**** The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter (Issue 50, 2 August 2004) ****
Two years ago when I started my knowledge-log, weblogs were still in
their infancy but they have come along way since then and are
entering mainstream corporate life more and more by the day.
Even if you have no desire to blog there is one weblog related tool
that I feel is essential you take the time to learn about and that
is the "newsreader", "RSS aggregator" or "RSS reader" - it goes under
many names.
Essentially such tools allow you to subscribe to so called "RSS
feeds", "newsfeeds" or "webfeeds" and create your own personalized
news page tailored to your unique interests from tens of millions of
live internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and
audio.
I have written an item on one such newsreader - Bloglines - in this
month's issue. Go take a look and if you don't already have a
newreader sign up :-)
You will be hearing a lot more from me on RSS feeds especially as I
am developing several for my website - just a few small bugs to sort
out and they will be there.
For a great tutorial on RSS and newsreaders see:
What are webfeeds and why should you care?
http://blog.contentious.com/archives/000038.html
*************************** CONTENTS ***************************
1 - Rewards for Knowledge Sharing?
2 - Bloglines
3 - Skype - Internet Telephony
4 - Social Networking Conference
5 - Open-Source Everywhere
6 - The Support Economy
7 - Email in the Workplace Survey Report
8 - Beyond wheelchair access
9 - KM Australia
10 - Google Alerts
11 - Gurteen Knowledge-Calendar
12 - What's New?
**************** REWARDS FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING? ****************
A few months back I was chairing a Unicom conference on Communities
of Practice where Janina Kugel of Siemens Information and
Communication Networks (ICN) in Germany talked about her experience
in rewarding knowledge sharing. I was impressed with her story and
asked her if she would write about it for this newsletter.
This resulted in a article by Janina and Cornelia Schostek. The
article although short is too long to include here and so you will
find it on my website.
Abstract:
In late 2000, the crisis in the telecommunications market affected
most of the telecommunication companies and led to high cost
pressure. Most of the business activities were effected, including
Knowledge Management.
One of the activities where Siemens ICN had to change was its
monetary incentive system for sharing knowledge within the company.
ICN changed the existing system into a (cheaper) reward system where
excellent users received an expert or master status.
However, these non-monetary rewards did not have the desired impact
on knowledge sharing. Thus, monetary incentives seem to have an
immediate effect on motivation, but to support knowledge sharing in
the long run, non-monetary incentives should be chosen.
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/rewards-k-sharing
*************************** BLOGLINES ***************************
In the last year or so weblogs and in particular RSS have come a long
long way. What has particularly transformed my working day is an RSS
newsreader called Bloglines. With Bloglines I have so far subscribed
to over 30 webfeeds and weblogs that Bloglines monitors and informs
me with a 'beep' when any of them are updated. I have Bloglines open
most of the day so I can switch to it to read the updated feeds when
I feel like a short break. It is simple and elegant. I can now easily
keep up with the many subjects and weblogs of interest to me.
It only a matter of time before newsreaders are a standard tool on
everyone's PC. The fastest and easiest way to get started is to
sign-up to Bloglines. It is free and is browser based so you do not
need to download anything to your PC. I suggest you sign up and
initially subscribe to two or three feeds - there are thousands to
chose from.
Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
When you have figured it all out - you may like to subscribe to my
weblog or my 'quote of the day'. I have given the URLs of the feeds
below but note you copy and paste them into Bloglines when you
subscribe> If you click them then depending on your browser you will
see nothing or their content in XML which isn't particularly readable
unless you are a geek!
Gurteen Knowledge Log
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/gurteen-klog.xml
Gurteen Knowledge Quote of the Day
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/quote-01.xml
Also try Dilbert - this feed gives you a new cartoon each day
http://dwlt.net/tapestry/dilbert.rdf
More on RSS:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00197b62/
****************** SKYPE - INTERNET TELEPHONY ******************
Have you discovered Skype (rhymes with "hype"), yet?
Skype, provides a way to make high-quality phone calls over the
internet for free. I downloaded it some months ago and was amazed
just how simple it was to use and the exceptional sound quality.
The software for Skype is free, and has been downloaded about 10
million times in the last year. It was invented by Niklas Zennstrom
and Janus Friis who were also the inventors of Kazaa - the music
file-sharing software.
