Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Capital, Knowledge and Transparency

This resonated with me:

McGraw-Hill aligns with three enduring global needs:

• the need for Capital
• the need for Knowledge
• the need for Transparency

These are the foundations necessary to foster economic growth and to allow individuals, markets and societies to reach their full potential.

Cool - Ron Young

More at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, December 22, 2008

Learning and Knowledge creation is Super

I am certainly glad to be back blogging my KM Consulting learnings and experiences after a few very hectic months of writing a series of KM articles, which you can read as Google Knols and, also, writing several KM reports and recommendations for clients with pretty tough year-end deadlines. But life is now back in balance for a while.

I hope to soon share some incredible new learnings and experiences that I have had, and some of which I believe will literally turn the KM world upside down, and, I am glad to say, for the better. Just as an interesting aside, I had a fun experience whilst travelling to a client last week.

Whilst travelling from New Delhi to Ghaziabad in a car, I noticed a large billboard on the main road. It was advertising a forthcoming spiritual event promoting the peak of well being, and there was a great quote I wanted to capture and share.

"It's not about becoming Super Human

Its about realizing that being Human is Super"

Sadhguru

Not only do I like this quote, but it inspired me to spontaneously think

"Its not about becoming a Super learning and knowledge creating organisation
but its about realising that learning and knowledge creation is Super"

Enjoy

Ron Young

more at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, August 11, 2008

Knowledge and wisdom are my passion and my work

Today I have created my third Knol article on Google entitled ' Knowledge and wisdom are my passion and my work'.

Throughout my life, I have always been extremely passionate about knowledge and wisdom

At one end of the spectrum, I am extremely passionate about knowledge management for individuals, teams, organizations and global communities and networks. It became my profession, as a knowledge management consultant, since 1995.

At the other extreme, I am passionate about what you might call 'higher knowledge', philosophy, especially moral and spiritual philosophy and/or ethics. I am passionate about both the ancient wisdom, especially eastern philosophy and modern scientific knowledge, whether it be about quantum theory, neuroscience, nanotechnology or even molecular biology and molecular computing.

If you are interested in my thoughts and my work with knowledge and wisdom, whether it is about practical daily issues and challenges of knowledge management, or whether it is about my perspective and experiences about the meaning and purpose of life, or both, you can find my books, articles and blogs listed.

As always, I would highly value your comments, feedback and any reviews, so that I may continually improve this Knol.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Updating the Future of Knowledge Management - a second Knol

Today I have created my second Knol article on Google entitled ' Updating The Future of Knowledge Management'.

In 1999 I published an article entitled 'Future of Knowledge Management' in the European American Business Journal. Today, 9 years later in August 2008, I decided to review and rewrite this article.

Where is Knowledge Management (KM) going in the next ten years? What did I get right in 1999? What did I get wrong and what have I learned from this? What are the challenges for knowledge driven organizations if they are to thrive in the global knowledge economy in the next 10 years?

I find it exciting to write about the future of knowledge management in 2008 on a Knol, as I fully embrace the Knol as a great addition to the knowledge management toolkit.

As always, I would highly value your comments, feedback and any reviews, so that I may continually improve this Knol.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Leading Knowledge Management and Communications at Hewlett-Packard, India

Sameer Agarwal from India has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Sameer works with Hewlett-Packard - Decision Support and Analytics (DSAS) and serves as the leader for Knowledge Management and Communications. At HP, he has been responsible for setting up an integrated KM, information and communications program based on contextual KM techniques.

He spent close to 4 years at A.T. Kearney learning the various nuances of Knowledge Management – from technology to strategy to operations. Post this, Sameer moved to Genpact where he led the corporate knowledge management initiative at a global level.

Sameer can be tracked on his blog at www.sameeragarwal.com/blog

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Sameer directly.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Friday, August 01, 2008

Knol from Google versus Wikipedia?

People are asking me, 'So what is the real difference between a Knol and Wikipedia, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the two?'.

Well, here is a Knol by Reginald Patterson, 'Knol versus Wikipedia' which I think is a good start.

What do you think?

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Knowledge Management in the 21st Century - a first Knol article

Well today I have created my first Knol article on Google entitled 'Knowledge Management in the 21st Century'. Its my current point of view on the state of KM, where it might be going, and some challenges over the next years. It's good to see other Knowledge Management Knols appearing already. Google define a Knol as a unit of knowledge.

My first article is far far from complete, but because it is a Knol, it can be rapidly developed, continually improved, and I can refine and develop it further over time and experience. What I urgently seek now is comments and even reviews. Any sort of feedback is very much welcomed.

So I see the blogsphere as a marvellous fragmented or loosely connected global space which is ideal for capturing and developing opinions, ideas, insights, learnings, comments etc chronlogically, and often spontaneously, and I see the knolsphere (if it can be called that for the moment)as a space to develop ideas, opinions, insights, learnings and comments into articles that can be peer reviewed and further developed.

If we wish to, we could then develop several Knols into book chapters, and/or website themes and so on. Of course, the Knol can accomodate collaborative authoring in public and private modes, so, together with blogs and, say, ebooks it could be used as part of a progressive authoring suite.

Coincidentally, or maybe not so, I first heard of the Knol through using my 'Google alerts', learned more about it through 'Google Groups' and 'Search', of course. I use Google reader to better aggregate and track what I am reading, and I am now sharing my thoughts on a Google blog.

