Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Klogging 101: What, Why, and How - Phil Wolff. Nice set of intro slides! Thanks, Phil!What is a klog? Why do people klog? Why should your organization klog? Why does it work? How can I introduce klogging? What does it take? [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 2:51:17 PM

brentashley: Get up to speed on K-Logging. Right on, thanks Brent!Every company can benefit from K-Logging. Projects collect and compile hard data and soft knowledge into reports. Often the details of the lessons that are learned through the project are distilled out during the reporting process, such that subsequent projects tend only to benefit from the accrued soft knowledge if largely the same team is reassembled. Knowledge Logging (K-Logging) is a bottom-up approach to sharing the soft knowledge that is built during the course of a project. Knowledge is both logged and shared continuously at the source, using content management tools which allow easy updating of a shared website. Style is informal, freeform and conversational and the focus is on collaboration and discussion. The thinking-out-loud style of writing a K-log journal of project activities allows every part of the process to remain available during and after the project. This allows detailed review and enables latecomers to the project to get up to speed. The dead-end attempts that provide the best opportunity for learning are documented and kept for others to learn from. Since knowledge is continuously shared, teams that are spread out get to share best practices without waiting for summary or review. The knowledge website can also act as a portal to centralize access to other essential project information - scheduling, maps, data storage, email, etc. There are many tools available for this kind of distributed knowledge management. While prices can range from free to tens of thousands of dollars, cost does not necessarily imply value. There are many open-source content management tools which suit this purpose well. A good flexible system can be built with Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP and any of a number of content management systems - all open-source software with no licensing costs. Dedicated hardware needs are modest - a used name-brand Tier-1 Pentium-II 300 MHz can be had for less than CDN$200 - a second such machine could provide standby and backup. A high-speed internet connection would be necessary although bandwidth needs would be low. SSL (https) can provide end-to-end encryption for secure access. Some upfront analysis would be necessary to determine layout, functionality, permissions. Training needs are small - users access the site via a browser and are presented with straightforward editing screens. Ongoing care and feeding needs would depend on selected feature set. A simple collaboration tool could be built in a day with no capital outlay using space on an inexpensive hosting provider for US$20 or less per month. [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 2:50:57 PM

Weblogs as Lab Notebooks - McGee's Musings. (SOURCE:McGee's Musings)-Right on! This is an excellent application for weblogsSo, here's a gedanken experiment for you. Setup each incoming Ph.D. or Master's candidate with a weblog at the beginning of their program. Coach them to use the weblog as a lab notebook of their developing intellectual capital. Use your own weblog to comment on their work and their thinking. Where do you think these students will be after several years of sustained and steady writing? How many will have already started to establish reputations as serious thinkers? Sure, there will be lots of resistance to the idea. It threatens many a sacred cow. Make the initial experiments local or semi-private. Long-term you're still likely to kill the existing system by substituting real-time peer review for the current unwieldy system. [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 2:50:05 PM

KM as a technology issue - McGee's Musings. (SOURCE:McGee's Musings) What if knowledge management actually is a technology problem? Current thinking holds that knowledge management's problems come from too much focus on technology when the key problems are about organizational processes and practices. I've said as much myself on many occasions. But this formulation risks perpetuating the myth that problems are either organizaitonal or technological. We know the real world isn't that simple, of course. We shouldn't contribute to the confusion by oversimplifying our discussion [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 2:49:24 PM