I have been engaged by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNISDR to assist them with more effective knowledge management.
As a first step, I am very keen to make contact with those KM practitioners and KM consultants who have experience in this area and/or who have a very strong interest.
The first step is to find out what work is being done already with KM and DRR.
Are there any communities of KM practitioners in this area?
If one doesn't already exist, I would like to create a forum/community of KM practitioners to help move forward faster with effective KM for disaster risk reduction.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Ron Young
More at www.knowledge-management-online.com
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Knowledge Transfer through a free Global Videoconference on the internet
Its 2pm in Europe, 8pm in Singapore, 9pm in Tokyo and 8am in New York, the same day, 10th September 2009.
I fire up my ooVoo. I click and call the four team members and we all appear on the computer screen in high quality. It looks like the video links that you see everyday on the television news.
Because I can see everyone, it is a very similar feeling to all sitting around a meeting table.
We talk naturally most of the time.
For 50 minutes we work our way through an agenda that includes, as a main topic, an overview of a collaborative work space that we have just set up and all need to start using. As a team of knowledge management and innovation experts and practitioners, we are going to compile a manual and courseware with a list of essential and highly desirable KM Tools, Techniques and Technologies.We aim to complete the first draft by the end of this year.
I think that, for fast and cost effective knowledge transfer, videoconferencing like this must be top of the list for me, as an essential tool.
After the video conference on the internet, I got myself a cup of coffee and reflected for a few minutes. Just a couple of weeks ago we were all together, as a team for the first time, in Singapore. In just a few days, we got to know one another and we started to build relationships, trust and respect, and a sense of optimism in working together. Now, two weeks later, I feel like I have physically attended a further meeting with them all. We agreed to have our second meeting, and first learning review, in two weeks time.
Please follow this blog, labelled 'Planetary Knowledge' and watch this space if you wish to follow my experiences in attempting to develop effective virtual knowledge working.Your feedback is most welcome.
(from the book under development
Planetary Knowledge - effective knowledge working in a global knowledge economy)
Ron Young
PS I have absolutely no financial interest in the tools I will describe in this book. I simply wish to openly share my experiences of those that work well.
More information at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
I fire up my ooVoo. I click and call the four team members and we all appear on the computer screen in high quality. It looks like the video links that you see everyday on the television news.
Because I can see everyone, it is a very similar feeling to all sitting around a meeting table.
We talk naturally most of the time.
For 50 minutes we work our way through an agenda that includes, as a main topic, an overview of a collaborative work space that we have just set up and all need to start using. As a team of knowledge management and innovation experts and practitioners, we are going to compile a manual and courseware with a list of essential and highly desirable KM Tools, Techniques and Technologies.We aim to complete the first draft by the end of this year.
I think that, for fast and cost effective knowledge transfer, videoconferencing like this must be top of the list for me, as an essential tool.
After the video conference on the internet, I got myself a cup of coffee and reflected for a few minutes. Just a couple of weeks ago we were all together, as a team for the first time, in Singapore. In just a few days, we got to know one another and we started to build relationships, trust and respect, and a sense of optimism in working together. Now, two weeks later, I feel like I have physically attended a further meeting with them all. We agreed to have our second meeting, and first learning review, in two weeks time.
Please follow this blog, labelled 'Planetary Knowledge' and watch this space if you wish to follow my experiences in attempting to develop effective virtual knowledge working.Your feedback is most welcome.
(from the book under development
Planetary Knowledge - effective knowledge working in a global knowledge economy)
Ron Young
PS I have absolutely no financial interest in the tools I will describe in this book. I simply wish to openly share my experiences of those that work well.
More information at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Global videoconferencing using ooVoo
Today was my first experience of a 5 way
free video conference using ooVoo.
We were from New York, S.France, Singapore and
two from Tokyo.
The quality was excellent and, because we each had
4 other team members on our PC and Mac screens, it
was a true sense of being together. So much so that
the video/audio conferencing protocol I was used to,
to stop people butting in, or avoid long period of
silence, was simply not necessary, as we could all
naturally scan each other as if sitting around
a meeting table.
And if thats free video conferencing on the internet
today, totally acceptable, I certainly look forward
to the future developments too.
Ron Young
More information at
www.knowledge-management-online.com
free video conference using ooVoo.
We were from New York, S.France, Singapore and
two from Tokyo.
