*** THE GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-LETTER (ISSUE 32, 9 FEBRUARY 2003) ***
I've toyed with the idea of installing broadband for sometime but never
got around to it. After all, I did not have a real need - yes it would be
useful for the occasional large download and sure I could access some of
the media sites but there was no compelling reason.
But last Tuesday, NTL installed a connection and an hour or so later I was
up and running. I also installed a webcam.
I thought neither of these two new purchases would make a significant
difference to the way I work. But already I am beginning to question that.
I find broadband is more interesting in that I am now permanently
connected to the Internet and it is starting to open up new ideas as to
how I might utilize my PC and my ISP hosted website in more effective ways.
Second, in investigating how I might make use of my webcam I have spent
hours browsing the web and reading up on video technology and its
applications. And in the process I am starting to see the web and its
potential in a new light.
In short, my two new "toys" are beginning to change how I see the world in
ways that I had not anticipated. There seems to be a KM lesson here about
playing and exploration. In some ways not too surprising but why did I not
do it earlier? I will let you know how it all develops :-)
*************************** CONTENTS ***************************
1 - Knowledge Space
2 - Is SMS the way of the future?
3 - Global Knowlege Sharing
4 - Intranet Whitepapers
5 - Knowledge Sharing and Personality
6 - Groove Workspace version 2.5
7 - The Innovaton Superhighway
8 - Butterworth-Heinemann KM Books
9 - From Science to God
10 - Knowledge-Raffle
11 - Agile Workforce Management
12 - KMPro Discussion Forum
13 - Current KnowledgeBoard Theme
14 - Learning to Listen and Learning to Tell the Truth
************************ KNOWLEDGE SPACE ************************
If you are interested in how the design of workspaces can better support
learning and knowledge sharing then here are a few opportunities to learn
a little more.
First, if you are in London on 25th February you may like to attend the
Coffeemachine where Victoria Ward and Bruce Greenlagh of Sparknow will
share their experience of designing spaces for knowledge to conduct a
study tour of the new Cass Business School building.
Second, you make like to read an interesting article I have just published
on my site by Keith Breetzke on "A Fresh Start for School Spaces In South
Africa - Lessons For Office Spaces In The 21St Century?"
Third: The KnowledgeBoard has also dedicated a SIG to the subject:
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/community/zones/sig/space.html
And finally, in anticipation of a growing interest in this subject area I
have created a new Category on my website.
The Coffeemachine:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000194DE?open&r=3&p=0
A Fresh Start For School Spaces In South Africa:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X003CD262?open&r=3&p=0
Knowledge Space:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X004035E6?open&r=3&p=0
***************** IS SMS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE? *****************
By Sheila Moorcroft, Business Futures
The best things come in small parcels as the saying goes: is this true too
for SMS? SMS is taking off as a way of engaging the hearts and minds of
customers and viewers. Could it also provide a better way of engaging
with employees? Two different examples indicate that it may be a
possibility.
+ A Finnish football club makes decisions by phone. Club members are more
than spectators, they manage the club, the games the players - by mobile
phone - by joining the ClubManager scheme. The team manager goes with the
vote - e.g. fans are texted with a choice for substitution, training
suggestions etc. Fans pay 50p per message 30p for the club 10p to the
operator and 10p to the sports company.
+ Big Brother 3 and I’m a Celebrity get me out of here were both recent TV
hits in the UK. SMS played a major role in both with millions of viewers
texting their votes to say who would leave.
Could we see interrogation of company intranets via SMS? Could decisions
and options be more democratically discussed and decided by SMS? Or will
we drown in SMS as well as email as we indiscriminately copy all and
sundry?
Sheila Moorcroft:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000D95AE?open&r=3&p=0
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******************** GLOBAL KNOWLEGE SHARING ********************
One of the aspects of my website is that most of the pages are categorized
by category, person, organization, country and more recently city. The
idea is to make it easy to navigate and to discover links between ideas
and people. For example, as I develop my site a community site - it will
help members find like-minded people in their locale.
I've recently extensively updated the country/city categorization to
include world-flags and country maps - courtesy believe it or not of the
CIA whose World Factbook site-data is in the public domain.
Take a look at the Boston page as an example to see how the technique
pulls pages together. (You also get to see a photo of me on the River
Charles looking 10 years younger :-) but then I was!)
