| |
 |
Tuesday, August 13, 2002 |
The value of useless knowledge
[/BERTRAND-RUSSELL/$File/russell.jpg?OpenElement) ] A few weeks back I was in a second hand book shop in Godalming and I bought a couple of books - at the counter I was told that having bought two books - I could get one free. I quickly stepped up to the philosophy section and run my fingers over the titles and spotted a thin red book by [Bertrand Russell]. It was called [Let the People Think] - knowing of Bertrand Russell but knowing little of his work I thought it was the ideal choice.
As I got back to the car and flicked through it I was delighted - it was a collection of short essays and one caught my eye - it was entitled Useless Knowledge Here is a quote from the essay:
"Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less pleasant, but also makes pleasant things more pleasant. I have enjoyed peaches and apricots more since I have known that they were first cultivated in China in the early days of the Han dynasty; that Chinese hostages held by the great King Kanisaka introduced them into India, whence they spread to Persia, reaching the Roman Empire in the first century of our era; that the word "apricot" is derived from the same Latin source as the word "precocious" because the apricot ripens early; and that the A as the beginning was added by mistake , owing to a false etymology. All this makes the fruit taste much sweeter." In knowledge management we often talk about focusing on productive knowledge and that KM should not be an intellectual exercise and to a degree this is right but Bertrand Russell pulled me up - as he says elsewhere in the essay "Perhaps the most important advantage of "useless" knowledge as that it promotes a contemplative habit of mind." Now to me taking time to reflect is at the heart of KM. So paradoxically "useless" knowledge can promote KM. I like it!
And oh yes Apricots have also tasted sweeter to me since! [Gurteen Knowledge-Log]
In the U.S., at least, business tends to be an anti-intellectual environment. Thinking and knowing for their own sake are suspect. Here's a compelling counter-argument
3:16:33 PM Google It! 
|
|
Intranet Focus Blog 2
Intranet Focus Blog: Collaborative working using an intranet. Not having a company culture that stimulates collaboration is a competive disadvantage. Blogs can help stimulate a collaborative corporate culture.The answer, according to Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, was to set up a discussion group on an intranet. Wow! This article seems to indicate that no-one at Google had considered using an intranet as an way of stimulating ideas. I find this almost impossible to believe, but then time and time again I come across intranets that are no more than publishing applications. They are full of HR policies, expenses guidelines, memos about the need to park tidily in the staff car park, but often nothing that has a direct impact on the development of the business. Often this is a cultural issue, in that a company does not have a culture that stimulates collaboration. [Roland Tanglao's Weblog]
3:07:09 PM Google It!
|
|
Intranet Focus Blog
The intranet is not a coporate brochure damnit!.
Collaborative working using an intranet. Many of the dot.com magazines have perished, but Fast Company seems to keep going, though I admit I look at... [Intranet Focus Blog]
» Good pickup on how so many companies still have a narrow view of what an intranet can be. A good intranet is an information ecosystem and not just a magazine site for the corporate communications team.
The questionnaire mentioned looks interesting too. It is geared towards large companies and seeks to determine:
- the potential value from developing a collaborative organization in your company.
- the current behavioral obstacles in your organization.
- the extent of collaborative levers currently in place in your company.
however I'm sure that many of it's questions could be usefully tailored to fit other situations. [Curiouser and curiouser!]
3:06:30 PM Google It!
|
|
First book on XTM topic maps?.
New book on topic maps. Addison-Wesley Professional has just released a new book titled XML Topic Maps: Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web... [Column Two]
» Looks good. Some more info:
- Knowledge bases can be designed that not only relate concepts together but also can point to the resources relevant to each concept."
- Beginning with a broad introduction and tutorial of topic maps and XTM technology, the book then lays out strategies for creating and deploying the technology.
- Along the way the latest theoretical perspectives are offered along with a discussion of the challenges developers will face as the Web continues to evolve and develop.
- "The topic maps paradigm enables Global Federated Knowledge Interchange -- a concept that should be important to you if you are a large information owner with diversely structured information assets and international reach."
And I said I wouldn't buy any more books.... [Curiouser and curiouser!]
3:00:37 PM
|
|
Ha! Siebel Systems attempts to sell government's worldwide a rigid top down knowledge management system. This is exactly the type of system that contributed to the success of the attack! Incredible. I guess we are doomed to repeat history's mistakes.
>>>Siebel Homeland Security provides a comprehensive suite of applications that enable governments to anticipate, track, prevent, and respond to national security threats. The application allows governments to address homeland security concerns from physical terrorism to border security, bioterrorism to intelligence, and public safety to emergency response.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
2:31:30 PM
|
|
Storytelling and knowledge management
Clues for bad drivers.... ...like myself. From a professional truck driver, rules of the road to remember when driving around truckers. Some of them apply to all driving situations, such as "you are not as good a driver as you think you are," "SUVs are not suits of armor," and my favorite, "If you've been cruising blithely along in the left (or center, on a three-lane highway) lane for a half-hour or so, please consider moving the fuck over, you selfish ass-pirate." (I almost spewed soda all over my monitor when I read that one.) [jarretthousenorth News]
Loved this rules of the road story in its own right. Well written, to the point, useful, and funny. But I couldn't immediately figure out why it stuck in the back of my mind until the next morning.
This piece is also an excellent case example of the power of good storytelling in knowledge management. It's also an example that good storytelling and good knowledge management can be about the most seemingly mundane topics. The ability to capture the telling detail and the capacity to trigger reflection for the reader are what make knowledge management work at its best.
So, go read the rules of the road for your future driving safety and for fun. And then think about how to become a better storyteller about your own work, whatever that might be.
9:47:39 AM Google It!
|
|
Integrating klogs with Big-KM.
In order for klogging to be successfully I think it is going to have to come to an understanding with Big-KM.
Example: BigCo has invested half a million dollars in a big knowledge management system for their world-wide operations. This kind of investment can become a lode-stone around any other systems neck. For klogging to thrive here it is going to have to integrate.
Here's one idea I have for how this could work.
- Extend Big-KM System-X so that it can aggregate RSS feeds like Radio, MT and others do now.
- Extend your klogging software to allow per-post meta data. (liveTopics does this for Radio)
- For each project in System-X define a set of topics that will act as trigger phrases for that project
- Get the kloggers to use those topics when they want to involve a post in a particular project
- Now subscribe System-X to every klog in the organization and watch as it indexes and archives all that information. Each project grabbing only those postings that are appropriate (by use of the trigger phrases)
- This means that the klogs add value to the big-KM system. Suddenly it doesn't just have the dry dusty project documention, but all the live vibrant stuff that people are really doing!
- Now extend System-X to generate a per-project RSS feed.
- If I am on the project I can subscribe to this feed. Now instead of receiving email from System-X or having to go to an arbitrary web page, I get all the "official" project stuff (new documents, forms etc...) delivered in my RSS stream.
Closing the loop between the big-KM and the klog so that they both add value to each other.
Just an idea....
[Curiouser and curiouser!]
9:14:59 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2002 Jim McGee.
|
|
/DILBERT/$File/dilbert.gif?OpenElement)
/SMILE-EMOTICON/$File/smiley.gif?OpenElement)
] [