I think I badly need a vacation!

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Understanding the dynamics of knowledge and know how is crucial to employee engagement and performance management

Anjana Doshi (Anj) from the UK has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Anjana passionately believes that understanding the dynamics of knowledge and know how is crucial to employee engagement and performance management. She uses the value of diversity, inclusive working, and collaborative partnering to help ambitious management teams operate as high performance teams whilst executing robust, profitable and yet complex business transformations.

She states that "Sustainability of change and growth hinges on how people interact, behave and collaborate. Facilitating the best dynamics to ensure sustainability and engagement is a fascinating key dimension for me. Process and system changes are relatively easy in my assessment and get too much priority."

"I would very much like to share my thoughts with others who are practitioners like myself and those who may have experiences to share as executives and managers responsible for difficult transformations."


If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Anj directly.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, July 24, 2008

KNOL - a unit of knowledge from Google

Today, I claim that knowledge management has taken a great step forward towards a more inclusive discipline.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see the launch of KNOL by Google. For me, it marks a significant step towards more inclusive and more Open Source Global Knowledge Management. Whereas Wikipedia may be considered to be an incredibly powerful resource for the creation and dissemination of knowledge, there are some limitations, that I believe Google have addressed.

As a key principle of effective knowledge management, it is now possible to have more choice in the information and knowledge you are presented with. With KNOL, you can choose to have an 'author-centric' and a more 'fully inclusive' series of authoritative articles with the same name, for example 'knowledge management', if you wish, as opposed to having just one authoritative article that is managed with that name. There is great merit in both approaches and, if you so wish, you can now choose both.

As a result, Global Knowledge Management is about to move to the next incredibly exciting step, and KNOL is certainly a part of that.

I am now far more motivated, enthused and committed to continually extending and improving KNOL articles and contribute more, starting with some links to more inclusive approaches to knowledge management, new perspectives on knowledge asset management, the inevitable drive to more open source knowledge, and the impact of rapidly emerging knowledge tools to support new and disruptively innovative knowledge processes, that will take us all to the next level of knowledge management. The Semantic Web 3.0 is just one example of this.

Thanks to Google and KNOL, we can now all add our voices, articles and perspectives, and choose to be more inclusive, for the common good of effective global knowledge management.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, July 17, 2008

National Library for Health Knowledge Management Specialist Library

Caroline De Brun from the UK has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Caroline is responsible for finding content for the National Library for Health Knowledge Management Specialist Library .

The aim of this site is to provide National Health Service staff with the resources required to embed knowledge management into their daily practice, with a view to improving the patient experience.

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Caroline directly.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Hong Kong Knowledge Management Forum witnesses the changes

Waltraut Ritter has made and entry in the KM Global Directory for the Hong Kong Knowledge Management Forum (HKKMF)

Waltraut founded the HK Knowledge Management Forum in 1998, which is quite influential in growing the awareness for knowledge-based economy issues in Hong Kong and beyond.

The forum engages in advocacy of areas such as knowledge economy, intellectual capital, innovation, knowledge management across different sectors in the society. The forum is independent and receives no public/government funding. It operates thanks to volunteers, private donations and receives sponsorships and participation fees for public events and community-based activities.

This year will be the HKKMF 10th Anniversary!

If you would like to know more about the work of the Hong Kong Knowledge Management Forum, you may view more here.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

'Mapping Social Connectivity and Artefact Relationships to Improve Knowledge Productivity'

Graham Durant-Law has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Based in Canberra, Australia, he is the principal and director in a boutique consulting company called Knowledge Matters, which specialises in business network analysis(BNA) and knowledge management solutions. He maintains a website and blog at http://www.durantlaw.info/ . This site has many papers and presentations, which are freely downloadable.

At the moment, he is a doctoral candidate at the University of Canberra where he is researching part-time the subject 'Mapping Social Connectivity and Artefact Relationships to Improve Knowledge Productivity'.


If you would like to know more about the work of Graham, you may view more
Graham directly.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, July 14, 2008

KM for poverty eradication and knowledge-based development

Professor Serafin "Apin" Talisayon has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

He advocates knowledge-based development and KM for poverty eradication, in addition to developing appropriate KM tools for clients in the international, public and private sectors.

"I believe that KM can help policy-makers and decision-makers better understand and manage organizations, networks and national economies amidst the changes in the global knowledge economy."

Current positions:
> Director for R&D, CCLFI.Philippines, a non-profit NGO dedicated to personal and organizational learning and change, knowledge-based development, knowledge for poverty alleviation and knowledge management
> Chair, Knowledge Management Association of the Philippines
> Vice-Chair, Society of Knowledge Management Practitioners
> Professor, Technology Management Center, University of the Philippines

He has written a book and edited three others in KM, and is a senior author of a book on knowledge for poverty alleviation. He was lead writer of a technical note on knowledge-based economies in Asia

If you would like to know more about the work of Professor Talisayon, you may contact Professor Talisayon directly.


Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, June 19, 2008

International Association of Knowledge Auditors

Dr Ann Hylton has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

She says, "I have it in mind to form the 'INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF KNOWLEDGE AUDITORS'.