Boston:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00241E1A?open&r=3&p=0
Country View:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000A6F6E?open&p=0
Category View:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000CBC5A?open&p=0
********************* INTRANET WHITEPAPERS *********************
James Robertson of Step Two Designs in Australia is a prolific writer of
short white papers on various aspects of Intranet design and content
management. Here are some recent examples:
* Metrics for knowledge management and content management
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_metrics/index.html
Metrics are an effective way of setting project targets, assessing
success, and tracking ongoing health. This article summarizes a range of
practical KM and CM-related metrics.
* Looking towards the future of content management
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_future/index.html
A look forward to the future direction of the CMS marketplace.
* Putting metadata to work
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_metadata/index.html
This briefing lists some very practical ways in which CMS metadata can be
put to work.
* Why every small website needs a CMS
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_needcms/index.html
A nontechnical introduction to how a CMS can benefit any website, however
small.
*************** KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND PERSONALITY ***************
I am a member of the Henley Management College KM Forum and one of the
forum's activities is carrying out KM research. They have a number of
interesting projects underway. One of the activities is a fascinating
research project in association with SHL (Saville & Holdsworth Ltd) - an
organization specializing in human assessment in work settings - to
investigate links between knowledge sharing and personality.
If you are interested you can help contribute to the research, which is
expected to result in a useful diagnostic tool for knowledge management
practitioners.
To participate, you will need to complete a questionnaire which will
assess your knowledge sharing competences and will also assess aspects of
your personality. This questionnaire is completed and submitted using
e-mail and should take 20 to 30 minutes. You also need to nominate a
colleague to provide an external view of your knowledge sharing behaviors
to compare with your own rating - this survey takes 10-15 minutes to
complete.
Once the surveys have been completed and returned, you will receive a
report by e-mail suggesting ways in which you can further develop your
competences in knowledge sharing.
If you would like to complete the questionnaire and receive the report,
please send your e-mail address, together with that of your nominated
colleague, to [email protected]
Henley Knowledge Management Forum:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000177BA?open&r=3&p=0
Knowledge Sharing:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0032BFB2?open&r=3&p=0
***************** GROOVE WORKSPACE VERSION 2.5 *****************
Groove Workspace v2.5 has recently shipped. For details, see:
http://campaign.groove.net/bulletins/0302/t1.html
Groove Networks:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00024376?open&r=3&p=0
Ray Ozzie:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000358FA?open&r=3&p=0
****************** THE INNOVATON SUPERHIGHWAY ******************
I'm receiving a large number of books these days from authors and
publishers to review. My apologies to you all but I am just unable to find
the time! However, I have loaded details on my website and even if I do
not have time to review them then I can say a little about each book.
One such book is "The Innovation Superhighway" by Debra Amidon in which
she describes how managers can use knowledge management processes and
tools to sustain high levels of innovation among their employees to gain
competitive advantage.
It links the two separate areas of knowledge management and innovation
into the combined area that Debra calls "Knowledge Innovation".
It is an excellent book - take a look at the five star ratings on Amazon
and explore Debra's extensive Entovation website to learn more about the
book and Debra's work.
Or enter my knowledge-raffle to win a free copy!
The Innovation SuperHighway:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00282582?open&r=3&p=0
Debra Amidon:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000D9CFE?open&r=3&p=0
Knowledge Raffle:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0028667E?open&p=0
**************** BUTTERWORTH-HEINEMANN KM BOOKS ****************
Butterworth-Heinemann seem to have one of the best KM book collections
around with titles from Stephen Denning, Verna Allee and more. I suggest
you take a look!
Butterworth-Heinemann Books:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X002FEAB6?open&r=3&p=0
********************** FROM SCIENCE TO GOD **********************
On Tuesday I am meeting Euan Sempler for lunch. Euan has created one of
the best weblogs I have come across - he maintains a fine balance between
technology, business and spirituality.
Seeing I was meeting Euan I thought it would be useful to check out his
blog to see what was on his mind right now. I immediately noticed an entry
entitled "From the best book I have read in ages ..." about a book from
Peter Russell - "From Science to God". It included a clip from the book:
"We may now be in the early stages of what could become the greatest
spiritual renaissance in human history. If we make it through these
troubled and uncertain times and discover the full wonder of
consciousness, the history books of the future may look back on the early
days of the third millennium as the Great Awakening - the time when
humanity as a whole finally realized what saints, mystics, and spiritual
teachers have been telling us for centuries.
