Vol. 2. No. 5 – 01 February 1999

Interesting Reading:

Here’s some books (see the KM News web site for books), web sites, or articles that I’ve found interesting.

  • Will the real knowledge management please stand up?
    PC Week
    - This piece of commentary by John Dodge shows how confused folks are about KM, especially those that are technology focused. But you all know that it isn’t just about technology, it is about making KM a core part of your business strategy and processes. At some point (hopefully this year) we will see the product vendors hyping their wares as KM be swallowed up, just plain disappear, or tire of trying to answer why theirs is a KM product. — Thanks Bruce
    http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/columns/0,4351,387747,00.html
  • Common Knowledge
    CIO Magazine
    - At Mitre, knowledge management and a comprehensive approach to information management has transformed the culture of the organization. This is an great example of how a holistic approach to managing knowledge and information can bring about a fundamental change in organizations.
    http://www.cio.com/archive/020199_mitre.html
  • Tools Help Build Corporate Portals
    Internet Week
    - In case you missed it, “Corporate Portals” are now the rage. Personally I found the name of Autonomy’s product – “Portal-In-A-Box” – to be humorous – it brings back memories of browser and intranet in a box products. Overall I think that there are a number of parallel’s between the rise of Intranets and Portals. Think about it, everyone was hyped on Intranets and year or 2 ago and how cheap and easy to manage they were. We know that they are invaluable, but they are no longer thought of as cheap and easy, especially from a management/maintenance point of view — especially after we see the latest news of the US Postal Service implementing a 3.3 BILLION Intranet to keep up with UPS & FedX. One interesting item that this article says organizations are using to justify portals is the proliferation of internal web sites and information on Intranets. Who’d a thunk…
    http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19990201S0003
  • IBM: Another Bright Idea?
    Sm@rt Reseller
    - While this article focuses mainly on IBM, it is important because it points out that many vendors, chief among them IBM, are repositioning their wares as KM products. That is not a bad thing per say, but I think springs from a flawed definition of what KM is. I disagree with the definition used in the article, and think it goes way beyond determining the explicit knowledge within organizations. There is lots of valuable explicit information to be used within organizations, and tools that allow one to benefit from explicit information are valuable, but most explicit information is historical (once it is made explicit) merely allows an organization to react, not be proactive. KM is proactive in nature, allowing the organization to be creative and innovative.
    http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/news/0,4538,387496,00.html
KM Jobs & Links:

KM Career Opportunities and Links — let me know of any opportunities and I’ll post them here (and don’t forget to tell me when the positions are filled). An asterisks (*) denotes a new item.

Upcoming Events:

This is a list of events I’m interested in, and think you should be too. As I come across web sites that have detailed listings of events, I’ll post them here. An asterisks (*) denotes a new item.

Product/Tools:

I’ll try and point you to interesting products, tools, and companies that are dabbling in the KM space.

The Powerize Server from Powerize.com
- Given the current focus on “portals”, I decided I would showcase a “portal” product this week. Powerize doesn’t claim to be a KM tool, which is refreshing, but it does claim that it can empower users to find the information they need. An interesting aspect of the product is what Powerize calls PowerLinks that allow the Powerize Server to connect with disparate data types and search indexes. The Powerize Server is not a search engine but it works with search engines to enable simultaneous searching of multiple sources. At present the product has PowerLinks for ODBC, Lotus Notes, Documentum, Excalibur, and Verity. An API is also available. http://www.powerize.com/prods_and_serv/products.servermenu.htm

If you’ve seen or are using a cool and useful product that falls into the KM space (or close to it), let me know about it, I’ll include it here and you’ll get the credit for it.

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