The quality was excellent and, because we each had
4 other team members on our PC and Mac screens, it
was a true sense of being together. So much so that
the video/audio conferencing protocol I was used to,
to stop people butting in, or avoid long period of
silence, was simply not necessary, as we could all
naturally scan each other as if sitting around
a meeting table.
And if thats free video conferencing on the internet
today, totally acceptable, I certainly look forward
to the future developments too.
Ron Young
More information at
www.knowledge-management-online.com
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Assessing and Developing the Global Knowledge Economy
I am doing some further research into the growth of the Global
Knowledge Economy, for a paper I am presenting at the
International Conference on Knowledge Economy in Johannesburg,
South Africa in October 2009.
I base much of my primary assumptions on country growth and effectiveness, within the Global Knowledge Economy, on the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies' and also their book, Building Knowledge Economies: Advanced Strategies for Development.
I would be most grateful to receive any further links, suggestions and/or feedback
that you may have to help me develop an even richer understanding of the Global
Knowledge Economy.
Thanks
Ron Young
More at: www.knowledge-management-online.com
Knowledge Economy, for a paper I am presenting at the
International Conference on Knowledge Economy in Johannesburg,
South Africa in October 2009.
I base much of my primary assumptions on country growth and effectiveness, within the Global Knowledge Economy, on the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies' and also their book, Building Knowledge Economies: Advanced Strategies for Development.
I would be most grateful to receive any further links, suggestions and/or feedback
that you may have to help me develop an even richer understanding of the Global
Knowledge Economy.
Thanks
Ron Young
More at: www.knowledge-management-online.com
Knowledge Management for SME's in Jakarta - some learnings
For the week 10th - 14th August 2009, I was one of three KM consultants / facilitators working with a group of participants from over 20 Asian countries for 5 intensive days of learning, knowledge sharing and practical workshops.
The event, organized by Asian Productivity Organization, APO focused on KM for SME's. My co-consultant/facilitators were Praba Nair, Director of Knowledge Drivers International (Asia) Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, and Naoki Ogiwara, Senior Consultant and "Ba Conductor" for Knowledge Dynamics Initiative, Fuji Xerox Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.
There were many new learnings for me, but I thought I would share some of the key principles and learnings, focused on SME's.
1.Generally, the KM education and literature available does not focus enough
on SME's so I congratulate APO for this significant initiative.
2. SME's are likely to be very interested in joining 'Knowledge Clusters'
as a KM strategy.
3. SMEs are more interested in new knowledge creation and innovation,
as they better know 'who and what they know' than larger fragmented organizations
4. SMEs can more readily start 'personal KM and team KM' initiatives
5. SMEs can take much better advantage of the use of (often free) Web 2.0
tools and do not have the same usage problems as large organizations
6. The APO is publishing a book of eight case studies 'Knowledge Management for SME's' in the Autumn and I will provide the link through this blog and website when available (I was one of the team writing the book for APO)
7. I like “Knowledge is sticky – it will not move without a process". Most SMEs need to improve or implement better knowledge processes.
My favourite learning for the week in Jakarta from the opening speech from the DG for Manpower Transmigration for Indonesia was "Our goal is to move from unemployment and earning a wage, to gaining an income through knowledge".
My favourite paradox, when I teach KM is, 'Fun is serious business'. We learn so much more when we enjoy the learning process.
There was certainly much fun and learning by all over the five days.
The group of participants present in Jakarta, Indonesia, have taken the initiative, led by Viki, to 'practice what we have learned' and create a KM forum using the social network NING.com at KM-ONEWORLD.
Why not join us?
Ron Young
more at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
The event, organized by Asian Productivity Organization, APO focused on KM for SME's. My co-consultant/facilitators were Praba Nair, Director of Knowledge Drivers International (Asia) Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, and Naoki Ogiwara, Senior Consultant and "Ba Conductor" for Knowledge Dynamics Initiative, Fuji Xerox Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.
There were many new learnings for me, but I thought I would share some of the key principles and learnings, focused on SME's.
1.Generally, the KM education and literature available does not focus enough
on SME's so I congratulate APO for this significant initiative.
2. SME's are likely to be very interested in joining 'Knowledge Clusters'
as a KM strategy.