For geeks: Skype is a peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony network using VoIP
(voice over IP) technology.
http://www.skype.com
http://feed.proteinos.com/001932.html
***************** SOCIAL NETWORKING CONFERENCE *****************
Bookings for my conference and workshop coming up in September on
Social Networks have started well. Verna Allee is the keynote at the
conference and will be running the workshop the second day. I'd
encourage you to take a look - should be two great days :=)
Exploiting Social Networking in Organizations Conference
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0007f9f6/
Value Network Strategies for Competitive Advantage with Verna Allee
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008bcea/
Verna Allee
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0020f076/
******************** OPEN-SOURCE EVERYWHERE ********************
I would like to thank Laurent Kretzschmar of Accenture for pointing
out this fascinating article and paper to me on "open-source".
This article looks at an idea on how to leverage software open source
development practices to develop drugs in a different way - in
particular drugs for 'developing countries' with low ROI that
traditional patent-driven pharmaceutical research may not undertake.
Economist article
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2724420
The paper
http://salilab.org/pdf/136_MaurerBIOESSAYS2004.pdf
Also take a look at this article in Wired Magazine:
"Software is just the beginning ... open source is doing for mass
innovation what the assembly line did for mass production. Get ready
for the era when collaboration replaces the corporation."
Open Source Everywhere article
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/opensource.html
Its also worth noting that Dave Snowden's Cynefin Center is planning
to develop the idea of open-source consulting!
Its early days yet but I think open-source-everywhere will be huge!
********************** THE SUPPORT ECONOMY **********************
A few weeks ago John Maloney e-mailed me a weblog entry of Bill Ives
on the book The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin.
I loved the opening premise:
"The Support Economy starts with a compelling premise: People have
changed more than the corporations upon which their well-being
depends. In the chasm that now separates the new individuals from the
old organizations is the opportunity to forge a capitalism suited to
our times and so unleash a vast new potential for wealth creation."
The book is not light reading and I have only got through the first
80 pages or so but the concepts are awesome. Here is another quote:
"The last fifty years have seen the rise of a new society of
individuals, but corporations continue to operate according to the
logic of managerial capitalism, invented a century ago for different
people, different markets, and different needs. Today's individuals
seek psychological self-determination. They are the origins of their
own meanings, not a passive mass audience."
I like that phrase "psychological self-determination". To me its
another way of saying that people are becoming more responsible for
their own lives and learning to be themselves.
Bill Ives also comments "Its position that people today are looking
for opportunities for a personal voice and a chance to make a
difference supplies one explanation for part of the strong interest
in blogs."
The Support Economy:
http://www.thesupporteconomy.com/
Bill Ives on the Support Economy
http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2004/08/support_economy
Weblog Entry:The Support Economy
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00090546/
************* EMAIL IN THE WORKPLACE SURVEY REPORT *************
Over 400 of you, in over 37 countries, finally completed the e-mail
survey designed by Edward Truch of Knowledge Partners - the results
of which were presented at the Henley Knowledge Management Forum
Annual Conference in June.
This was just a fantastic response and a big thanks from me and
Edward to all of you who completed the survey.
The report is in the form of a Powerpoint presentation that you can
download:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/downloads
The study will also form part of the ongoing research at Henley into
improving ways of working in all types of organization.
******************* BEYOND WHEELCHAIR ACCESS *******************
By Sheila Moorcroft, Business Futures
The disability discrimination Act applies to more companies and
sectors in the UK from the end of this year but the disabled access
symbol of a person in a wheel chair is both a blessing and a curse.
Only about 5% of the 11 million or so people in the UK who have a
disability are wheel chair users, but concerns about access tend to
focus on steps, ramps and lifts. Access is about far more; and if, as
the old adage goes, information is power, then inaccessible
information is disempowerment - on a personal, market and opportunity
level.
To get an idea of what the problems of accessible information mean to
people think about the following for a moment. How frustrated do you
get when:
+ You cannot read a fuzzy, over small map that someone has sent you
for getting somewhere?
+ You want some basic information from a website like the company
address and you have to wait while lots of graphics download and take
time ... and then you still cannot find the address?
+ The instructions for assembling your new piece of equipment are so
complicated and unclear that you feel like giving up?
+ You feel ‘invisible’ at the bar when the bartender serves lots of
other people who arrived later, but are somehow more visible/
important than you?
+ You are abroad and painstakingly ask the way somewhere but cannot
comprehend the answer that rushes back at you?
