ìTo be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.î

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

12:15:13 PM    comment []  trackback []

"Every so often one comes across a website which makes you stop and say - "Vow! That's cool!". David Weinberger points to 20q.net, "an online game of 20 questions that apparently starts off with no knowledge base. It learns from the interactions of the players. And it is pretty damn impressive." I have to agree. " [E M E R G I C . o r g]

I'll say it again ... wow - it IS cool ! 

And it keeps beating me :)

9:51:03 AM    comment []  trackback []

Sleepless in Mumbai, i was compelled to exploring Flow and KnowledgeWorkshop, having read an article at Infoworld and being drawn to the names, as I'm particularly partial to the term "flow" in the context of Knowledge Management ! 

Quoting from the article :

".... includes gathering, authoring, organizing and publishing content. "Through the [Flow] authoring environment, users can access the Internet, bring in RSS feeds, use contextual capabilities, and publish content as e-mail," Conrad said. "Flow provides collaborative content and knowledge management at the client level. For example, Flow allows workgroups or individual users to repurpose a Weblog posting or a news feed for an internal project, or allows groups to collaborate on content to be published to the Internet. Flow's peer-to-peer collaboration engine supports shared spaces so multiple users can edit, organize, and use the same content. "

"Also approaching KM from the user's perspective, Learning Management Solutions last week introduced its company and its KnowledgeWorkshop software. The software allows users to create personally relevant associations and connections between information drawn from a variety of sources, including Web pages, e-mail, documents, PowerPoint slides, databases, and spreadsheets. These connections form an information map, called a knowledge base, that is packed down into a single XML file that can be e-mailed or exchange online, said Graham Glynn, CEO of Learning Management Solutions. "A lot of enterprise KM systems are not working because the individual person is not invested in the effort. They need to have a personal payback to managing their own information," Glynn said. Giving end-users ownership to content and knowledge is key, according to Glynn. To that end, KnowledgeWorkshop allows users to create their knowledge bases, organize them to their liking, and decide which parts are shared with others, he said."  

Having browsed through their websites - there are guided tours and free trial offers (Flow works on Macs) - i feel they could be pretty neat spaces for collaborative work, by encouraging users to be in greater control of how they use these systems.  

But i missed (or did i not see them given the late hour?) not seeing any tools to :

• indicate presence - for instance, telling us who's available, who's logged in and therefore present, who i can ping for a query, and ensuring that a response is received
• encourage real-time, 'live' conversations - where voice applications, small cam shows, conferencing facilities would be useful. 

Both essential to encouraging flow, in a knowledge environment that is social where in a recent piece, Denham Grey makes the point, "documentation alone does not = knowledge".

2:53:29 AM    comment []  trackback []

I watched the ladies singles finals at Wimbledon earlier this evening, and noticed something interesting, apart from the match (great to see some fantastic strokes from the 17 year old). Right after Maria Sharapova won her match, and almost into the presentation ceremony, she brought a mobile phone onto Centre Court and tried calling her mother.  That she did not get a signal is a different matter.

The commentators said this was a first at Wimbledon !

Youth breaking tradition - armed with a cell phone ?

12:09:40 AM    comment []  trackback []