***** THE GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-LETTER (ISSUE 25, 1 JULY 2002) *****
My big news this month is the birth of the Gurteen Knowledge-Community.
*************************** CONTENTS ***************************
1 - The Gurteen K-Community: Background
2 - The Gurteen K-Community: Concept
3 - The Gurteen K-Community - Getting Started
4 - The Gurteen K-Community - Growing the Community
5 - Henley KM Research Instutute
6 - Go with the flow - real-time
7 - Google Labs
8 - Referer Logs
9 - Report on Quality and e-learning in European Training
10 - Innovation in Arab Countries
11 - The Knowledge Management Solutions Forum
12 - Quotation: On Knowledge and Seeds by Kahil Gibran
13 - Next Steps in Communities of Practice Conference
14 - KM Intranet Site Visits - Melbourne & Sydney
************** THE GURTEEN K-COMMUNITY: BACKGROUND **************
Two weeks ago I decided to take a look at Radio Userland - a commercially
available weblog product. I was wowed - within 20 minutes I had downloaded
the software and posted my first Radio Userland blog.
It was obvious that if you could use a browser then you were technically
savvy enough to start your own weblog. And this set me to thinking :-)
For some time I have been playing with the idea of creating a community
website - "the Gurteen Knowledge-Community". So why not create a community
of knowledge-bloggers - people with their own weblogs who were interested
in blogging on KM related issues.
The beauty of this as a community is neatly summed up by Bob Andrew, a KM
consultant working in South Africa.
"What I really like about it is that you want to set up a community as a
complex adaptive system: lots of interactions, no central control,
possibility of emergent behavior and the ability to act locally about
issues around us and, through the community to take them global. Its an
absolutely great idea and I love it!! "
So last week I started to set it up as a pilot - I phoned several people
whom I knew would be interested and explained the concept. Nearly all -
about 10 agreed to sign-up and five have already created a weblog and
have started to blog but this was only last week so there is very little
content online as yet.
In addition, I have two existing bloggers from Brazil who have also joined
the community. Welcome!
Blogging resources:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00143812?open&r=3&p=0
Gurteen K-Log:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00141D06?open&p=0
Radio Userland:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X001413FA?open&r=3&p=0
*************** THE GURTEEN K-COMMUNITY: CONCEPT ***************
The concept is simple. The community is a group of bloggers - people who
have their own weblogs and are blogging on KM related topics.
What I like about this is that the community software and content are
distributed - members can leave at any time or join other communities and
still keep their own weblog - it is theirs. Also anyone with a weblog -
whatever the technology can join the community.
You simply blog to your weblog on your subject of interest - quite what
you blog, how you blog and when and how frequently you blog is up to you -
the only real criteria to be a member of the community is that you blog in
the general area of knowledge management or related subjects such as
learning, personal development or innovation.
Also by creating your own blogrolls (lists of like-minded bloggers) you
start to dynamically form your own communities around your specific
interests.
The Gurteen website simply acts as a hub and a catalyst. It encourages and
facilitates the formation of KM related weblogs. If my site ever went away
(I've no plans for that!) then the community would still exist - it is
independent of my site.
Gurteen K-Log
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00141D06?open&p=0
*********** THE GURTEEN K-COMMUNITY - GETTING STARTED ***********
If you are interested in creating a knowledge-log (a k-log) then download
a weblog product such as Radio Userland or Blogger and start blogging.
If you choose Radio Userland - then based on my experience it will take
you less than 20 minutes to post your first entry.
It is SO EASY. You get a free trial for 30 days and then after that it
will cost you $39 for the product and a year's free hosting on one of
their servers .
Once you are going - e-mail me the URL of your weblog and I will add it to
the Gurteen Community Blogroll. This is simply a list of weblogs that
appear on my weblog home page. Other members or indeed anyone can click
through from here to your weblog.
If you are not too sure about all of this - click through to my weblog
first and learn some more about blogs - if you still like the idea and
feel confident then sign up.
Radio Userland:
http://radio.userland.com
Blogger:
http://www.blogger.com
Information on weblogs:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00143812?open&r=3&p=0
Build your own weblog:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0013D37A?open&r=3&p=0
******** THE GURTEEN K-COMMUNITY - GROWING THE COMMUNITY ********
My site will act as a central hub for the community. Later I plan to add a
section dedicated to the community and create profiles for each member
that will list your name, basic information, weblog URL, interests etc.
I may also create an RSS aggregator that rolls up all the latest postings
from the community into a single page on my site for easy browsing.
Its all a bit of an experiment and it remains to be seen how well it
works. We may want to augment the community in other ways with discussion
forums, face to face meetings, instant messaging or just making each
others profiles and e-mail addresses more readily available.
At one level though it cannot fail - if you are interested in creating
your own personal knowledge-log and blogging to it then you can do that
regardless of the success or failure of the community.
Go on give it a go! And let me have plenty of feedback.
***************** HENLEY KM RESEARCH INSTUTUTE *****************
I recently attended a joint launch of Leif Edvinsson's new book on
Corporate Longitude and the new Henley Knowledge Management Research
Institute at the Reform Club in London.