I am proposing the formation of this professional body for Knowledge Auditors and asking that interested parties make their interest known to me. This will help me to determine if Knowledge Audit Specialists and Practitioners:

(a) want such a Knowledge Auditing professional body
(b) would like to be founding members of this association.

If you are interested in this initiative, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Dr Hylton directly.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

KM at the Singapore Civil Service College

Mr Gopinathan has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Mr Gopinathan is the Deputy Director with the Civil Service College of Singapore. He is experienced in developing and implementing information and knowledge management systems for Private and Public Service organisations.

He is a part-time lecturer for the Master of Science (Knowledge Management) programme jointly launched by Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and Civil Service College. He is also a certified knowledge manager by The Knowledge and Innovation Management Professional Society (USA) . He is trained and mentored by Dr Etienne Wenger on Communities of Practice (CoPs) and have helped launched CoPs in the Singapore Public Sector.

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Mr Gopinathan directly.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

A KM framework, methodology and a toolkit which has been filed for patent in the US.

Nirmala Palaniappan has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Nirmala (NP) is passionate about Knowledge Management (KM) and has been into it for close to 9 years now. (Her other areas of expertise and interest include Business Analysis, Process Improvements, Branding/Advertising and Strategic Planning.)

NP has conceived a KM framework, methodology and a toolkit which has been filed for patent in the US. She has also designed a KM system that has blogs as a single window to knowledge. She is currently a Senior KM Manager with Oracle and is responsible for KM strategy and implementation for Oracle, Asia Pacific Regions.

She was earlier a lead KM consultant at Wipro and was a key player in a strategic KM consulting assignment win.

She has authored and presented several KM papers at national and international conferences on KM implementation, Collaboration, Toolkits, and Blogging.

One of her goals is to be an influential KM thought leader and she also hopes to write a book on KM...

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with NP directly.

I am also an avid reader of Nimmy's unique and popular Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]blog.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Patrick Lambe and "KM Method Cards"

Patrick Lambe has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Patrick Lambe is a two-term President of the Information and Knowledge Management Society and founder and Principal Consultant of Straits Knowledge, a KM consulting and research firm based in Singapore. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Knowledge Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In 2008 he published "KM Method Cards" a deck of 80 guide cards covering a wide range of approaches, methods and tools that are useful in implementing knowledge management.

Patrick is a prolific writer, international keynote speaker and teacher,in knowledge management and has an eminent worldwide professional standing in KM.

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Patrick directly.

I am very keen to examine the KM Method Cards and I intend to review this great KM initiative shortly.I am also an avid reader of Patricks very popular KM blog.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Knowledge Management for SME's

Lanlan Cruz has just made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Her work at the Center for Knowledge Management at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), a government-owned-and- controlled-corporation affiliated to the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), entails promoting KM and assisting organizations in using knowledge to improve their productivity and competitiveness.

Lanlan is currently "working on refining the KM Readiness Check to make it more appropriate for SMEs and also developing a case study on KM for SMEs. I want the case study to be able to depict the concern of those SMEs who already have TQM, which is, what need do they have for KM that TQM is not already doing for them? They want to know how it figures in the House of Quality. Is KM something that needs to be highlighted because it enhances their TQM or is it something that is already mainstreamed in the organization and therefore there is no need to spell it out?"


If you are interested in KM for SME's you may like to read more and/or contact Lanlan Cruz directly.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Stan Garfield and Global Knowledge Management

Stan Garfield has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

He led the Worldwide Consulting & Integration Knowledge Management Program for Hewlett-Packard Services, and has an eminent worldwide professional standing and career in Global KM.

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Stan directly.

I am also an avid reader of Stans very popular weekly KM blog.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, June 09, 2008

KM Standards in India

Mr G.S.Krishnan has just made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

He is heading the Information Technolgy and Knowledge Management Group of National Productivity Council(NPC), New Delhi in India with the designation of Director (IT).

He is also the convenor member of the KM Standards expert panel formed by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

If you are interested in KM Standards you may like to contact Mr Krishnan directly.
His interests are also in learning and teaching about KM applications in diverse fields and sectors.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Synergies and complementaries between Web2.0 paradigm and KM

Roxanna Samii is a knowledge practitioner working for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized United Nations agency and an international financial institution.

IFAD are concerned with enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty.

Roxanna has created an entry if the KM Global Directory and is particularly interested in the social aspects of KM, therefore really interested in creating synergies and complementaries between Web2.0 paradigm and KM.

If you have the same interest, you may like to enter into a discussion with Roxanne.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Friday, June 06, 2008

Moving Kenya into the Knowledge Economy 2010

Dr Ann Hylton has entered a very interesting KM initiative
in the Global KM Directory for Kenya, entitled 'Moving Kenya
into the Knowledge Economy 2010'.


She says, "For Africa's sake, and for KM growth in Africa, it is hoped that this 'Moving Kenya into the Knowledge Economy 2010' initiative will be a success and that Kenya by 2010 will really have given birth to, (started), a New Economic Life truly driven by its people's knowledge."

You may like to read about this important initiative and, if you can help,
please contact Dr Hylton directly.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Global KM Directory continues to develop...now 68 countries

As at the end of May 2008, we have 64 key countries in the KM Global Directory, and more will be added during June.

Some great KM practitioners and consultants have added their details during May, and much more is promised for June.Check it out, as it happens, by subscribing to the 'What's New' section.

