On the ties that don’t bind

This article from the Australian Financial Review(subscription required) discusses a recent book by human resource management academic, Lynda Gratton, on the power of weak ties in the network. Having read Gratton’s Living strategy, I was intrigued to learn more about the new book, Hot spots, albeit written for a more mass market audience.
Weak ties are people who [...]

On my new job

I start my new full-time job at the Fred Hollows Foundation tomorrow. I will be in charge of the information, knowledge management and education unit of the organisation. I am really looking forward to working back in the NGO sector and in international development. It will also make my involvement in KM4dev and Society for [...]

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 measuring library value

I have been reflecting on some of the methods I have used in library and information services in the past to measure and report on success.
At a former workplace, we used software to measure online useage statistics and hit rates.  From memory, it wasn’t sophisticated software but gave basic information. The library was consistently in the [...]

On showing some interest in KM

The Reserve Bank of Australia announced an increase in interest rates this afternoon. Interest rates will rise by another .25% and the expectation is that another increase is likely in the near term.
Since interest rates are supposed to reflect the cost of capital, it is not surprising that high interest rates impact on the bottom [...]

On HR and knowledge management

One of my favourite podcast sites is HBR IdeaCast. And one of my favourite podcasts that I have listened to recently is called The new science of human capital, IdeaCast No. 76. The podcast is an interview with one of the authors of the book Beyond HR. The gist of the podcast concerns talent management within organisations. [...]

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 information research

The latest issue of the e-journal, Information Research, is now available.
There are some really interesting papers, especially the paper by Marcia Bates on browsing behaviour and the paper by Judit Bar-Ilan on librarian blogs.
There are several book reviews too, including this one on David Weinberger’s book, Everything is miscellaneous (a book I am currently reading).
 All [...]

On tailoring content in the world of Web 2.0

I gave my talk and presentation yesterday in Sydney at the Ark Group conference, Collaboration in the world of Web 2.0. My topic was on “tailoring content for Web 2.0″. The focus was on setting the scene for content within a Web 2.0 world (blogs, online collaboration, podcasting, wikis, and social networking) within the enterprise. Instead of [...]

On icebergs

Icebergs? Yes, icebergs.
I have just finished reading “Our iceberg is melting: changing and succeeding under any conditions”. The book is a story (fable) about a colony of Emperor penguins (one of my favourite animals) who live on a particular iceberg in Antarctica. The story is about how the penguins respond to the claim that their [...]

On sins and other things

It’s been quite a week since I lasted posted. I have been confronted with some technical issues regarding web access and have been limited in the online time available to me. A wireless 3G account might have to be arranged…
Anyway, I can give some follow-up to a couple of activities from last week. Firstly, Patrick Lambe [...]

On KM Australia 2007 (Part 3)

The highlight of the KM Australia 2007 conference was the presentation on the afternoon of Day 1 by Michel Bauwens on “Peer to peer: the new paradigm for social innovation”.
Michel believes that free agents are becoming the dominant form of economic activity in the post-dot com world. As a result, people and their networks are [...]

On KM Australia 2007 (Part 2)

Dave Snowden was the opening morning keynote speaker at KM Australia 2007 and presented on narrative and sensemaking. He emphasised that one of the problems with management and business strategy was the reliance on past performance and hindsight to predict the future. Hindsight cannot predict the future - the context is different and hindsight selects the [...]

On KM Australia 2007 (Part 1)

Wow. Today was the first day of the KM Australia 2007 conference in Sydney. I was very impressed with some of today’s presentations, although I must say it was sometimes difficult to hear the speakers due to the noise coming from the vendor and catering area next to the stage.
Not surprisingly, Dave Snowden was in fine [...]