On advertising and web 2.0 for knowledge management

Just received my latest UTS Alumni email newsletter.  I completed two postgraduate degrees from UTS.   I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the The Fred Hollows Foundation won the world’s best not-for-profit television advertisement at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands.  Readers may recall that I did a nine month contract with The [...]

Using social media

I often hear that some people are reticent to use social media in organisational contexts because they feel that unless they have high quality production equipment, there is no point.  I must say that I have some sympathy to this view. However, I also believe that having simple equipment can also be effective so long [...]

On determining purpose and need

I was reading the latest blog post from Gerry McGovern this morning. Gerry highlights the fact that Craigslist is an immensely popular website, even more popular than bookselling behemoth Amazon, but the site is incredibly ugly.  Craigslist, in case you don’t already know, is a webite for localised classified ads and discussion forums. Craigslist is successful not [...]

On organisational network analysis

I arranged for Cai from Optimice to come into AusAID today to give a short presentation on organisational network analysis (ONA).  Some people may also refer to ONA as social network analysis (SNA).
I had previously talked with Cai and Laurie from Optimice at the recent KM Australia conference in Sydney.  Cai had offered then to [...]

On outcomes and impact

There are many ways to find out about things. Research is obviously part of that. And research likes to use quantitative measures in order to maximise objectivity, even if these measures don’t give you much meaning.
Let’s look at hit rates on a website – a metric commonly used for “statistical purposes”. What does it mean? [...]

On getting your website right

I have just moved house and have bundled the utilities and telecommunications through ACTEW. As part of the deal, I am entitled to a Privileges card.
I received the membership card and an introductory letter telling me that “I am minutes away from accessing discounts and special offers at over 500 participating businesses”. I need to activate [...]

On the road to knowledge management

I regard myself as a knowledge worker and integrally involved within the information sector. Over the last ten years I have increasingly been involved more on the knowledge management side of things than on the library-side.
When I first entered the information sector in the 1980’s I was physically based in a library. I worked in [...]

On what I’ve been doing

It has been about two months since my last post. In that time I have been busy at my new workplace (AusAID) understanding how things are done, going to meetings and internal courses, and managing a library and information service that is quite specific to the internal needs of the organisation. Certainly, working in a [...]

On content management and information architecture

One of the interesting dimensions in content management is how information architecture (IA) affects reader use. The way a web site is structured is integral to the success of that web site, so long as the content meets the needs of the target audience.
Imagine the way a car is produced. Does the design team for a mass [...]

On customer experience for information and knowledge projects

A few days ago I received the Good Experience newsletter with a feature story on customer experience. The article makes great reading about the importance of really understanding your customer and really listening to what they have to say. The article focuses on the retail customer experience but the same applies to a range of [...]

On the weekend and the coming week

Tonight I am flying to Adelaide for the weekend. I will be going to a series of talks tomorrow about railways (a personal interest of mine) and then relaxing on Sunday. I am catching up with a friend on Sunday, and possibly a couple of people whom I have met through conferences and courses. My [...]

On records, information and knowledge management strategy

Lately, I have been giving a great deal of thought with respect to information and knowledge management strategy. This is partly because I am working on an electronic document and records management business case and implementation plan at my current work, but also because I want to place the records management case within an organisational [...]

On management read-in

Patrick Lambe’s blog post about getting management read-in is very timely for me.
Patrick discusses how we might tackle an organisational audit across information management, records management, and knowledge management. The usual response is to write a report, perhaps do a presentation to senior management after the report has been read, and then establish the level of [...]

On cleaning out the fridge

Here at work we just had a big clean-out of the refrigerator in the staff kitchen. The cleaner would have been kept very busy. 
Since I am relatively new to the organisation, I am unsure when the last fridge clean-out took place, but it was clear to me that the time had well and truly come [...]

On breakfast, lunch, and tea

There are a number of ways in which information and knowledge can be disseminated and exchanged, including breakfast, lunchtime or evening meetings. These meetings can be internally or externally based. Organisations, like the Society for Organisational Learning Australia (SOLA) for example, have run morning information sessions for members featuring a special guest speaker. I first heard Dave [...]