3. SMEs are more interested in new knowledge creation and innovation,
as they better know 'who and what they know' than larger fragmented organizations
4. SMEs can more readily start 'personal KM and team KM' initiatives
5. SMEs can take much better advantage of the use of (often free) Web 2.0
tools and do not have the same usage problems as large organizations
6. The APO is publishing a book of eight case studies 'Knowledge Management for SME's' in the Autumn and I will provide the link through this blog and website when available (I was one of the team writing the book for APO)
7. I like “Knowledge is sticky – it will not move without a process". Most SMEs need to improve or implement better knowledge processes.
My favourite learning for the week in Jakarta from the opening speech from the DG for Manpower Transmigration for Indonesia was "Our goal is to move from unemployment and earning a wage, to gaining an income through knowledge".
My favourite paradox, when I teach KM is, 'Fun is serious business'. We learn so much more when we enjoy the learning process.
There was certainly much fun and learning by all over the five days.
The group of participants present in Jakarta, Indonesia, have taken the initiative, led by Viki, to 'practice what we have learned' and create a KM forum using the social network NING.com at KM-ONEWORLD.
Why not join us?
Ron Young
more at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
Friday, June 12, 2009
Google Knol has an automatic audio facility !
I normally check my Google Knol articles once a month.
Today, I noticed that Google have introduced an automatic
audio facility that speaks the article. So people can now
read the article or listen to it or download an mp3 file. Cool.
It's quite a strange feeling to hear an automated voice read
an article I have written.
My article 'Knowledge Management - back to basics' has taken
on a new form of life.
Ron Young
More at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
Today, I noticed that Google have introduced an automatic
audio facility that speaks the article. So people can now
read the article or listen to it or download an mp3 file. Cool.
It's quite a strange feeling to hear an automated voice read
an article I have written.
My article 'Knowledge Management - back to basics' has taken
on a new form of life.
Ron Young
More at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Boiling frogs, or is the world restructuring around Knowledge
I have been unable to blog this past few weeks, as I have been totally preoccupied with updating my KM 2009 seminar and workshop materials.
During the KM seminar update,I once again considered the annual report from the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies'. The report considers, for each country, the application of knowledge, as manifested in entrepreneurship and innovation, research and development, and software and product design, as one of the key sources of growth in the global economy. It also states that many developing countries fail to tap the vast stock of global knowledge and apply it to their needs, but they can build their strengths and can capitalize on the knowledge revolution.
Countries such as Finland, Korea, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile and more recently, China and India illustrate the rapid progress that can be made.
Then I started thinking again, more deeply, about the way that work around the world is increasingly being organized far more around the knowledge, as an end in itself, and not just the product or service provided.
For example, General Motors do not employ people any more, directly, to manufacture a single car. They employ people to develop and apply GMs 'knowledge' about design, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, service etc. The manufacturing is outsourced and the profits are to be made in applying their knowledge. Shell International tell the same story. Once they said their core business was oil exploration, oil refining and distribution. Now they tell us that they have the best 'knowledge' of oil exploration, refining and distribution and are organizing themselves around the value that this knowledge provides. Airbus Industries have said that they can make more money licensing their knowledge on aerospace to China, for example, than actually building aircraft.
It didn't take long for Accounting Firms to realize the higher value and profitability in offering financial and management consulting services through effective knowledge management.
Banks are far more interested today in high value added knowledge financial services than making money to keep your money safe (that is - unscrupulous traders and dealing, and lack of applying knowledgeable regulatory best practice, aside).
It seems very clear, and very obvious to me that the world's major industries and institutions have all realized that there is more money to be made from restructuring around the highest knowledge available (the best recipe)and outsourcing the lower value core activities elsewhere.
I am so reminded of 'the boiling frog' syndrome that I learned twenty years ago from Professor Charles Handy, London Business School, and I guess that it is this that has compelled me to write this blog today.
Charles Handy taught me that it is a fact that you can put a frog in a saucepan of cold water and slowly heat it up. The frog will continually adapt to the increasing heat and, eventually, die in the pot of very hot water. On the other hand, if you first heat a pot of water to, say, less than the temperature that will kill the frog, and if you drop a frog in it, the frog will immediately leap out of the water.
We all seem to be boiling frogs around the world. For several years we have had the increasing climate change to boil in. We are boiling in world pollution and so on.