So far, we have entries from the following countries:

USA, UK, India, Malaysia, Spain, Canada, France, Bulgaria, HongKong, Singapore, Norway.

We hope it will help you better connect with other KM practitioners, consultants, teachers, policy makers, students, organizations and other interested parties.

So please let us know your KM capabilities, needs and offerings.

If your country is not listed yet, and you wish to register now, please let us know your country, by commenting on this blog post, or emailing ronyoung@knowledge-management-online.com and we will create your country page within 24 hours.

We will announce new countries and entries through this blog.

We hope you will register in the KM Global Directory. The more who register and share KM capabilities, needs and interests, comments and opinions, the more benefit to us all.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

KM Global Directory...capabilities, needs and challenges are coming in

Continuing the launch of a free service, a KM Global Directory of Practice on
the website added ten more countries to the KM Global Directory yesterday.

So far, we have received details of KM capabilities, needs, challenges and issues from USA, UK, India, Malaysia, Spain, Canada, France, Bulgaria.

We hope it will help you better connect with other KM practitioners, consultants, teachers, policy makers, students, organizations and other interested parties.

So please let us know your KM capabilities, needs and offerings.

We expect to launch at least 5 new countries per day, and all the key countries should be completed by the end of May 2008.

If your country is not listed yet, and you wish to register now, please let us know your country, by commenting on this blog post, or emailing ronyoung@knowledge-management-online.com and we will create your country page within 24 hours.

We will announce new countries each day through this blog.

We hope you will register in the KM Global Directory. The more who register and share KM capabilities, needs and interests, comments and opinions, the more benefit to us all.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, May 26, 2008

KM Global Directory...25 more countries added last week

Continuing the launch of a free service, a KM Global Directory of Practice on
the website added twenty five more countries to the KM Global Directory last week.

People are now starting to add their own KM capabilities, needs, issues and challenges, around the world. You can check this out automatically, as it happens, by creating an RSS feed to the 'What's New' section, or checking it out when needed. The 'What's New' section will highlight new people and new countries added, as well as other important website changes.

The KM Global Directory will enable you to create your own web page, upload and edit picture and information about your KM capabilities, interests, wants and needs. Others will be able to submit comments, share knowledge, contacts, services, methods and tools and even make ratings of KM professionals, where appropriate.

We hope it will help you better connect with other KM practitioners, consultants, teachers, policy makers, students, organizations and other interested parties.

There will be a section for each country in the world, categorized according to the United Nations World Macro Regions.

1. Africa
2. Asia
3. Europe
4. Latin America
5. Northern America
6. Oceania


We expect to launch at least 5 new countries per day, and all the key countries should be completed by the end of May 2008.

If your country is not listed yet, and you wish to register now, please let us know your country, by commenting on this blog post, or emailing ronyoung@knowledge-management-online.com and we will create your country page within 24 hours.

We will announce new countries each day through this blog.

We hope you will register in the KM Global Directory. The more who register and share KM capabilities, needs and interests, comments and opinions, the more benefit to us all.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, May 12, 2008

KM Global Directory of Practice..more countries launched

Continuing the launch of a free service, a KM Global Directory of Practice on the website adds eleven more
countries today.

It will enable you to create your own web page, upload and edit picture and information about your KM capabilities, interests, wants and needs. Others will be able to submit comments and even ratings, where appropriate.

We hope it will help you better connect with other KM practitioners, consultants, teachers, students, organizations and other interested parties.

There will be a section for each country in the world, according to the United Nations World Macro Regions.

The first seven countries were launched yesterday. Today we launch:

1. Germany
2. Denmark
3. Norway
4. Finland
5. Sweden

6. Canada

7. Hong Kong
8. Singapore
9. Thailand
10.Philippines

11.New Zealand

Yesterday we launched:

1. United States of America
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. Japan
5. Spain
6. Malaysia
7. India

We expect to launch at least 5 new countries per day, and should be completed by the end of May 2008.

If your country is not listed, and you wish to register now (first listed will appear at the top of each country page) please let us know your country, by commenting on this blog post, or emailing ronyoung@knowledge-management-online.com and we will create your country page within 24 hours.

We will announce new countries each day through this blog.

We hope you will register in the Global Directory. The more who register and share KM capabilities and interests, comments and opinions, the more benefit to us all.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

KM Global Directory of Practice launched

By popular request, we have just launched a free service, a KM Global Directory of Practice on the website.

It will enable you to create your own web page, upload and edit picture and information about your KM capabilities, interests, wants and needs. Others will be able to submit comments and even ratings, where appropriate.

We hope it will help you better connect with other KM practitioners, consultants, teachers, students, organizations and other interested parties.

There will be a section for each country in the world, according to the United Nations World Macro Regions.

The first countries launched today are

1. United States of America
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. Japan
5. Spain
6. Malaysia
7. India

We expect to launch at least 5 new countries per day, and should be completed by the end of May 2008.

If your country is not listed, and you wish to register now (first listed will appear at the top of each country page) please let us know your country, by commenting on this blog post, or emailing ronyoung@knowledge-management-online.com and we will create your country page within 24 hours.

We will announce new countries each day through this blog.

We hope you will register in the Global Directory. The more who register and share KM capabilities and interests, the more benefit to us all.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Twine and Knowledge Management - I started my beta test yesterday and wow!

