Cool Tool: ORB Networks

If you have your own server running and you are into sharing your knowledge and media with others - you've got to check out http://www.orb.com. The company provides a streaming server system (for free) that allows you to install and run your own media distribution from your own machine. While this alone may not be unique, ORB's features include picture, audio and video sharing (only of your own media !) and allows you to access your content from pocket pc (wireless or GPRS) and other devices besides a PC - basically expanding your accessible knowledge to any kind of media beyond text. The combination of TikiWiki and ORB is very powerful. For any advice, questions or services, please do not hesitate to contact me.

FlickrGraph - Social Network Analysis for users of Flickr

Social Network Analysis is going to be the big thing of tomorrow. Look at things happening on the internet - now Flickr has a social network browser (http://www.marumushi.com/apps/flickrgraph/index.cfm). It shows you the relationships of friends of Flickr users. Very cool ! Managing our social knowledge of tomorrow.

TAGCloud for popular Knowledge Management Blogs now available at InsightKnowledge

TAGCloud (http://www.tagcloud.com) is a service that extracts the main keywords out of blogs that are setup as feeds and presents the viewer with a list of keywords (resembling a cloud) to choose from.

This service is nice and helpful for setting up a lot of feeds and using the tagcloud to navigate this information.

InsightKnowledge has setup a TAGCloud for about 50 popular blogs/weblogs about and around Knowledge Management, allowing you to easily browse and read up on the opinions of experts in their field about this topic.

KM Jobs on the rise

As a KM professional, I am harvesting information on a daily basis, filter it and review whats left for impact on things I know about. This includes the job market around Knowledge Management. Following the postings, I see more and more KM positions being offered. There are still quite a few out there that mis-use the term Knowledge Management, but in general it looks like the industry is slowly getting to the point where the recognition sets in (in the mainstream) that the only way to do more (increase performance, competitiveness or other values) with less (money, resources, time), is to utilize the knowledge that the organization contains within their employees better (->Organizational Intelligence on Wikipedia).

Self-promotion again ! -> InsightKnowledge provides a discussion forum with postings of jobs in the KM area. Check them out.

What your brain can do to you

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.�The rset can be a taotl mses and ouy can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Off-topic: Time to change your investment strategy

Yahoo News reports a major trend that may force you to change your investment strategy soon. More companies are turning away from retirement contributions. HMM... time to rethink how I will be able to live when I get older. How do I put money away now so that I will be living safely later ? Real Estate ? - interesting, but has its own challenges; Stock ? - only good if you really invest a lot of time; Casino ? - yeah, right. How about making your knowledge pay for you ? Knowledge Subscriptions - checkout more details at http://www.insightknowledge.com.
Yahoo News Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051207/bs_usatoday/evenhealthyfirmsfreezeorcutloosetraditionalpensions

HOT: Microsoft Research released: SNARF, the Social Network and Relationship Finder

Microsoft Research, the guys who invent some cool stuff (like Microsoft Portrait), just released SNARF, a tool to utilized Outlook to check your contacts and emails for your social network and its relationship. I'll give it a try and report experiences here - http://research.microsoft.com/community/snarf/

McKinsey recommends that new organizational structures will set the knowledge workers free

McKinsey has published an article (for which you have to register for free to view it), that talks about the need for companies to break away from traditional organizational structures to allow productive professionals / knowledge workers to improve their company's competitiveness.

The future of organizational performance - and that is where fact stops and my believe begins - is in the enablement of team and networks. Enable project teams to efficiently communicate and collaborate - and they will succeed; enable networks to form and adapt and structure themselves to the purpose and goal given - and they will be ideally prepared to succeed.

Power teams, organizational networking, business network analysis - keywords for things that are waiting to happen.

My thoughts on CORANTE Blog - US Engineers concerned about competitiveness

Corante is a weblog loaded with thoughts of experts of their fields. A posting about the reasons for US engineers getting concerned about the US being able to keep competitive lead me to share my thoughts - here and there.

How Google supports its Knowledge Workers

Why is Google so successfull ? Could it be that their business model breaks away with the 'how you are supposed to do it' and enables 'how it is supposed to be' ? How about Google valueing their Knowledge Workers and setting them free to strive for bigger and better things. Hmm, hasn't Google become bigger and better lately ? Could it be related to understanding the value of organizational intelligence for the success of the business ??? Read what Google's CEO has to say about it

ConceptWikis - the next step from blogging to wikis to conceptwikis

There is a development happening in the way everybody can describe his/her knowledge.

