*** THE GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-LETTER (ISSUE 15, 5 SEPTEMBER 2001) ***
First, my apologies for both the lateness and shortness of this issue
as I've been taking a much needed holiday in the USA for the last 3
weeks. And second, a warm welcome to members of the Henley Knowledge
Management Forum of Henley Management College, England who are now
also regularly receiving this newsletter.
Henley Knowledge Management Forum
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000177BA/
*************************** CONTENTS ***************************
1 - Book: Post-Capitalist Society by Peter Drucker
2 - AAR & Dialogue Workshop
3 - Sorry, my T-shirt says I can’t do that! By Sheila Moorcroft
4 - Three Principles in a Man's Life by Martin Buber
5 - Knowledge Management Society of Japan
6 - Gurteen KM Forum
7 - A Trip in the Amazon Jungle
8 - KM Quick Clicks
9 - Enhancements to Lotus Notes formula language
10 - KM Events
******** BOOK: POST-CAPITALIST SOCIETY BY PETER DRUCKER ********
Although Post-Capitalist Society was first published in 1993 - it is
essential reading if you are serious about knowledge management.
In the book, Peter Drucker looks at the period we are leaving behind
- The Age of Capitalism - and discusses the shifts and
transformations that are affecting politics, business and society
itself. He points out that we must be aware of these changes if we
are to reap the full benefits from future opportunities. He speaks of
how knowledge is the resource of society today, rather than a
resource and why this makes our society Post-Capitalist. He states
how if knowledge is the key concept in our future society, the
'person' will be central because knowledge, although stored in books
and databases, is actually embodied in a person.
Post-Capitalist Society
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0000A6DA/
Peter Drucker
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0003286E/
******************** AAR & DIALOGUE WORKSHOP ********************
In last month's newsletter, I asked if any of you were interested in
a 1 day workshop on the subject of AARs and Dialogue that I am
planning to run in the autumn in central London.
So far, I have only had a handful or replies but just enough to make
such an event viable - if you missed last month's request - please
drop me an e-mail if you are interested - no commitment at this stage
- I'm more interested in accessing interest and discovering what
people might like such a workshop to cover.
After Action Reviews
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00007F36/
Dialogue
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00006F62/
** SORRY, MY T-SHIRT SAYS I CAN’T DO THAT! BY SHEILA MOORCROFT **
Wearable technology has been touted as the ‘next big thing’ for
several years now: as ever, the development of the technology, let
alone its acceptance beyond the fringes of hard core technology fans,
has been slower than anticipated. It is however getting ever more
commercial interest and investment from the likes of BT And MIT. Its
benefits and potential as well as its side effects will be
wide-ranging and coming to somewhere near you, soon.
‘Smart shirts’ were developed some years ago to monitor and protect
the health and mental health of soldiers in battle. Sensors built
into a T-shirt sent information about heart rate etc to a watch and
relayed it to a monitor back at base. Engineers can receive detailed
information to an intelligent belt enabling them to analyze and
repair complex systems more easily. Actions and decisions of fire
fighters in dangerous situations can be recorded in real-time and
analyzed in action replays. Glasses and ear-rings have had mini
camcorders and other devices built into them to enable wearers to
record and interact with their surroundings in new ways.
The potential for improving and extending the independence of elderly
people by monitoring movement and pulse rate, breathing etc for
security and medical treatment in their own homes is enormous and
being developed in a number of projects.
But what of decision making in complex and dangerous situations. How
will the use of information relayed in real time, but analyzed after
the event affect the boundary between responsibility and judgement?
Will we see ‘decision by numbers’ replace the complex and, at
present, indefinable qualities of real skill and judgement? Will
those making the decisions in dangerous situations or even those
responsible for monitoring the situation suddenly face lawsuits in
this increasingly litigious age?
Maintaining the balance between hard knowledge that we can codify and
measure, and soft knowledge that we do not fully understand will
become ever more challenging as the relationship with our
surroundings and judgements becomes more informed.
Business Futures
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0002DB9A/
******* THREE PRINCIPLES IN A MAN'S LIFE BY MARTIN BUBER *******
An author of interest is the Jewish religious philosopher Martin
Buber who played a significant role in the development of the concept
of dialogue. Here is one of my favorite quotations from him:
"There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle
of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The
origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not
say what I mean and I don't do what I say."
Other quotations from Martin Buber
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00021352/
More on Martin Buber
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000425FA/
************* KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOCIETY OF JAPAN *************
Like the South African sites that I referred to in my last newsletter
- there are KM societies and communities all over the world - some
well established some new. Here is a link to The Knowledge Management
Society of Japan.
The Society is sponsored by major corporations & institutions such as
Arthur Andersen, Fuji Xerox, Sumitomo Electric, The Research
Institute of Japan and the Hitotsubashi University, to research &
develop knowledge management in Japan. It is taking action, proposing
activities and organizing consortiums to ensure that the
"collaboration of knowledge" takes root as a cultural tradition among
industries in Japan. They have done so in the belief that there is no
other way of breaking though the current economic stagnation.
Knowledge Management Society of Japan
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00028EEA/
*********************** GURTEEN KM FORUM ***********************
I would love to see a little more activity in my KM Forum - if you
have time - take a look below. If you are looking for a KM Managers
job in the UK - a very recent posting may be of interest!
Gurteen KM Forum
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0003ADFA/
****************** A TRIP IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE ******************
As many of you know - who have visited my web site - it is not
tightly focused on knowledge management and as a visitor recently
commented she liked its "off-beat" theme.
So if you have a teenage son or daughter considering taking a 'gap'
year before university - take a look at this little story written by
my daughter Lauren during a recent gap year in South America.
Amazon Trip
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0001FFD2/
************************ KM QUICK CLICKS ************************
100 KM companies that matter
http://www.kmworld.com/100.cfm
Money's not enough for top employees
http://www.silicon.com/a43506
If you are responsible for the development of your corporate Intranet
or website - the following two articles on content management may be
of interest:
http://www.evolt.org/article/rating/20/5127/
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-04/kartchner.html
********* ENHANCEMENTS TO LOTUS NOTES FORMULA LANGUAGE *********
I know some of you are Lotus Notes/Domino developers like myself - my
website and this newsletter are all Notes/Domino driven. If you are a
Notes developer, then you will just go 'wild' over the new @functions
that are planned for the next release of Notes (code named Rnext).
Think for a moment about all the functions you would die for but for
some strange reason are not even in R5. Would you like to be able to
loop; to sort and subscript lists; to obtain the name of the current
field so you can write generic code? Well its all there in Rnext and
more.
The Notes formula language always gave you incredible power and made
Notes the rapid development environment that it is but the new
functions are just awesome! Take a look:
http://www.notes.net/today.nsf/lookup/formula_enhancements