But my point today, is that we are experiencing an unprecedented and exponential increase in information and knowledge around the world, and we are restructuring our businesses and our institutions and our daily work more and more around knowledge. Furthermore, the World Wide Web is fundamentally and radically restructuring our businesses around higher knowledge and better ways to create and apply knowledge.
This major change in redesigning our work around knowledge, major growth, and major disruption, will undoubtedly bring massive new global opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, growth and profitability, on the one hand, and certain death to those businesses who sit as boiling frogs and do not see the change taking place.
Too many politicians are boiling frogs too, and are still talking about fixing things, back to the way they were, as opposed to recognizing the global restructuring around knowledge that is taking place day by day.
Let's not be boiling frogs but, instead, let's leap into this new paradigm of one highly interconnected global knowledge economy.
What do you think?
Ron Young
More at www.knowledge-management-online.com
During the KM seminar update,I once again considered the annual report from the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies'. The report considers, for each country, the application of knowledge, as manifested in entrepreneurship and innovation, research and development, and software and product design, as one of the key sources of growth in the global economy. It also states that many developing countries fail to tap the vast stock of global knowledge and apply it to their needs, but they can build their strengths and can capitalize on the knowledge revolution.
Countries such as Finland, Korea, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile and more recently, China and India illustrate the rapid progress that can be made.
Then I started thinking again, more deeply, about the way that work around the world is increasingly being organized far more around the knowledge, as an end in itself, and not just the product or service provided.
For example, General Motors do not employ people any more, directly, to manufacture a single car. They employ people to develop and apply GMs 'knowledge' about design, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, service etc. The manufacturing is outsourced and the profits are to be made in applying their knowledge. Shell International tell the same story. Once they said their core business was oil exploration, oil refining and distribution. Now they tell us that they have the best 'knowledge' of oil exploration, refining and distribution and are organizing themselves around the value that this knowledge provides. Airbus Industries have said that they can make more money licensing their knowledge on aerospace to China, for example, than actually building aircraft.
It didn't take long for Accounting Firms to realize the higher value and profitability in offering financial and management consulting services through effective knowledge management.
Banks are far more interested today in high value added knowledge financial services than making money to keep your money safe (that is - unscrupulous traders and dealing, and lack of applying knowledgeable regulatory best practice, aside).
It seems very clear, and very obvious to me that the world's major industries and institutions have all realized that there is more money to be made from restructuring around the highest knowledge available (the best recipe)and outsourcing the lower value core activities elsewhere.
I am so reminded of 'the boiling frog' syndrome that I learned twenty years ago from Professor Charles Handy, London Business School, and I guess that it is this that has compelled me to write this blog today.
Charles Handy taught me that it is a fact that you can put a frog in a saucepan of cold water and slowly heat it up. The frog will continually adapt to the increasing heat and, eventually, die in the pot of very hot water. On the other hand, if you first heat a pot of water to, say, less than the temperature that will kill the frog, and if you drop a frog in it, the frog will immediately leap out of the water.
We all seem to be boiling frogs around the world. For several years we have had the increasing climate change to boil in. We are boiling in world pollution and so on.
But my point today, is that we are experiencing an unprecedented and exponential increase in information and knowledge around the world, and we are restructuring our businesses and our institutions and our daily work more and more around knowledge. Furthermore, the World Wide Web is fundamentally and radically restructuring our businesses around higher knowledge and better ways to create and apply knowledge.
This major change in redesigning our work around knowledge, major growth, and major disruption, will undoubtedly bring massive new global opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, growth and profitability, on the one hand, and certain death to those businesses who sit as boiling frogs and do not see the change taking place.
Too many politicians are boiling frogs too, and are still talking about fixing things, back to the way they were, as opposed to recognizing the global restructuring around knowledge that is taking place day by day.
Let's not be boiling frogs but, instead, let's leap into this new paradigm of one highly interconnected global knowledge economy.
What do you think?
Ron Young
More at www.knowledge-management-online.com
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
KM in Defence and KM in Government
I am running two three day KM events in Singapore in May 2009 as follows:
21 - 23 May KM in Defence
25 - 27 May KM in Government
For further details of these and other events go to the K2B website.
Ron Young
More information at
www.knowledge-management-online.com
21 - 23 May KM in Defence
25 - 27 May KM in Government
For further details of these and other events go to the K2B website.
Ron Young
More information at
www.knowledge-management-online.com
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