When we do finally awaken to our true nature, our world will change in
ways we can now hardly imagine. Five hundred years ago, Copernicus could
not have foreseen the full impact of his new model of the universe. Today,
we can have little appreciation of how the world might be when generations
have been brought up knowing that consciousness is primary, and that each
and every one of us is holy."
Euan had followed it with a note:
P.S. If you are inclined to dismiss this as new age waffle it's worth
considering that Peter studied with Stephen Hawkins and has been an
advisor to companies like IBM, Apple, Shell, BP ...
I have long been a fan of Peter Russell and so was delighted to see this
reference to his book. So it looks ike Euan and I have something to talk
about other than weblogs :-)
Connecting ideas and like-minds is what blogging is all about. Take a look
at Euan's weblog:
http://www.theobviousblog.net/
Peter Russell:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0003286E?open&r=3&p=0
Weblog Pages:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00143812?open&r=3&p=0
*********************** KNOWLEDGE-RAFFLE ***********************
100 people entered my Knowledge-Raffle for a copy of "How to become a
successful IT consultant" by Professor Dan Remenyi. It was won by Rachel
Gosho of Croydon Council in the UK. Congratulations Rachel!
Two other books are in the current raffle: "Personal Networking" by Mick
Cope and The Innovation Superhighway by Debra Amidon.
Take a look - its free!
Knowledge-Raffle:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0028667E?open&p=0
****************** AGILE WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT ******************
I've talked in the past about the concept of "flexible working" and it was
also the subject of a recent knowledge-café. If you would like to learn
more about the concept then John Blackwell has informed me of a
web-seminar entitled "Agile Workforce Management: Envisioning the role of
Business-to-Employee(B2E) Self-Service, Collaboration and Knowledge
Management(KM)" organized by WIPRO in association with GARTNER is being
shown on Thursday February 13th from 16:30 to 18:00 GMT
You can register below:
http://www.wipro.com/connect/i-desk/webinar.htm
John Blackwell:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0012FE66?open&r=3&p=0
New Ways of Working
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X00023A1E?open&r=3&p=0
******************** KMPRO DISCUSSION FORUM ********************
At the last KMPro London chapter meeting in December, Darius Baria spoke
on "KM in Rolls-Royce".
As a result of that meeting I have recently set up a discussion forum on
my website to discuss "How to get management buy-in for a KM strategy that
has started as a bottom-up or grassroots effort".
I have set up the forum primarily for those people who attended the KMPro
meeting but anyone who is interested in the subject is welcome to join in.
Gurteen Knowledge Forums:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0003AE02?open&p=0
KMPro:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000D78F6?open&r=3&p=0
***************** CURRENT KNOWLEDGEBOARD THEME *****************
The KnowledgeBoard website runs a different KM theme each month with
online and offline workshops, discussion forums, surveys and interviews.
The current Theme is hosted by the KM & SMEs SIG on "Do I need KM in my
SME?" See:
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/themes/
******* LEARNING TO LISTEN AND LEARNING TO TELL THE TRUTH *******
I published an article in the May 2002 edition of Knowledge Management
Magazine (Bizmedia) under the title "Some questions about listening." It
was highly influenced by the writing of several people: Theodore Zeldin,
Anthony de Mello, Stephen R. Covey, David Bohm and Suzy Wetlaufer.
Its quite short but a bit too long for this newsletter ... here is how it
starts ... if you are interested click through to read the full article.
Learning to Listen and to Tell the Truth
Do we listen, in order to confirm what we already think and in order to
reply? Or do we listen in order to discover something new?
Do we enter into a conversation with a willingness to learn rather than
the intent to force others to accept our views?
Are we willing to learn? Are we willing to change? Are we open to the
truth, no matter what the consequences, no matter where it leads us?
Are we willing to admit that we are wrong? Maybe we have always been wrong
or maybe our views are obsolete and no longer appropriate in a rapidly
changing world.
Are we ready to listen? Are we open? And by being open, I do not mean
gullible. Being open does not mean swallowing everything we hear "hook,
line and sinker". Or being talked over and walked upon - not standing for
our point of view. We still need to challenge everything but from an
attitude of openness, not stubbornness ...
Learning to Listen and to Tell the Truth:
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000FA4CA?open&r=3&p=0
Knowledge Management Magazine (Bizmedia)
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X000063D2?open&r=3&p=0
***************** 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
2003, David Gurteen, All rights reserved."
David Gurteen
Gurteen Associates
Fleet, United Kingdom
