Contents
1 Introduction
2 KM goes social goes Chinese
3 Shift Happens
4 World 2.0
5 Have you discovered SlideShare?
6 Working Transparently
7 Henry David Thoreau revisited
8 IBM and KM
9 My Activities
10 KM Event Highlights
11 Subscribing and Unsubscribing
12 The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction
I am off on my travels again in a week or so. I will be giving a talk in Saudi Arabia and so made the decision to spend a week in Dubai. This has not only culminated in some work but also Five Dimensions, a training and consulting company have very kindly agreed to host an open Gurteen Knowledge Cafe in Dubai.
And then I am in Scottsdale, Arizona for the BSEC 2008 conference for the second year running where I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe. Yet again I have taken the opportunity to stage a open Gurteen Knowledge Cafe - hosted by the Arizona KM Forum.
Then in early may I am in Norway to run a series of Knowledge Cafe workshops for StatoilHydro in four cities. StatoilHydro and Norsk Dataforening - KM Forum have kindly offered to host open Cafes in each of these cities: Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanager and Oslo while I am there.
If you would like to keep track of what I am up to then see the activities section of my website. I love to travel and I love to network and meet people both formally e.g. paid work and informally e.g. good conversation over coffee, lunch or dinner. And I am always looking to run open Gurteen Knowledge Cafes. So if you spot that I am in your region and would like to talk - get in touch.
KM goes social goes Chinese
I recently received a request from Xiuli Zhuang at the School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University in China to translate my article KM 2.0: KM goes social into Chinese. And of course I agreed.
Well here is the Chinese translation. I hope the Chinese language readers amongst you enjoy it!
A huge thanks to Xiuli Zhuang the translation.
Shift Happens
This video Shift Happens Narrated will scare you or to inspire you or maybe a little of both depending on your attitude to life. And oh yes your reaction might also be a function of where you live in the world as it is written for an American audience! Also see this original unnarrated version.
World 2.0
I recently spent the whole of January in SE Asia; giving talks and running knowledge cafes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. As always I learnt as much as a I taught at these events.
Most of us understand what Web 2.0 is all about as we move from a read-only web to a read-write or participatory web.
And we are starting to come to grips with so called Enterprise 2.0 where the concept and technologies and social tools of Web 2.0 are moving from the open web into organizations.
It is still early days and there are many issues to be grappled with as we try to balance the structure and stability of the old world with the more fluid and complex nature of the new.
But the "2.0 meme" is starting to affect everything. In a talk in Kuala Lumpur I was asked how you implement Enterprise 2.0 and I was talking about some of the barriers when someone spoke up and said "We will never have Enterprise 2.0 until we have Managers 2.0!” In other words it was managers and their out-dated mind sets that was a major barrier to change,
And a few days later while giving another talk at the National Library in Singapore I found us talking about Libraries 2.0 and Learning 2.0. It then hit me that “2.0” thinking was permeating everything. People were also taking about Business 2.0 and Education 2.0.
So what does this mean in its broadest sense? Well, we are no longer consumers: of goods, services or education - we are all prosumers - we all have the opportunity to create and consume. For the first time we are participants in everything and not the “victims”. Fundamentally it is about "freedom".
We are moving from a world where we were told to do things and where things were structured or planned for us to one where we get to decide what works best for us. We are moving from a mono-culture to a highly diverse ecology.
We are moving from a simple world to a rich, complex, diverse one. One where power is less centralized and more distributed. We are moving from a command and control world to a world where people can do as they please within the boundaries of responsibility.
Another talk I gave in SE Asia was to SAFTI (the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) and there I realized that the 2.0 concept could be applied to the military too. In the past warfare was a relatively simple affair; there were rules of engagement and things such as the Geneva convention. It was a male dominated world but now with terrorism, men, women and children are actively involved in the fighting - there are few rules of engagement. Its complex – everyone participates.
The SAFTI talk was the last of 20 talks and Knowledge Cafes over a period of a month and they helped crystallize my thinking. It’s not just about Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 - about tools and technology. Its far more than that. It’s about World 2.0. The “2.0 meme” touches everything.
More than anything we need "Mindset 2.0" or "Thinking 2.0" - new ways of looking at and thinking about the world and seeing the opportunities to work in new innovative ways that these new technologies allow.
Here is a brief comparison of the two worlds. This thinking can be applied in business, in education and learning, to adults and to children and to government and to society. Its not just about technology!
| Knowledge sharing and learning is imposed additional work | Knowledge sharing and social learning is a welcome natural part of people's everyday work |
| Work takes places behind closed doors | Work takes place transparently where everyone can see it |
| IT Tools are imposed on people | People select the tools that work best for them |
| People are controlled out of fear they will do wrong | People are given freedom in return for accepting responsibility |
| Information is centralized, protected and controlled | Information is distributed freely and uncontrolled |
| Publishing is centrally controlled | Anyone can publish what they want |
| Context is stripped from information | Context is retained in the form of stories |
| People think quietly alone | People think out loud together |
| People tend to write in the third person, in a professional voice | People write in the first person in their own voice |
| People especially those in authority are closed to new ideas and new ways of working | Everyone is open to new ideas |
| Information is pushed to people whether they have asked for it or not | People decide the information they need and subscribe to it |
| The world is seen through a Newtonian cause and effect model | The world is recognized to be complex and that different approaches are needed |
Have you discovered SlideShare?