On Sunday, whilst catching up on my favourite blogs, I read 'Do you want early access to the Twine beta', from Nova Spivak, at Radar Networks.

As I have been following Twine for a while, it really was no problem for me to blog why I wanted an early access, which was the condition Nova had set, and then email him.

I hoped for a reply sometime in the following week.

Two hours later, I received a reply from Nova from his Blackberry!
"Thanks, nice to meet you - we will let you in next week"
That's extraordinary service.

Yesterday, Wednesday morning, I was let in to Twine.

Three hours later I had created three Twines of my own. I thought I had better keep them private, and not make a fool of myself, until I understood what Twine was really about and how to use it properly. Well I needn't have worried. It is quite intuitive.

In just one hour I had added into my first Twine, which is a project with a small team that started three months ago, all the associated team emails, an MS Powerpoint presentation, an Excel spreadsheet, several Word documents, my Blog, several Websites and some notes.

That alone made me feel better organised. Especially having the emails for the project all together in one place. (Twine allocates an email address for each Twine, so you can email them in).

Next thing I know, Twine reads all of this and starts to auto-tag. It starts to tell me the 'people' it came across in the project, the 'organisations', the 'places' and 'other tags' or concepts too. Already the list is impressive. If Twine gets better at learning what your interests are, the more you use it, and I get results within a couple of hours from 49 items, I cannot wait to see more.

The sad thing is that I now have to go to some intense project meetings for a couple of days, and I will not be able to get to know Twine better until I return. But I will be able to find time to show the people I am meeting what Twine already knows about them, and the project, after a couple of hours!

I feel much more organised too! I think tools like Twine are starting to show us what Web 3.0 is really about. I am pretty sure that my personal and team knowledge management work practices are in for a radical change!

So far, I have had extraordinary service from Nova Spivak, and an extraordinary experience in starting to use Twine.

Much more on my beta testing of Twine later.

It's certainly worth following Twine. Check it out and please let me know what you think.


Ron Young

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Better Personal Knowledge Management and Twine

I have been an interested follower of the writings and work of
Nova Spivak, CEO of Radar Networks in San Francisco.
If you haven't yet come across him, he is the grandson of the late
Professor Peter Drucker, one of my all time heroes,
and Nova has a very enviable track record in founding and
developing web companies to successful IPO's over the years.


Radar Networks have been in stealth mode for quite a while but
in October 2007, they launched an invite-beta version of Twine at
Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco in October 2007.

From their press announcement:

"Radar Networks, a pioneer of Semantic Web technology, today announced the invite-beta of Twine, a new service that gives users a smarter way to share, organize, and find information with people they trust. Twine is one of the first mainstream applications of the Semantic Web, or what is sometimes referred to as Web 3.0"

I immediately put myself down for a beta version as they expand the
final testing phase. I am hoping for an early beta version as I believe Twine could start to change paradigms, both as a teaching tool, and, most importantly, as an effective personal knowledge management tool. I hope that Twine will greatly accelerate my ability to teach, consult and help individuals, teams and organisations, and move more people into the more meaningful Web 3.0 world, to use the Web as a resource to achieve even greater results.

Nova Spivak believes that we can combine the best of the
people focused social web 2.0 tools together with the
semantic technologies that aim to make more sense of documents and the connections between people, and people and documents.

Watching a video from Web2.0 Summit, I respectfully chuckled at
Nova's remark that he is combining the 'wisdom of crowds' with
the 'wisdom of computers' and that Web 3.0 is Web 2.0 with a brain!
Cool!

It's certainly worth following Twine. Check it out and please let me know what you think.

Ron Young

More about Open Source Knowledge Management at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Share, comment and rank your Knowledge Management (KM) Definitions with us all

Over the next few weeks, we are rolling out a new collaborative website that will allow us all to publish, discuss, review, improve and rank knowledge management topics at www.knowledge-management-online.com.

Today, we launch the first collaborative feature, which is to invite you to share with us all, your definition(s), comments and ranking of knowledge management definitions.

'KM Definitions' is the most popular page on the website, and we are keen to help students, practitioners, consultants and organisations more easily understand, develop and further improve their own meaning and definition.

We will announce further features through this blog, as they become available, in the following days.

Ron Young

More information at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Fuji Xerox - 'Creative Routine', Knowledge Management and Innovation

It was great to hear Naoki Ogiwara, Consultant, Fuji Xerox, Tokyo present a paper at the 'Technology for Innovation and Knowledge Management' Conference in New Delhi, 12-14th February 2008 entitled 'Knowledge Management for Innovation:- Embedding “Creative Routine” to Build an Innovative Organization'.

What's very interesting indeed about Naoki Ogiwara is that he is a Consultant "Ba" Conductor, based on his work with Professor Nonaka. He is also currently working, for some time, with Professors Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak at Babson College, USA until his return to Japan in July. So Naoki has a very interesting and rich perspective on KM indeed.

I enjoyed several discussions with him off and on-line and I guess the notion of identifying and embedding the 'Creative Routine' in an organisation is the most intriguing for Innovation. This came out of a very strong International collaboration over the years, and the work of a community of 60 Japanese companies sharing together.