Blogs are very popular, because they allow everybody to be a publisher of their thoughts and opinions with text and video and audio and reach a worldwide audience. What it does not do, is to provide a efficient capture mechanism for knowledge to be re-used, shared and worked with.

Wikis are becoming very quickly very popular. They provide the capability of blogging, but also allow for knowledge to be very easily capture as single pages, automatically linking to eachother with keywords. One can capture thoughts similar to how one is thinking, link pages they way one remembers things, and can discover someones thoughts they way the person thought about it and captured it. What wikis do not do, is to capture the relationship between the linked pieces of information. The relationship itself is an important part of the information between two knowledge entities, like in 'ThisInformation is part of TheOtherInformation'.

ConceptWikis are the next step. Based on the ease of use of wikis, it provides the capability to capture the relationship between to pieces of wiki information, more closely representing how knowledge is formed and linked to eachother.

If you are interested in this topic and wish to learn more about it, play with it or use it for your business, please contact Stefan Lafloer at InsightKnowledge Inc.

Just a thought .. could KM help here

A double warning by Greenspan - Read .. hmm, what if Knowledge Management would become mainstream and knowledge could be transferred and re-used to dramatically increase efficiency of organizational competencies to support the burden put on the shoulders of the younger generations ?

KM World 2005 presentations are available online

For all the KM Practioners and those who want to become one, check out the KM World 2005 presentations at
http://www.kmworld.com/kmw05/presentations/. And while you are at it, check out http://www.insightknowledge.com too :-).

InsightKnowledge Inc.'s Contributions to WikiPedia

My contributions to WikiPedia:
-adding my $.02 to Knowledge Management
-working the page: Organizational Intelligence
-working the page: Organizational Competencies
Please feel free to check them out

MMORGs as business tools ?

Just read an article on a presentation at the latest KMWorld in San Jose in November 05 about the link between a game (world of warwind, i think).

This article discusses how a MMORG (massive multiplayer online roleplaying game) could be usable in a business environment. It discusses the behaviours people show in those games and how they apply/are similar to real world behaviour.

I think that a MMORG that reflects a business environment would be interesting. It could serve the purpose of virtual meetings (documents/presentations could be shown online, in vitual meeting rooms, people represented by avatars, the document actually visible), for getting to know people (virtual watercooler, virtual dating, etc.), or even virtual training sessions.

I think the problems with this environment for business is that people perceive it as play without consequences. If a MMORG would be applied to real world problems, there would be real consequences.

Watch out - Google Base is coming

Check it out - Google started its Base service. A search engine that searches through any kind of listing that anybody uploads. Blogs are talking about its potential to impact auction websites (like ebay) or even payment services (like paypal, if google offers a payment service (rumor: checkout google earths payment interface)):
http://base.google.com

Job postings for KM on InsightKnowledge Inc.

BEWARE - this is a case of shameless self-promotion ! If you don't like it do NOT read on.

InsightKnowledge Inc. to the best of its capabilities is linking to KM job posting whereever it can find them. If you are looking for one place to look for Knowledge Management job postings/offerings, this may be it.

You do have to register for free, but that's it for the basic personal Knowledge Management functionality. If you wish to expand into group knowledge networks, its only $5/month a network for a knowledge subscription.

That's it - now I am done (for a while) :-).

Not new but cool: Peer News Publishing

I would like to draw your attention to something that I think has a great potential to make an impact on the collection, delivery and consumption of news. I am talking about the likes of shoutwire.com and digg.com, websites that allow everybody to submit news stories, or as a matter of fact anything, but that has a process build in, by which peers vote on which article/news will get to the front page.

Not controlled by the media, I believe this has the potential to bring the news back to the people. People know first what is going on, there would not be any filtering, its a democratic process by which something gets published.

Worth keeping an eye on and setting up an RSS feed !

Today I ran into an article in the november issue of Baseline (here). He posted an interesting calculation for determining the value of Knowledge for a company. While I do not completely agree, it is definitely important to discuss and think about. Please find his bio here, and his blog here. Worth checking out.

