Vol. 5 No. 1 – March 2002

Another edition of THE KM News is here. Did you know that I’ve been publishing KM News since January of 1998? That’s a long time. The web site followed in February of that same year.


I’ve spent a lot of time and effort on reformatting much of the web site, cleaning up links to nowhere (it’s interesting to see how many web sites/companies no longer exist), and hopefully making it more useful. I have also finally added a usable search function. So, while you are waiting for the next issue of KM News to arrive keep checking the web site for updates to events, technologies, and suggested reading.


Enjoy!
Brad Hoyt
Editor, KM News
If you like it, tell someone about it, if not don’t. People can subscribe at the KM News web site (http://www.kmnews.com) and unsubscribe by following the link at the end of this message. If you are re-distributing KM News please remember to distribute it in its entirety and to include all relevant copyright notices.

Commentary:
my thoughs on all things KM.


How many of you can say your organizations have a DAM initiative? How many organizations know what DAM is? Well it’s Digital Asset Management, DAM for short. I had the opportunity a few weeks back to talk to Whitney Tidmarsh the VP of Product Marketing about Documentum’s content management solutions (they used to call it document management a few years back). Ok, you’re asking is this a pitch for Documentum? No. What struck me during my conversation with Whitney was how this was yet another example of convergence. If you’ve been to the KM News web site lately you may have seen on the home page that I am focusing on the convergence of KM, eLearning, Content Management and Information Management. DAM becomes a key ingredient in the mix. While DAM has mostly been focused on rich media types (video, audio, etc.) we in the KM space need to spend some time thinking about (technologically) how all of the information within our organizations can be leveraged, and to leverage information it needs to be managed and it needs to be accessible. This isn’t something we can ignore, so start thinking about it and you’ll be ready when the questions start to come your way.

Interesting Reading:
articles, web sites, or books that I’ve found interesting.


Creating a Knowledge Culture
The McKinsey Quarerly
- “Knowledge is now the lifeblood of all companies. Don’t confuse it with information.” I think this quote from this article speaks a thousand words. Many if not most people “doing” or “selling” KM confuse KM with information management which is why there’s lots of confusion out there even today.
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.asp?tk=294503:991:21&ar=991&L2=21&L3=37

Pandora’s Portal
Semantic Studios
- Something to think about if you are on the cusp of implementing a corporate portal. Been there done that and I’ve got the t-shirts.
http://www.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/portal.html

In the Know
CIO Magazine
- This article discusses a rationale for how to sell KM initiatives within virtually any organization.
http://www.cio.com/knowledge/edit/102401_advice.html

Something in Common
KM Magazine
- Here’s a good article on communities of practice with some solid insight on why and how to establish them.
http://www.destinationcrm.com/km/dcrm_km_article.asp?id=982

Are You Sure You Want To Save That?
CIO Magazine
- This article covers a rather mundane subject, but an important one none the less – Digital Records Management. What does records management have in common with KM? Meta Data. In the records management world as in KM information about the information contained in data repositories and documents is key to retrieval and re-use.
http://www.cio.com/archive/091501/save.html

The ABCs of Knowledge Management
CIO Magazine
- If you are new to KM then follow this link to read a series of articles that will provide a good overview of KM. Actually, if you are an old hand at KM you should use this article as a refresher.
http://www.cio.com/research/knowledge/edit/kmabcs.html

Knowledge Management: Big Challenges, Big Rewards
CIO Magazine
- It is hard to label this article, but in a nutshell it is a collection of short case studies of various organizations approaches to leveraging knowledge. Along the way there are several useful sidebars that highlight the different organizations approaches.
http://www.cio.com/sponsors/091599_km_1.html

10 Myth’s About Knowledge Management
Computerworld
- Check this out, I really liked this list. Unfortunately after almost 10 years as a KM evangelist I still hear stuff like this ALL the time.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO55870,00.html

