On participation

I was listening to the radio this week when I heard an interview with a film producer on triple j. Of special note was the comment by the female dj that perhaps casting for movies should be done the same way as decisions are made in those reality tv shows. Just sms your vote! The film producer was [...]

On business and social computing

This blog post pretty much sums up the benefits of social computing for business - couldn’t agree more!

On real work

A couple of weeks ago Euan Semple wrote a blog comment about real work. I made a hastily scribbled note to come back to the sentiment at a later date.
The prompt for me was the notion held by some people that social computing activities (blogs, wikis, virtual communities, social networks) are not of value for real work. And this negative [...]

On conversation

One of the questions I am often asked is why people in knowledge management are so preoccupied with conversations. Why does conversation need to be facilitated, is another question.
Let me answer with the following points:
1) Sometimes conversations inside organisation need permission since there is still the belief that conversation is just idle chatter. Knowledge managers like [...]

On stories and leadership

Last night I watched a documentary on Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand mountaineer who (with Tenzing Norgay) became the first men to climb to the summit of Mt Everest in Nepal. Hillary died last fortnight, so the documentary wasn’t just coincidental!
The documentary was particularly revealing to me about the actual mission and ascent up the Himalayas by [...]

On new and simple ways to display information

I was reading the Green Guide in today’s Melbourne Age. In the Websights section I noticed a short paragraph about a service, still in beta, that combines photos, video, and music into a professional looking multimedia product.
The service is from Animoto and this is what they are about: “Each video is a fully customized orchestration of [...]

On government 2.0

Stephen Collins blogged yesterday about government 2.0, lamenting the fact that the opportunity to leverage “the power of the Internet to connect with and enable their constituents” to have a say could be well and truly improved in Australia.
The issue is not new, there are already government initiatives underway with government 2.0 in the UK and in Canada. Germany has [...]

On the wisdom of crowds and volunteering

My latest Knowledge@Wharton newsletter has this article about a new book called: We Are Smarter Than Me: How the Wisdom of Crowds Can Help Businesses Succeed by Barry Libert and Jon Spector. It’s a timely reminder that networked knowledge has a significant place in the competitive world of business. I recommend the article and the book to [...]

On three ways of working

I am reading Gerard Fairtlough’s book, The three ways of getting things done.
The book examines three forms of workplace environment:
1) Hierarchy - the traditional organisational form of power relations in which there is a distinct progression of roles and powers from top to bottom. Hierarchies are usually inflexible, discourage learning and communication, and inhibit change. [...]

On five common mistakes in innovation

I want to share five common mistakes in innovation that were recently presented in an article in BusinessWeek. It seems to me that they are just as applicable in the context of developing initiatives for knowledge management inside the firm, and knowledge diffusion between organisations.
1) An over-reliance on pilot initiatives - pilots tend to focus [...]

On ODL

I was at a party last Saturday evening when I struck up a conversation with a chap who worked for a pharmaceutical company in organizational development and learning (ODL).
As he talked about his job, I was struck by the similarities to the work undertaken in the knowledge management arena. We discussed the importance of intellectual capital and innovation. We [...]

On actKM Conference 2007

Yesterday I attended day two of the actKM conference in Canberra. The day was full of thoughtful speakers and enjoyable conversation. The venue was in an unpretentious room located in the lovely grounds of University House at the Australian National University.
David Gurteen opened the morning session with an overview of a range of social networking tools and technologies. David emphasised [...]

On tagging (3)

Chance encounters often reveal positive results. I came across this November 2006 blog post by Joshua Porter on why scale matters in tagging systems.
A point I want to tag onto (pun intended) is the one about the rights of the individual to tag anything with any tag the individual likes. Joshua illustrates with his comment [...]

On commenting in digital space (2)

Last week I raised the issue about a possible legal claim against the provider of an online discussion forum over comments made within that forum.
Today, the Australian Financial Review reports that in another case, an individual who posted discriminatory comments on an online chat group was liable under the Racial Discrimination Act but that the [...]

On tagging

I have been giving some attention of late to tagging, partly because of some research I am doing for university, and partly in response to a challenge Matt Moore gave me a while back to start putting some of my photos up on Flickr.
A key feature of Flickr is tagging, but tagging has become much more [...]