I was so busy networking that all the copies of Leif's book sold out but
I've browsed a sample chapter on the web and it really does look quite
fascinating. It arrived this morning.
Sample chapter from Corporate Longitude:
ftp://ppe.pearsoned-ema.com/marketing/sample_chaps/ftph/0273656279.pdf
Also take a look at the newly founded Henley KM Research Institute - a
development of the Henley KM Forum of which Leif is the Honory Life
President.
Henley KM Research Instutute:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X001C1A4A/
Corporate Longitude:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0010326E/
Leif Edvinsson:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000D7E3A/
***************** GO WITH THE FLOW - REAL-TIME *****************
By Sheila Moorcroft, Business Futures
We are used to the idea of real-time information - about financial
markets, news, football, tennis or cricket results, the weather, traffic
jams etc. We may be getting used to the idea of real-time services based
on real-time information about us, where we go, what we buy, when etc,
sooner than we expect.
A UK supermarket wanting to maximise sales in their chain of small city
stores is using ‘chameleon’ stock control systems to vary the content of a
store’s shelves over the course of the day to reflect changing customer
demands. Meanwhile, a Finnish insurance company is promoting insurance
based on where customers drive rather than where they live.
We may be seeing the advent of the ‘now’ economy, where the embedded
intelligence in everything from phones to cars, to shops to carpets
shortening expected response times even further, while simultaneously
raising expectations about the quality of the response.
Sheila Moorcroft:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000D95AE/
************************** GOOGLE LABS **************************
Google is my favorite search engine but they are experimenting with some
neat ideas - see what is in their labs - their technology playground!
Google Labs:
http://labs.google.com/
Google:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00031C16/
************************* REFERER LOGS *************************
Whenever you access a page on a website the server logs the URL from which
you have come. This URL is known as the referer URL.
To a webmaster this log is very useful as you can see which sites on the
web have links to your site.
In the case of search engine referals you can also see the what the person
was searching for when they were directed to your site.
I find this useful with my own website as I can see when someone is
searching for a specific item and is directed by the search engine to a
page which does not quite match what they are looking for - even though
the information exists on another page. It helps me finely tune my site so
that people are better directed to it.
Normally these logs are not published but I noticed recently that a number
of blogs publish their most recent referers. So I added the feature to my
own site - you may find it quite useful as it shows other sites with
similar content and the search strings indicate to some degree indicate
the most popular pages on my site.
***** REPORT ON QUALITY AND E-LEARNING IN EUROPEAN TRAINING *****
Based on a survey of over 450 respondents, this report analyses some
important questions about the quality of e-learning products and services.
It offers a current depiction of how European training professionals are
getting to grips with e-learning.
The survey was carried out in March/April 2002 and is available in online
and printed copies.
As a Gurteen knowledge-letter reader you will receive a 10% discount off
the full price of £125/€195. Simply type ‘Gurteen’ next to your first name
on the order form.
Report on Quality and E-Learning in European Training:
http://www.elearningage.co.uk/go1.htm
***************** INNOVATION IN ARAB COUNTRIES *****************
A group of experts recently met under the auspices of WIPO to discuss
possible joint projects aimed at promoting innovation and creativity in the
Arab world through effective use of the intellectual property system.
http://www.managinginformation.com/news/content_show_full.php?id=620
*********** THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FORUM ***********
I am chairing the Knowledge Management Solutions Forum run by Unicom in
central London in September. This is a FREE Conference and Exhibition. I
chaired a similar event a year or so ago and it is well worth attending if
you are looking to learn more about the Knowledge Management marketplace.
The Knowledge Management Solutions Forum
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00015412/
******* QUOTATION: ON KNOWLEDGE AND SEEDS BY KAHLIL GIBRAN *******
"Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds." Kahlil
Gibran
On Knowledge and Seeds by Kahlil Gibran
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X001BD646/
Kahlil Gibran
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0004CF66/
The Prophet:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0004B4A2/
******* NEXT STEPS IN COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE CONFERENCE *******
IIR’s Next Steps in Communities of Practice conference on September 23-25,
2002 in Boston takes a look at the current experiences, successes and
mistakes from community of practice leaders at Shell International,
Buckman Labs, Johnson & Johnson, Clarica, Xerox, IBM and more.
It is designed to provide a roadmap to help understand how to find,
create, support, maintain and derive business value from communities in a
strategic context to improve business capabilities. Richard McDermott and
Nancy Dixon are key speakers.
Next Steps in Communities of Practice
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0004B24E?open&r=3&p=0
********* KM INTRANET SITE VISITS - MELBOURNE & SYDNEY *********
This is the final call for delegates wishing to attend the Knowledge
Management Intranet Site Visit seminars, which will be taking place in
Melbourne and Sydney in late July and early August. I am told by the
organizers that these events have generated unprecedented interest and
have already reached 80% capacity.
And remember there is a Gurteen 10% discount.
Knowledge Management Intranet Site Visit (Melbourne):
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0001F58A?open&r=3&p=0
Knowledge Management Intranet Site Visit (Sydney)
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00014FEA?open&r=3&p=0
Copyright 2002, David Gurteen, All rights reserved.