Cool: Vote on future innovations

Microsoft is sponsoring an event where one can vote on what you want to see innovated in the future. Pretty cool:
http://www.startsomethingpc.com/

Report: Federal spending on info sharing (KM) to rise

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Federal spending on information-sharing and communication technology will rise by a third over the next five years, government market analysts INPUT said.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051109-065845-5387r

The article points out the Army's KM efforts as a good example. Can federal information sharing finally get its act together ? That will not depend on the technology spendings, but on the change of culture ! Washington, watch out not to waste money here. Cultural change is the toughest part of a successful KM solution.

Report on what companies will invest in related to KM tools

AMR did some research and put together a report about what companies will invest in (next 12 months) in terms of KM tools. Interesting, but not surprising.

http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.asp?pmillid=18908

Brand whooping new - Web-based Multi-Protocol Instant Messaging Tool: MEEBO

Meebo (http://www2.meebo.com) allows you to log into MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and Gtalk using a web-based interface. You will not have all the features available that a full client provides, but for use with installing any software and experiencing any firewall issues - Meebo is the current tool of choice to stay connected !

KM Standards are for sale

SAIS Global is selling KM standards developed in Australia on their website for in between $85 and $126 (dont know if australian or US dollars):
http://www.standards.com.au/catalogue/script/Details.asp?DocN=AS0733769306AT

Will this be a wake-up call for the profession of KM where everyone is their own standard ? Will this bring the OZ KM movement to the frontline of the profession ?

Doubtfully. ANSI or IEEE are well known standardization committees and until the australian KM standards pass that hurdle, it may only have limited success.

Doubtlessly, I think that it shows the need of the profession and the industry for standards, for something common that people can learn, understand and apply without taking $$$thousands of dollars of proprietary training and certification courses. PUBLIC standards will allow the market to grow faster, learn faster and build stronger and consistent offerings than what currently is available.

If you feel like discussion this issue, please leave a note or visit http://www.insightknowledge.com and register for free. Once approved you will be able to access the KM forums.

Knowledge Management on Wikipedia

InsightKnowledge Inc. is now supporting the editing of the topic 'Knowledge Management' on Wikipedia, so that visitors can rely on the quality of the information provided.

Where are the big shots in KM ?

Interesting discussion the current state of the KM profession going on at Denham Grey's Weblog.

Check it out at:
http://denham.typepad.com/km/2005/06/where_are_kms_b.html?

Where have all the KM experts gone ? (played to the tunes of a sixties song..

Upcoming event: Personal Knowledge Management with TikiWiki

InsightKnowledge will be announcing an interesting event shortly - utilizing the open source CMS Tikiwiki as a Personal Knowledge Management tool.

This free offering will allow you to learn the basics of how to use Tikiwiki as an efficient tool to capture, manage and share knowledge easily.

Further details will be announce shortly. Watch here for updates, or goto http://www.insightknowledge.com and check the calendar for events.

Please feel free to discuss the topic of 'Personal Knowledge Management' (PKM) at http://www.insightknowledge.com's PKM forum.

Knowledge Tidbit: Windows Indexing Service

For those of you that use the MS Indexing Service as a search engine on your home computer, know this:
-the service can query connected network computers, if the UNC option in the search paths are pointeding to them (\\computername), instantly creating a network search service.
-by using a '!' in front of a query in your regular startbutton/search function it will utilize the indexing service pre-indexed database - causing the searches to be really quick.
-you could also just download goodle's desktop search and its plugins to do the same. while this is great, it also creates large index files (for those who have storage issues).

If you have any questions about knowledge retrievel, please contact me at http://www.insightknowledge.com via LIVEHELP

Personal Knowledge Management - the use of webfolders

Useful tidbit of information: Webfolders

I hardly know anybody who is using webfolders on their desktops. Here is some information that may convince people to give it a try.

Webfolders are really useful. Within a Windows environment (starting at windows 2000), one can setup a webfolder by adding a new network place (I won't explain the details here, but please visit http://ww.insightknowledge.com, passcode: insightfor more information).

Once setup, a webfolder behaves like a regular folder. One can browse, work with files, and the likes.

BUT really helpful is a webfolder when working with Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Both programs allow to open and save documents into such a webfolder. This means one can create, share and edit documents in place over the internet. It will ask for login/password if security is applied to the folder. Using the building versioning of the office suites, this is great for sharing documents.

Now it gets a little bit more techincal - for those who are interested to host their own webfolders (like your home computer).