Have you discovered SlideShare yet? I post all my public powerpoint presentations to it and there is even a Knowledge Management group on the site with 130 slideshows.
You can see my slideshows here.
Better still you can embed people's slideshows in your blog or personal website just as you can with YouTube.
Working Transparently
I wrote a Gurteen Perspectives article for Inside Knowledge Magazine recently titled Open and transparent? where I talked about the concept and need for openness and transparency in the way we work today. So I have been delighted to see others say similar things:
In this post KM 2.0 is about showing your workings out by John Tropea, John quotes from Michael Idinopulos:
“The real paradigm shift in Web 2.0, I believe, is the blurring the line between publication and collaboration. In the old days, people collaborated in private. They talked to their friends and colleagues, wrote letters. Later they sent emails. All the real thinking happened in those private conversations. Eventually, once the key insights had been extracted, refined, and clarified, they published: books, articles, speeches, blast memos, etc.”And then Gerry McKiernan in this post on Science 2.0.
“…the really exciting thing that’s happening in Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is that more and more of those private “pre-publication” interactions are happening in public (or at least semi-public). I think of this as the dawn of the “Work in Progress” culture. We no longer think that something has to be finished before we let strangers into the conversation.”
A small but growing number of researchers--and not just the younger ones--have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wikis and social networks of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement--yet--their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based "Science 2.0" is not only more collegial than the traditional variety, but considerably more productive.Take a look. How might you work more transparently?
Henry David Thoreau revisited
One man who has hugely influenced me is Henry David Thoreau. I love his work and the lasting influence he had on the world. A friend reminded me of him while browsing in a London bookshop and I bought her his book Walden and then later googled for him on YouTube and found this video.
And here is one of my favorite quotes On grading the whole surface of the planet that's a little too long to embed here. Its more relevent now after over 100 years than it has ever been - today we really are in danger of grading the whole planet!
IBM and KM
I have talked a little in the past about IBM andLotus Connections and what IBM are doing in the KM field. But if you would like to know more take a look at this good article IBM gambles on a shift from the KM model by Rob lewis on KnowledgeBoard.
My Activities
This section of my Knowledge Letter is a new regular entry that will highlight my activities over the next six months or so.
I use Dopplr to allow people to track my travlels and to potentially meet up with me. This has already proved its usefullness as several of us Dopplr users have discovered we are in Seattle for the SLA conference and are meeting up for a social evening on the Seattle waterways. Here is a Dopplr widget that summarises my upcoming travels which I have also now included on most pages on my website.
You can see a list of my immediate activities below or a full list here.
Open Gurteen Knowledge Cafe In Dubai
04 Apr 2008, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe
STM8 8th SABIC Technical Meeting
05 - 07 Apr 2008, Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia
I will be giving a keynote talk
Buying & Selling eContent
13 - 15 Apr 2008, Scottsdale AZ, United States
I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe
Open Gurteen Knowledge Cafe In Phoenix
16 Apr 2008, Phoenix, United States
I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe
Series of Knowledge Cafe Workshops
05 - 09 May 2008, Stavanger, Norway
I will be running a series of Knowledge Cafe workshops & open Knowledge Cafes
Special Libraries Association Annual Conference
15 - 18 Jun 2008, Seattle, United States
I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe
KM Event Highlights
This section highlights some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming 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.
2008 Knowledge Management Forum
27 Mar 2008, Hong Kong, China
Open Gurteen Knowledge Cafe in Dubai
04 Apr 2008, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
I'll be facilitating this Knowledge Cafe
Buying & Selling eContent
13 - 15 Apr 2008, Scottsdale AZ, United States
I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe at this conference.
Gurteen Knowledge Cafe in Phoenix
16 Apr 2008, Phoenix, United States
I'll be facilitating this Knowledge Cafe
Library + Information Show 2008
23 - 24 Apr 2008, Birmingham, United Kingdom
APQC Knowledge Management Conference 2008
28 Apr - 02 May 2008, Chicago, United States
KMICE'08: Knowledge Management International Conference and Exhibition 2008
10 - 12 Jun 2008, Langkawi, Malaysia
Special Libraries Association Annual Conference
15 - 18 Jun 2008, Seattle, United States
I will be giving a talk on the Knowledge Cafe at this event.
KC UK 2008
25 - 26 Jun 2008, London, United Kingdom
I won't be attending this event this year.
KM Australia 2008
21 - 23 Jul 2008, Melbourne, Australia
I won't be attending this event in 2008 but I can highly recommend it.
Subscribing and Unsubscribing
You may subscribe to this newsletter on my website. Or 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 go to this page on my website.
The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM 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. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.
It is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England.
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. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