Lessons in eLearning
Computerworld
- A 40,000 foot view of eLearning that talks about the value, ROI and cost models of implementing eLearning systems. It also provides information about outsourcing/hosting of eLearning systems.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO64464,00.html

KM and the Law: The Verdict is In
LLRX.com
- This is a great article about how the legal profession, typically VERY slow to adopt anything new, is embracing KM in all its various forms and flavours.
http://www.llrx.com/features/kmlaw.htm

Navigating the Collaboration Triangle
CIO Insight
- This is a fantastic piece on how to get IT and user to collaborate. The author includes a great methodology diagram. You’re not an IT person you say, so then just replace any reference to IT with KM and you’ll be on the right track.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article/0,3658,s=307&a=22258,00.asp

Commentary-Knowledge in Context
Internet World
- Here’s an interesting and pragmatic example of context within the realm of information and ultimately knowledge sharing. We all know, at least intellectually, that information without context is useless, but in reality there are often huge disconnects in KM systems between content and context.
http://www.internetworld.com/news.php?inc=bi/03042002a.html

How Phone Systems Connect Those Calls
Red Herring
- This isn’t an article on KM, but I think you will find it interesting and informative. If you have ever wondered how the telephone network really works this article provides an easy to understand overview.
http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue106/explained.html

KM Jobs:
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.

Positions:
CI Analysts at Executive Jet – http://www.kmnews.com/Jobs/KMJobs.htm

Job Sites:
KnowledgeFarm, http://www.knowfarm.com/kjobs.html
Enterprise Software Career Center, http://www.softwarejobs.com/erp.html
@Brint, http://www.brint.com/km/ken/jobs.html

Upcoming Events:
events I am interested in, and think you should be too. If you attend a conference that you heard about through KM News, tell the conference promoters.

March 2002

April 2002

  • 2 – 4 Global Conference on Knowledge Management Sydney, Australia
  • 3 – 5 Knowledge-Based Government Singapore www.kbgovernment.com
  • 11 – 12 Knowledge Management in R&D Philadelphia, PA, USA http://www.eyeforpharma.com/km
  • 22 – 25 Knowledge Mgmt: When Collaboration is Essential Washington, DC www.e-gov.com/km2002/
  • 30 – May 02 DCI’s Corporate and e-Business Portals Conference San Francisco, CA www.portalsEvent.com
  • 29 – May 03 Navigating the Future of Knowledge Management Washington, D.C. www.apqc.org/conf/km2002

May 2002

June 2002

July 2002

  • 16 – 18 Knowledge Management (KM) Asia 2002 Singapore www.kmasia.com

September 2002

  • 16 – 18 IKOMAT 2002 Podere d’Ombriano, Crema, Italy www-mugc.cc.monash.edu.au/~maum/ikomat-02.htm
  • 22 – 26 9th Annual Competitive Intelligence Executive Summit Orlando,Florida, USA www.summits.frost.com/CIB
  • 22 – 26 Advanced Marketing Research Asia Conference and Exposition Orlando,Florida, USA www.summits.frost.com/MRA

October 2002

November 2002

December 2002

Products/Tools:
I’ll try and point you to interesting products, tools, and companies that are dabbling in the KM space. We continue to use the I, P, and S categories to provide additional context around technologies and tools. The Categories are: I – Connecting People to Information, P – Connecting People to People, and S – a Service. These categories are based on my definition of KM.


Star Office 6.0 from Sun (I) – www.sun.com/software/star/
- If you are looking for an alternative to Microsoft for your personal productivity software needs look no further. I’ve been using the Star Office 6 beta for several months and am very impressed. It provides full funtion word processor, spread sheet, presentation, and database tools in an easy to use package. It reads and writes all the necessary Microsoft Office formats (it does have some formatting problems going back to MS Word, but it is beta). This is isn’t specifically a KM tool but we all use word processing software and seem to be stuck in a rut…


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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