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point: none of us likes
being ignored or ‘disabled’ by inaccessible information! Accessible
information and services have a long way to go: a survey earlier this
year by AbilityNet, a UK charity on computing and disability,
chastised most of the leading UK banks for the level of
inaccessibility of their websites - only one bank had a website that
met their basic level of acceptable standards: most were well below
par.
Accessible information means accessible services, means benefits to
all including the bottom line. 11 million people is a nice market to
have: as populations age so the level of disability grows: that
means a growing market too. They are also more vociferous and likely
to pursue their case.
************************* KM AUSTRALIA *************************
KM Australia in Sydney is coming up at the end of the month on 23 to
25 August and is being billed as the largest event in Australian
Knowledge Management history with keynote speakers Leif Edvinsson,
Maris O'Rourke, Dr Hideo Yamazaki and Bob Buckman. Bit too far for me
to go but maybe next year :-)
http://www.kmaustralia.com
Arkgroup
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00007f4a/
************************* GOOGLE ALERTS *************************
I have yet to try out this new Google feature (it is in beta) but it
looks useful. Google Web Alerts are sent by email when there is new
information on the web matching the search you specify. Some handy
uses of Google Web Alerts include:
+ keeping current on a competitor or industry
+ monitoring references to your name or company
+ finding out when people link to your site
+ discovering new websites on a certain topic
http://www.google.com/webalerts
****************** GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-CALENDAR ******************
My website contains such a comprehensive listing of knowledge related
events that it is no longer possible to display aqll of them in this
knowledge-letter. The list below only shows major events or ones of
special interest that will be held in the next 3 months. You can see
the complete list on my website by following the Gurteen-Knowledge
Calendar link below.
Gurteen-Knowledge Calendar:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x000033ae/
KM Australia 2004
23 - 24 Aug 2004, Sydney, Australia
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00089daa/
Going Virtual - The Future of Work
25 - 27 Aug 2004, Brisbane, Australia
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00090fbe/
Postgraduate Diploma in Know-How Management
01 Sep 2004, Nottingham, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008f89a/
International Intellectual Capital Congress
02 - 03 Sep 2004, Helsinki, Finland
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008a7c2/
Tools and Concepts for Managing Organisations in the Knowledge Economy
08 Sep 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0009107e/
Knowledge Management for the Public Sector
21 - 24 Sep 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008ac8e/
Taking the e out of e-learning
21 Sep 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x000911fa/
4th Annual Knowledge Management for the Public Sector
22 - 24 Sep 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00085822/
Communities of Practice Master Class
23 Sep 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00091fc2/
Innovation Convergence 2004
26 - 29 Sep 2004, Minneapolis MN, United States
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x005b63ee/
Competia International Symposium 2004
28 Sep - 01 Oct 2004, Toronto, Canada
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00070a76/
The 5th European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM 2004)
30 Sep - 01 Oct 2004, Paris, France
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0007299a/
Knowledge Management Masterclass
14 Oct 2004, Birmingham, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008e55e/
Anthony Robbins London
15 - 18 Oct 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008e56e/
Integrating Knowledge in the Life Science Product Life Cycle
18 - 29 Oct 2004, Switzerland
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0008cb56/
Doing More For Less: Accelerating Knowledge Flows Through A Complex
Organisation
18 Oct 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0009109e/
Knowledge Sharing, Creativity and Innovation
21 - 22 Oct 2004, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00091082/
KMWorld & Intranets 2004
26 - 28 Oct 2004, Santa Clara CA, United States
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x000d887a/
************************** WHAT'S NEW? **************************
The following pages have been added to my website within the last
month. It does not include all of them as the list is typically quite
long. You can follow the What's New link below to my website for the
full list.
What's New:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00030de6/
Book: Squirrel Inc by Steve Denning
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x000920aa/
Book: The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff, James Maxmin
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0009036e/
Person: Lee Bryant
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00090516/
Quotation: On the defintion of love by M. Scott Peck
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00090436/
Weblog Entry: Meetups
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x0009054a/
Weblog Entry: Unlocking Human Potential Through Social Networking
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/x00090512/
******* S U B S C R I B I N G & U N S U B S C R I B I N G *******
You may s u b s c r i b e to this newsletter, via the following link:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/(Views)/WebNewsList?open
or you can e-mail your request to s u b s c r i b e or u n s u b s
c r i b e to mailto:[email protected]
***************** 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 the following copyright notice is included
intact: "Copyright 2004, David Gurteen, All rights reserved."
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