Needed on the (server) receiving side is a webdav compliant webserver. Zope is an easy and powerful way of getting this setup. Apache allows this fucntion too, but needs more configuration work. Please feel free to contact me for consult you on the setup and use of a zope server.

A side effect of this setup is that everything is http based and does not create any problems with a firewall.

Don't hesitate to contact me for questions: http://www.insightknowledge.com and use LIVEHELP.

KM Training and Certification Review Forum

InsightKnowlege Inc. is making a forum available to gather and discuss the different offerings of Knowledge Management trainings and certifications.

Please visit
InsightKnowledge Inc.
forums to review or participate

Passcode for registration: insight

Fewer students major in computer - USA TODAY 5/23/5

http://km.ittoolbox.com/news/dispnews.asp?i=129587&t=4&a=KM

Why am I mentioning this article you ask ?

Knowledge Management really utilizes computers to make the masses of data, information and potential for knowledge manageable.

If you don't believe this - ask yourself: Who does research without GOOGLE nowadays ?

Computers are like weapons and nuclear science. They can be used for good and bad. With the purpose of automation, safety and cost-cutting measures, they take on more and more functionality.

Knowing that fewer and fewer people will know how to 'tame the beast', should get us thinking.

Some will say, (specifically potential students): "but the market crashed and the future is not certain".

It will be important to understand that while these uncertainies do exist, flexibility in the area of computers is essential. Computer systems, architecturs, programs and programming languages are changing faster and faster.

There may not be a straightforward answer, but a criteria for a successful future will need to include that the general understanding of computers, their impact on everybodies daily life and the responsibility of using and not misusing them, will need to increase dramatically.

If you would like to discuss this topic further, please visit http://www.insightknowledge and the 'Learning from Experience' forum.

Passcode for registration: insight

America's Eroding Knowledge Edge - Posting on Yahoo News

REFERRED POSTING

Congratulations Mike Ruettgers !

I wholeheartedly agree with your article on the erosion of knowledge in America.

If one takes an objective look at the state of education across the states..

If one looks at the statistics of the skill levels of the nations youth..

one must start thinking: We may be overrun by other countries, who invest more in managing their knowledge and experience.

India is investing heavily in Knowledge Management. Discussion groups and forums are filled with indian experts and those who soon will become expert.

The world is continouing to outsource business processes. One can argue that we don?t outsource the knowledge that goes with it. But if one does not perform a process any longer, how can one gather experience from it?

It will be essential to find ways to turn this trend around.

Possible action may include:
-teach children conceptual thinking and problem solving, not only facts
-teach consequential thinking and impact analysis
-promote sharing of knowledge as the new way of being a hero
-guide business to create knowledge management solutions for outsourcing that bring the experience back to the employees
-.. and others

Please feel free to visit >Sharing Insight< Forum

Passcode for registration: insight

Collaboration for Online Networking Groups now available at InsightKnowledge Inc.

InsightKnowledge Inc. just opened the doors for their new service that enables online networking groups with a place to collaborate.

Additionally to similar tools, >Sharing Insight< allows the secure participation in multiple networks simultaniously and enhances the capabilities of individuals and groups to share information specifically with other individuals and/or groups - effectively creating a Personal Knowledge Management tool to capture and share knowledge as one would offline.

InsightKnowledge Inc. also started offering knowledge subscription services, bringing quality Knowledge Management information to specific business audiences on a subscription basis, allowing them to tap into Knowledge Management expertise and utilize it for their business.

For more information, please visit http://www.insightknowledge.com.

Lessons learned - BSOD Windows XP

For all of you who run servers on their Windows XP machine and get a blue screen of death every once in a while - this maybe something to check out:

In order to optimzie the setup of my server, I went to the control panel, system settings and under performance, change the option for optimizing system performance from applications to services.

Nothing happened for a couple of days. Then more often, my machine cold crashed with a blue screen of death (BSOD), blaiming videopro.sys for it.

So I started researching and updating drivers and the likes. but nothing fixed the problem.

Just for laugh and giggles, I switched back the performance setting to applications instead of services.. and voila .. no BSODs anymore !

Hope this helps,
regards,
SL

First Mobile Blogging Entry, 2nd try

There is always a learning experience for the person, who does not like to read the manual..

Now that I did, my second try of a mobile blogging entry is more successful, and actually contains text (and most likely misspellings ;-)).

..more to come