The researchers looked for common characteristics of the best companies globally. Was it advanced IT?, Customer Knowledge?, Supplier / Partner Collaboration?, Strong Top Leadership?.

The answer was none of these were completely common, except one thing - they all had a 'Creative Routine' - a pattern of knowledge creation (called a Creative Routine).

It was found that in the best companies all systems (HR,IT, work process, work environment) supported the Creative Routine, which was shared by people throughout the organisation.

After presenting several case studies, Naoki concluded:

Find out your organizations own “creative routine”

- Look for “legends” or “stories” shared among the organization. It usually contains the essence of your own pattern of knowledge creation.

- It can be built on current one.

- It might need to be build from scratch.

Assess people’s ability and current systems if they fit your ideal creative routine

- Many systems (hiring, promotion, compensation, IT, workplace, business process) often conflict with each other.

Small Start, Achieve Success, and then Expand the Story

- The story has the power to change behavior of many people.

Over the three days presentations, panel discussions and individual questions and culminating in an APO workshop, I found that Naoki has this great ability to present some key messages in a very clear, very understandable, and very powerful way.

He has some good mentors / teachers too - Professors Nonaka,Davenport, Prusak.

Ron Young

More information at:

www-knowledge-management-online.com

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Knowledge Management Solutions for the Graying Workforce

I hear increasing concern around the world, these days, about how to best capture and retain some of the critical knowledge that organisations are losing, following the loss of baby-boomers as they near retirement age - the graying workforce.

IBM Business Consulting Human Capital Management group have stated that "the aging population will be one of the major social and business issues of the 21st Century, and companies worldwide are starting to examine what this means in terms of skills, knowledge and growth" says Mary Sue Rogers, global leader of this group.

I say give everyone a blog! Teach them how they can help both the individual and the organisation! Teach them how to capture learnings, ideas and insights in a blog, and give them the worktime to write it daily, or at worst weekly!

Teach them how to capture these daily or weekly new learnings, insights and new ideas as a worthy habit. Show them how blogging actually helps them better create, organise, synthesize, and develop their knowledge, as well as capture and retain the rich tacit knowledge gems for themselves and others.

A year of blogging will simply outstrip any other techniques I know to capture, retain, rediscover and reuse this valuable knowledge. Two years, five years, ten years plus of blogging and phew....

I started this blog in January 2006 and I am already constantly amazed, when searching it, at some of the useful insights I have captured and have completely forgotten, concerning some of my professional km consulting activities.

One day, the blogging of personal learnings, ideas and insights will be recognised by the more enlightened organisations as a critical skill for the individual, team and entire organisation.

Blog on. I feel so much better now that I have got that off my chest.

Ron Young

More at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Knowledge Management, leading KM organizations and leading KM countries

It was good to meet Rory Chase, MD of Teleos and founder of the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE Awards), again at the 'Technology for Innovation and Knowledge Management' Conference in New Delhi, India on 12-14th February 2008.

I think he has got one thing very right. It's not necessarily about which Nation is leading in the global knowledge economy. What also really matters is how well an Organization is performing in the global knowledge economy.

Example: The Indian Minister of Trade and Industry will say, quite rightly from his perspective, how important it is to bring India into the global knowledge society.
However, WIPRO, headquartered in Bangalore, India, is certainly world class today in the global knowledge economy, and is leading in KM, compared to many other organisations around the world. In fact, WIPRO's two presentations at the conference, from Mr Ved Prakash on 'KM Initiatives in WIPRO', and from Mr Avinash Rao on 'KM for High Value Outsourcing', gave outstanding and quite leading edge presentations on their work with knowledge management. WIPRO are recognised as one the the 'Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises' by many around the world, whatever criteria you choose to recognise and measure this.

So its about developing both strong Nations and strong global organisations. Now this might delight you or horrify you, depending on your standpoint.

Ron Young

More at:
www-knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, February 25, 2008

Knowledge Management and the UN 'Solution Exchange' for India

I was really taken aback by a passionate and highly credible presentation from Gopi N Ghosh – Assistant FAO Representative, Food & Nutrition Security Community, at the Second International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management in New Delhi on 13th February 2008.

What a pleasure it is to see some really excellent KM work being done in India in food and agriculture, aiming at improving literacy levels and life expectancy, as well as reducing poverty. However, despite the gains, Gopi Gosh stresses that still much remains to be accomplished in the key thematic areas under the framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).

With mounting enthusiasm, Gopi Ghosh described the launch of the UN knowledge sharing platform in India branded as ‘Solution Exchange’. Solution Exchange connects development professionals in similar fields from diverse organizations ranging from Government, bilateral and multilateral development partners and non-governmental organizations to academics, corporates, and the media. It is building ‘Communities of Practice’ through moderated electronic mail groups and also face-to-face interactions and a website. Solution Exchange seeks to empower practitioners by offering them “knowledge on demand” based on solutions from their peers.

Problems and challenges are put as a query and posted to all community members. Members offer advice, experience, contacts or suggestions, within a well thought out framework. A consolidated reply is prepared by the moderator team with a synopsis of original responses, additional resources and links.

True knowledge sharing!

These are available on the website http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in

So far the group has 11 thematic Communities of Practice and 12,000 members, and growing rapidly.

This is a nice way to leverage the knowledge, experience and energies of development practitioners towards the common worthy objective of problem-solving in areas that could make a big difference.

