Blog dismissal

An item on last night's Close Up, current affairs programme, on the dismissal of Deena Pawson, a Warehouse employee who used her Bebo page to post dissatisfaction with her job.

Yes, employers are monitoring the Internet and checking out potential employees online. More interestingly, recruitment consultants are using sites like Facebook to headhunt.

And, yes, Deena, the Internet is a public space.

Serendipity

What is it about Auckland traffic when it rains?

And what is it about Auckland weather in early December?

Griping aside, it was most fortunate that when my Pacific Blue flight landed the other day, right alongside the previous (two hours delayed) flight, that my bag was first onto the carousel and I was able to race outside and grab the ONLY Co-op cab on the rank. Turns out that a traffic jam on the southwestern motorway (in both directions) had prevented any other taxis from making it out to the airport. And every other taxi there, from various companies, had been pre-booked.

Earlier in the day, Dave Snowden had recounted the story behind the word serendipity at the Cognitive Edge Accreditation Course in Wellington. Yes, serendipity was "taught" at Library School, well, not exactly taught, but it was a phenomenon that was well regarded, has been observed by librarians down the ages and was working for me again this evening.

I had to dash across town to make an end of year business networking dinner that my partner had booked us in for. Thankfully I had lucked upon the smartest taxi driver in Auckland. Billy not only knew about the snarl up on the motorway (we tried it for a few hundred metres, then got off at the first available off ramp.) He also knew that there were snarl ups in Newmarket. When we tried to drive around this one, we got tangled up again at the Gillies Road on-ramp. This time my knowledge of Auckland back streets came into play. So, after three traffic jams, I arrived late and with a moderately hefty taxi bill, but I did make it in time for the main course.

At the Cognitive Edge Course, Dave Snowden had discussed the perils of the London taxi driver and here was a fantastic example of said skills in action.

Allied to that, when I finally sat down to dinner, I ended up sitting next to a charming young lawyer from Mcveagh Fleming. She had dragged along a colleague of hers to the dinner and it turned out that this colleague actually knew what knowledge management was and indeed has a friend writing a thesis on it at Auckland Business School.

I have been trying to locate post grad students in km up at the University.

Serendipity indeed!

Cognition

For the next three days I will be in Wellington, attending Dave Snowden's Cognitive Edge course.

I have lots of preconceptions about what will happen, but also wide open to any surprises, serendipity, experiences that may come my way.

I hope to report in each day, if I can find a PC and the time.

Connection

For the first time in nearly four years I have a cellphone.

It is remarkable how far technology has come in that time - but it is still just a collar and chain as far as I am concerned. But for freinds and colleagues who want to contact me on the go, well, you have got me now, haven't you?

New

This morning's New Zealand Herald carries the surprising news that the Blenheim branch of our police force has established a Bebo profile and hence an online presence in an attempt to "reach out to the community".

The paper has pitched this as a means to solicit anonymous tip offs, but the implications run far deeper than this. By jumping in to Bebo, they are actively moving amongst the very people who they need to get closer to in order to get to the roots of crime. This news is fantastic, but of course they should not stop there, and Facebook, MySpace and similar Web 2.0 services are surely worthy of attention as well...

This reminds me of the story last week about the "virtual arrest" of a Dutch youth for stealing some online goods in a Second Life-type social networking website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094764.stm

It makes me wonder how the judge is going to handle this case. Will she / he impose a "vitual sentence"? Or something else?

In this country, instead of incarceration, we have a form of punishment known as "community service". In the online world, is some form of community service possible, should we not already be serving the community by behaving according to ethics and noble principles. This recalls a recent blog entry on the Cognitive Edge site which struck a cord with me:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous postings to blogs are welcome, but this wonderful new technology allows the malicious great scope to play havoc. There is and always be those who are ill intentioned, but one of the problems I have had in introducing social networking to the corporate environment is to set ground rules, establish levels of trust and reassure the powers that be (the ones who pay for the computers and power) that people are, for the most part, good at heart. Perhaps that is why current corporate structures are doomed, as Gary Hamel suggests in his new book The Future of Management. Because they are fundamentally based on fear and risk minimisation, hence foster a negative view of humankind which does not bear up on close scrutiny.

But that is surely a topic for another day!

Fear of Flying

Virgin Blue have finally made it to Aotearoa/New Zealand. Their domestic service, that is, as they have had an international offering in Christchurch for some time. Pacific Blue, Virgin's incarnation here, is cheap. Well, cheaper than the incumbents anyway. I have flown Virgin Blue in Australia, so was used to their "We leave exactly one minute after scheduled departure time" policy. So I readied myself for a speedy departure last week from Wellington, after a day long Saturday meeting on behalf of NZKM.

Problem was, Pacific Blue had only been going just over a week. There were teething problems...

So I was stuck in Wellington Airport for an extra 45-50 minutes. At least that gave me a chance to enjoy another Sassy Red (why does that airport bar always run out of Kilkenny when I am around, or is it that I am one of only a handful of people who order it and they do not restock kegs that frequently???) with our esteemed chairman Julian Carver, who always has a good story or theory to share if you have the time.

To gee us up - the chief steward (is that the right position description - is it even worth giving ???) was cracking jokes. Well yeah, he probably does that most of the time [note to self - must ring Pacific Blue and give them some feedback]. When we landed in Auckland, he came on the intercome and announced quite soberly, "The time in Auckland is... well, it is the same as in Wellington, isn't it?... Smoking is not... well smoking is not considered to be good for you, and by the way, it is also not permitted in the terminal building..." And stuff like that.

