Blogging for Knowledge Exchange

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Blogging for Knowledge Exchange

• Darlene FichterData Library Coordinator
• University of Saskatchewan Library
• Darlene.Fichter_at_usask.ca
• Internet Librarian 2002

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Overview

• Intranets and KM
• Knowledge exchange
• What about blogs?

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Knowledge Management

• KM is an umbrella term for a collection of
  disciplines, methods and tools that support
  creation and sharing of intellectual assets to
  achieve business/organization goals
• Often use information infrastructure
• Patti Anklam, Social Network Analysis,
  KMWorld2002

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Intranets KM

• Formally or informally, intranets support KM by
• Encoding
• Storing
• Transmitting information
• Typically projects focus on
• Knowledge bases provide information to support
  staff
• Communities of practice

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Driving Forces

• Need to innovate and adapt more quickly
• Improve business processes
• Succession planning

• Fifty percent of faculty at our university will
  retire within 5 years.

Smarter Faster Better
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The KM Promise

• Instant sharing and flow of strategic information
  and knowledge
• Seamlessly everywhere throughout the organization
• Ensuring a well informed workforce
• Respond to the vagaries of the new economy
• A way to capture what senior staff know

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KM Modes of Knowledge Transfer

• Explicit knowledge is definable and objective
  easily documented and transferred

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KM Modes of Knowledge Transfer

• Tacit knowledge lives in peoples heads and their
  practices used every day but you see it only
  when its used.
• Know how
• Most difficult and elusive

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Tapping into Tacit Knowledge

• You can influence and encourage
• Storytelling and coaching are two effective
  techniques

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Organizational Challenges

• KM is a great concept
• Many KM solutions are complex
• Workflow, software, implementation
• Highly structured
• Mega projects
• In short, they are overwhelming

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Employee Challenges

• Employees are reluctant to share
• My knowledge is what makes me valuable to my
  employee, if I share it my value diminishes
• Whats in it for me?
• How will I be valuable if I share all my
  know-how?
• Cynicism about the hype and words

Librarians are knowledge-brokers
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What might work?

• Foster knowledge sharing and exchange
• Bottom up rather than a top down

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From Blogs to K-Logs

• Blogs K-Logs

Firewall

• John Robb, President of Userland
• is the originator of the concept k-logs.

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Klogging Another Definition

• Dave Gurteen described the purpose of a klog is
  to write about, comment or point to web resources
  on a particular topic.

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New Features Track back

• Infancy stage
• Supports bi-directional linking

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Where do blogs fit? Explicit Knowledge
Blogs
Knowledge Repository
KM
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Blogs

• Light weight content management tools
• Post with a web form, bookmarklet or windows
  client
• Quick and easy to set up
• Simple for employees to contribute to corporate
  intranet/knowledge base

KISS
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Solve Real World Problems

1. Information overload
2. Collapse of email

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Filters and Mining

• Human powered filters

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Teams

• Capture the facts
• Plans
• Steps in the process
• Best new web resources
• Lessons learned
• Tips
• Where to look

Collaborative content
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Strengths on an Intranet

• Searchable archives
• Corporate search engines can spider them

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Where do Blogs Fit? Tacit Knowledge
Blogs
Storytelling
KM
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Unlock Tacit Knowledge

• Stories are a good framework for sharing
  information, meaning and knowledge
  (Nichani/Rajamanickam)
• Blogs encourage story telling
• Fosters understanding because they usually offer
  context
• Good stores resonate, so do good blogs

• Blogging is a train-of-thought technology.
• Scott Dinsdale

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Relationships

• Excellent at ONE to MANY communication
• Allows participation
• Breaks down the silos
• Allows us to have connected content

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Informal Communities

• The ease of cross-linking and the conversational
  nature, fosters social networking
• Self organizing communities emerge

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Unlock Expertise

• Who knows what?
• How can I judge their credibility?

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Support Smart Distribution Methods

• One blog or many
• RSS Syndication of one blog, categories to
  specific groups and individuals automatically
• Email

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Tools

• More than 3 dozen tools
• Just a mention of 2 business focused blogging
  products
• Trellix
• Traction software

My January/February 2003 column in Online
magazine, www. onlineinc.com will talk about how
to choose tools.
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Whats in it for ME?

• Self-rewarding
• Often bloggers report they discover their own
  interests, refine their perspectives
• Peer recognition

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Definition of a Knowledge Worker

• A knowledge worker is someone whose job entails
  having really interesting conversations at work.
• David Weinberger

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Questions?