I have never heard a speaker with such positive energy before! At one stage, Gopi was so enthusiastic that he sort of took off ! The success of his great presentation was evidenced by many people keen to exchange business cards with him immediately.

I simply had to join his Solution Exchange and I hope I can share some useful knowledge with the Community. Take a look at the website and please help if you can.

Related link: I had the privilege to be part of a KM and Innovation consulting team for the UN Agency IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) based in Rome last year, in the development of a KM Strategy, which followed on with an Innovation Strategy to assist in the eradication of global extreme rural poverty, within the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Free downloads of the KM and Innovation Strategies are available at www.ifad.org links above.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Saturday, February 23, 2008

A very new and very old perspective on Knowledge Management & Innovation from the Timeless Wisdom of India.

Although I have much to say and write about the Second International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management held in New Delhi 12-14th February 2008 in New Delhi, over the next few weeks, I feel compelled today to immediately write about a new perspective and, especially, some new insights I gained from one paper presented by Dr Prem Saran, entitled: ‘Innovation and Knowledge Management: An Indic Play Ethic and Global HR Model’.

The main reason I feel compelled to write about this is that I have always intuitively felt that the spiritual heritage of India, the Vedas, Vedanta, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita for example, are true gifts of timeless wisdom to the world, and it is really only during the last two hundred years that Western thought has been increasingly influenced by this. What I intuited about KM and Indic thought suddenly came together with a simple clarity.

Naturally, I do not wish to pre-empt the publication of this excellent paper in the Conference proceedings, so I will only broadly discuss my immediate thoughts about some of his proposals around Indic thought and my views on effective ‘personal knowledge management’.

Dr Prem Saran proposed that because the Indic is one of the five or six major civilisations of the world, with its own traditional knowledge systems, that by revisiting three of its main cultural traits or values, they would provide the building blocks for a new approach to Innovation and Knowledge Management.

He suggested that it would “open up the possibility that the Indic cultural ethos may actually subsume both modernity and post-modernism, and that it may also thus provide inputs for a pedagogical paradigm shift. In other words, by using certain liberal and humanistic themes of Indian culture, one may be able to promote learning that is contemporary as well as cross-culturally replicable”.

He talked about his simple adaption of ancient yoga and meditation techniques, albeit after he had personally researched and experimented with this over three decades, as functioning as a state-of-the-art tool for superlearning, a meta-learning tool that can promote “generative learning” or “learning how to learn”. I do like this, and again, I refer to the late Professor Peter Drucker who first introduced me to the notion of ‘proper education’ many years ago, by stating that it was not so much the content of what we learn, but learning the best process for accelerated learning which he thought was true education..

Dr Prem Saran’s presentation at the Conference resonated deeply with me because, twenty five years ago, I trained to be a Yoga and Meditation teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga. As part of the Diploma syllabus, all teachers had to become aware of the ancient Indian texts, not least, the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.

It was then that I first understood that Veda means knowledge, and it was then that I first learned how the documented ancient rituals and practices, which were in the context of local customs and traditions, were turned into more distilled and universally applicable and timeless knowledge in the Vedanta.

So when Dr Prem Saran talked about yogic disciplines to bring about a much more relaxed state of mind, more receptive to accessing the right brain, more systematically, and very compatible with contemporary neuroscientific findings. When he talked about techniques that bring about mental states that are powerfully conducive to accelerated learning, and move towards greater ‘worldwide outreach’, he had my full attention.

Of course, what is still hotly debated by spiritual and philosophical thinkers, is whether new knowledge is there to be revealed and discovered, or developed through experience. I have never seen this as an either / or argument but a both / and situation.

That’s for another time. But for this blog post, I am so pleased, and excited to be able to say that the Indic traditional knowledge systems have revealed to us that there are some timeless principles and wisdom that can be applied to more effective personal learning and knowledge management.

I look forward to the publication of the Conference proceedings and more blogs. Let me know if you wish to know more about this, and Dr Prem Saran.

(He describes himself as a technocrat (i.e. Engineer-cum-MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, with HR specialization) and Indologist-cum-Anthropologist (with degrees from Universities of Pennsylvania and California)
With about 30 years of experience in the Indian Administrative Service)

You can view a free video of this technique, by Dr Prem Saran, on the main server of the Government of India at www.assam.nic.in

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Why not become a 'Leading Collaborator in the Global Knowledge Society '

I do not wish to be disrespectful to any Nation that is seeking to become a key player in the Global Knowledge Economy, but whenever I attend International Conferences on KM, anywhere in the world, I hear the same, and somewhat disturbing, intentions. They are, to become 'Competitive leaders in the Global Knowledge Economy'.

The first work I did for the UK Government Department of Trade and Industry, in the late 1990's was to assist a team develop for the Prime Minister Tony Blair, at the time, to produce a White Paper 'UK Competitiveness in the Global Knowledge Economy'.

Then, whilst working for the European Commission in 2001, the EC declared its intention, through the Lisbon Summit, to make 'Europe Competitive Leaders in the Global Knowledge Economy'.

In 2000, The Singapore Government declared its intent to be the 'Leading Competitive Knowledge Hub for Asia'.

Then, especially at International KM Conferences all around the World, over the last ten years, I have heard every Nation declared its intention to become 'competitive' leaders.