But all this started at the other end, on the runway in Wellington.

When the safety demonstration started, he began with the usual announcements about passengers needing to pay attention and all planes being subtly different etc etc etc. You have all been there...

But when his little discourse started breaking into "And you need to buckle your seat belts like this.. across your sexy little hips..." Then, "Before leaving the plane make sure you put on your specially Louis Vuitton designed life jacket..." And, "You may use the toilets only once the seat belt sign has been turned off, but watch out for the security gaurds posted outside every toilet..."

It was late afternoon/early evening, warm, we were running really late, but all of a sudden he had our attention.

And once we got to the end of the runway, ready for take off, he gave us one last message, then yelled "Blast off!"

What has all this got to do with knowledge management?

We enjoyed his safety message - but we also tuned in.

But more importantly, I became aware of the take off like I hadn't in a very long time.

The miracle of flight. It is something we have taken for granted in this busy world. I am guesing those of us who are frequent flyers are mostly doing it for business. But we take it for granted. It is an amazing experience [for a demonstration, take a small child up as your companion on your next flight...]

As change agents, knowledge facililtators, management leaders, whatever we want to call ourselves, we need to appreciate that the workplace should not only be fun (if you don't enjoy what you are doing - stop doing it!) we should also strive to make it surprising. That is what interests me in km - the thrill of discovery - and people get excited too, when I explain what I am doing, or at least what I am striving to do. The shock of the new is something to be welcomed - not to be feared. The experience may well be the most important part of the change process that we are involved in.

Bacn and Elgg(s)

OK - that probably loses in the translation for our American cousins ("ham and eggs" anyone?)

Picked this up via the Herald's Sideswipe column yesterday, which I had stopped reading altogether, until somebody asked me what "bacn" stood for. Sideswipe referenced mental floss magazine (motto "Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix") writing about The New Oxford American Dictionary's words of the year, but a quick search there revealed only a short hop, skip and a link to Oxford University Press US's blog and discussion of "locavore" as word of the year.

http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore

Now I am not sure that locavore has the legs to be around in a couple of years, nor am I likely to get it past the kids next time we play Scrabble, but have a look at the runner up words, especially "bacn" and "social graph".

I have been telling the powers that be that social networking is the new best thing - and this list certainly provides fodder for that argument. Fact is - social networking has been around forever - all that has changed is that the computerwordl is catching up. I won't say "caught up" because I think there is still a way to go - and I do not know whether Facebook type applications ARE the end game, but I do know that that is what our young people want, coming in to the workforce.

SO - "Elgg" I learned about in a research paper I am currently reviewing. Sounds like Elgg is having some buy in with academic organisations setting up social networks.

I have been looking for some social networking software for my organisation, especially something that won't interfere with the already complex and widely distributed technical network we are currently running. We have been playing around with SharePoint (who hasn't?) but the amount of set up and administration involved really works against it being rolled out to lots of editors / content contributors. I am also looking for an application to graphically display our knowledge map (I have been working on a small knowledge map for one of our business groups, but am very aware that these people are visual workers and anything less than a graphical, whizbang, ACTUAL map ain't going to cut the mustard.) Any ideas anyone?

I still have not found out "bacn" stands for, but when I do...

You Will Know When You Get There

Yes, yes, yes, another blog, just what our troubled world needs right now and just what the information management world doesn't (in my organisation there is currently witchhunt going on in the form of deduplication, driving out the evil content and trying to sift out the truly pure content...)

This blog will mostly focus on issues relating to knowledge. Knowledge management (km) specifically, but since that is almost hackneyed management-speak these days, knowledge fostering, information sharing and content management.

km matters will offer news, views, tools and tips. It will not solve the world's problems, or your personal life, for that matter. But I am interested in hearing from you. A dialogue, rather than a conversation. I do not know where km matters is going, I do not know how we are going to get there, but the ship is launched.

In Allen Curnow's immortal words

Simply by sailing in a new direction


You could enlarge the world.


You picked your captain,


Keen on discoveries, tough enough to make them,


Whatever vessels could be spared from other


More urgent service for a year's adventure;


Took stock of the more probable conjectures


About the Unknown to be traversed, all


Guesses at golden coasts and tales of monsters


To be digested into plain instructions


For likely and unlikely situations.

So, top ten reasons for starting this blog

10. It is fun!

9. It forces me to get down in writing some of the ideas running around my head - perhaps even formulate them in a more traditional way.

8. Maybe km matters might uncover something useful to somebody somewhere – or maybe not – but surely this is worth the attempt?

7. There is a dearth of km websites and publications in Aotearoa / New Zealand and few online forums devoted to the topic – so the opportunity for informed opinion, news and views appears wide open. [Why is that? And how come there is no established online km community in this country? Does that not seem odd?]

6. By no means is km matters the only way to build and foster a km community in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but a blog is just one of many potential avenues for sharing and developing ideas.

5. Most of the really interesting km ideas I have picked up have involved either some form of personal discovery (an experience or event) or communication.

4. A blog can broach knowledge management and knowledge issues with a wide audience, nationally, but also internationally.

3. Does it matter whether anyone reads km matters – ("if a tree falls with nobody around to hear it…")? Of course it matters! Hopefully this blog can add value, inspire responses, generate content.

2. This blog is a testing ground for knowledge sharing ideas, processes and technology [Excuses in advance for any experimentation...]

And the number one reason for starting this blog…
1. If I am truly serious about the potential for blogs in knowledge and information management, then surely I must practise what I preach.