicom conference on
21-22 Feb in London:
Social Tools for Business Use: Web 2.0 and the new participatory
culture
http://www.unicom.co.uk/product_detail.asp?prdid=1538
I will be chairing it and we have some great speakers lined up.
******************** KNOWLEDGE FORUM UPDATE ********************
Last month I announced that Ed Mitchell would act as facilitator for
my Knowledge Forum. This has gone phenomenally well and Ed has
produced a short report:
December's group conversation about Web 2.0 was a great success;
thank you to all who participated. We had consultants, IT managers,
academics, technical providers, social commentators, disbelievers
and zealots; all in all, an excellent range of opinions, experience
and expertise.
Topically, we covered a range of definitions of the concept,
organizational contexts and related requirements, learning and
management models, psychology and society.
Taking the discussion forward: What do you want to talk about? I am
always keen to talk about my cats but David and I thought it would be
better if you let us know what you would like to discuss. That way we
get to discuss current and real issues - which is the point of being
here after all.
Once you have added your suggestions, I will organize them and kick
off with a new subject in February. You can see the discussions so
far here
http://groups.google.com/group/gurteen/topics?lnk=li
and of course add suggestions for a new topic
Ed Mitchell
btw we have over 200 members of the forum.
************************ LINKED-IN TIPS ************************
Are you a Linked-In member yet? If you are then in Guy Kawasaki's
blog you will find 10 ways to increase the value of Linked-In.
Linked-In now has 8.5 million professionals registered from around
the globe so you are almost certain to find old friends and
colleagues there.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/ten_ways_to_use.html
Linked-In also supports groups - see below to become a member of the
Gurteen Knowledge Community group - (currently over 600 members)
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/linkedin-group
Joining this group is a great way of getting to know some of the
other members of the community.
********************* SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS *********************
This is an interesting page on the Fast Company website that lists
"43 Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing The World" - organizations that
are using the
disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems.
It includes the Grameen Foundation that I mentioned recently.
http://www.fastcompany.com/social
*********** FUTURIST: TO FIX EDUCATION, THINK WEB 2.0 ***********
John Seely Brown at a recent conference in Cambridge, Mass. argued
that education is going through a large-scale transformation toward a
more participatory form of learning and that the evolution of the
Internet can facilitate this approach with Web 2.0 tools, such as
wikis and blogs, make information sharing and content creation
easier.
Article
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6140175.html
John Seely Brown
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/john-seely-brown
******************* WHY KM INITIATIVES FAIL! *******************
I recently spent an hour or so with several senior managers of a
large organization talking about their new KM initiative. After the
session I e-mailed the knowledge manager some advise. Its quite
generic but sums up my thoughts on why so many KM initiatives fail
and so I thought I'd share them on my blog:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/km-advise
Since then I have also seen someone asking in a forum "how do you get
people to collaborate?" and "how do you change the mindset of
people?". As I explain in my blog posting such questions are poor
questions in that they are not specific enough!
Jason Bates in my Forum commenting on the question ""how should
worker productivity be better managed?" answers in a similar vein by
effectively saying "well it all depends" and goes on to say:
"It's a personal bug bear of mine that some KM'ers persist in
abstracting problems to conceptual levels that make business people
groan and roll their eyes."
Spot on Jason :-)
************ LESSON OF THE MONTH FROM FIFTY LESSONS ************
If you missed last month's 50lessons video on "Effecting Change
Through Active Engagement With Stakeholders" by Dr Wendy Thomson,
Former Head, The Office of Public Services Reform then you still have
chance to see it as I have carried it over to January.
http://gurteen.50lessons.com
********************** KM EVENT HIGHLIGHTS **********************
This section highlights some of the major KM events taking place
around the world in the next 3 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.
Events:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/events
RSS Feeds:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/rss-feeds
The Effective Knowledge Worker
Unicom Seminars
20 Feb 2007, London, United Kingdom
http://www.unicom.co.uk/product_detail.asp?prdid=1519
Social Tools for Business Use: Web 2.0 and the new participatory
culture
Unicom Seminars
21 -22 Feb 2007, London, United Kingdom
http://www.unicom.co.uk/product_detail.asp?prdid=1538
Braintrust International 2007 - Annual Knowledge Sharing Summit
26 - 28 Feb 2007, Cambridge,Maryland, United States
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/braintrust-2007
I will be running a knowledge cafe workshop at this event. Looks like
being a great event - more on this later. Their website is up - go
take a look.
Gurteen Knowledge Cafe
01 March, Washington DC, United States
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/washington-dc
I am absolutely delighted to have been able to organise this. Thanks
to everyone who has made this possible. And see you all in Washington!
The Knowledge Worker
Learning, Sharing & Collaboration: The keys to success in the
knowledge based organization
12 March 2006, Dubai, UAE
http://www.eraminternational.com/
I will be running my 'Effective Knowledge Worker' workshop in Dubai
again In March after running a successful one last December.
KM Australia
23 - 25 July 2007, Sydney, Australia
http://www.kmaustralia.com/default.htm
The programme is starting to shape up and will include a Gurteen
Knowledge Cafe facilitated by Helen Paige who is the regional
director for the Gurteen Community in Adelaide.
******* S U B S C R I B I N G & U N S U B S C R I B I N G *******
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 see here:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/update
Also see this page if you wish to become a community member and
receive this monthly newsletter.
***************** THE GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-LETTER *****************
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based knowledge
management 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.
It is produced in association with the Knowledge Management Forum of
Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England.
http://www.henleymc.ac.uk/kmforum
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.
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