Last week, in New Delhi, India, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Government of India, declared in the Inaugural Address at Second International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management the same intention.

As I said earlier, I do not wish to be disrespectful, especially to my hosts, and I certainly know that there are times when it is absolutely right to compete, but, for me, I have always felt that knowledge management is about successful 'collaboration' across teams, business units, companies, countries and regions across the world. The intention of knowledge management, of course, is to break down the silo's (business unit or country) and benefit from open global knowledge exchange. We seem to be missing this point, apart from John Lennon!

How nice it would be to hear a country or world region declare its intent to become the 'Leading Collaborators in the Global Knowledge Society within the next few years!

I haven't heard any country in the world declare that intention yet, have you?

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management

I shall be giving a keynote presentation at the Second International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management, on 12th-14th February 2008 in New Delhi India.

The conference is jointly organised by:

National Productivity Council,(NPC) New Delhi, India and
Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), Tokyo, Japan.

"Technology and Innovation are becoming the vital tools as well as the outcome of Knowledge Management efforts. The Emerging Global Knowledge Economy will increasingly depend upon the harnessing of Technology and Innovation efforts to derive quantum productivity gains in the new millennium.

Participants from twenty APO member countries have already been confirmed.

The Conference thus will provide a forum for delegates and participants from the Government, Industry, Business, Researchers, Social Institutions and Academics from around the world to discuss and evolve the future prospects for Knowledge Management, and with it, other key aspects, including ICT, Productivity and Innovation."

My keynote is entitled 'Back to Basics, Strategies for Identifying, Creating, Storing, Sharing and Using Knowledge'.

I shall be discussing the importance of combining the best emergent tools and technologies, with the best innovation processes, and, most importantly, aligning them with the best underlying, and timeless, business principles.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Web 3.0 Semantic Wave 2008 Report

I have just finished reading the free download 27 page Executive Summary of the report by Mills Davis, Managing Director, Project 10X, entitled:

'Semantic Wave 2008 Report:Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 &
Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities'.

Project10X is a Washington, DC based research consultancy specializing in next wave semantic technologies and solutions.

Mills Davis served as principal investigator for the Semantic Wave 2008 research program. A noted consultant and industry analyst, he has authored
more than 100 reports, whitepapers, articles, and industry studies.

I would certainly recommend that you read this well researched and well thought out summary. It has four parts:

1. What is the Semantic Wave?

2. How is Web 3.0 different from previous stages of Internet evolution?

3. Semantic Wave Technology Trends

4. Semantic Wave Markets

I found the Summary Report to be inspiring and very revealing. It certainly underlines the ongoing research I am conducting concerning Semantic Web 3.0 trends, tools and opportunities, and their roles in more effective Knowledge Management. I would be very interested to know what you think?

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Monday, January 28, 2008

Exploring Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

I am running a one day post conference workshop in London on March 7th, organised by Unicom Seminars entitled 'Exploring Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 ' to Achieve Personal and Organisational Results.
I shall also be attending the 2 day conference 'Web 2.0 and Beyond' on 5-6th March.

David Gurteen is running a one day pre-conference workshop 'Effective Knowledge Working' on 4th March.

Here are the details of my workshop:

"Just knowing and using the best emerging tools is not enough to achieve effective personal and organisational results. With web 2.0 and beyond, it is now critical to re-visit and then combine, both the timeless principles of achieving results, together with applying the best emerging tools, to gain success.

This workshop will take delegates through a practical framework and process that links the new rapidly emerging and rapidly changing web services, tools and web phenomena to the non-changing, even timeless principles of achieving better results as individuals, teams, networks, organisations and communities. It also explores future web scenarios, intelligence and better sense making towards a more meaningful global web.

Designed for information and knowledge workers, the workshop will cover:

• Achieving personal and organisational goals and the Semantic Web 3.0
• The more effective use of time management in a global 24hr day
• Developing and managing dynamic relationships using web 2.0 social networking tools
• Working together with wiki's in virtual teams and through mass collaboration spaces
• Avoiding information overload and managing personal and organisational knowledge


The Presenter: Ron Young, Knowledge Associates

Ron Young has been an avid daily user and researcher of the emerging web and results tools, and has combined them with his experience of teaching time, task, information and knowledge management, since the 1980's.

He will build on the conference 'Web 2.0 and Beyond' by sharing his personal experiences, presenting new concepts and tools, facilitate the shared experiences and discussions from the workshop, and facilitates a unique process to help participants, as individuals and organisations, achieve better results."

I hope to see some of you there.

Ron Young

More information at: www.knowledge-management-online.com

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

The Semantic Web 3.0 and The Knowledge Navigator

Over the next two weeks, I have a series of meetings in London where I will be discussing with colleagues the state of the art of the Semantic Web 3.0 and some recently launched web services and tools.

My earlier blog talked about twine.com, from Radar Networks, which is now in its first beta phase, and I will be talking about a few more promising tools over the next weeks.

But today, I was so pleasantly surprised to find the video from Apple Computers, made in 1987 (Happy 20 years anniversary) called The Knowledge Navigator.

It had a big impact on my thinking then, and it is so interesting to see it again in the context of the more meaningful semantic web developments.

If you haven't seen this 5 minute video, take a look.

What do you think about these developments?




Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com