treat of the day: yellow is the new white

Christmas is just around the corner and it’s time for treats again…

For all KM’ers out there I guess I don’t have to outline how important a powerful search tool, concise metadata, and, and… are so people will find the information they’re looking for and are able to make informed decisions.

Well, in e-commerce a powerful search tool can be just as valuable…

…as my “Treat of the Day” suggests:

(search terms: “Sessel weiß” [EN: armchair white])

km & culture

It is very inspiring to look at KM approaches from other cultures, especially when they include concepts hardly known in the western world. These differing concepts may be expressed by looking at KM from a different angle, influenced by the individuals view on our world which – of course – is very much related to their cultural background. And sometimes, they are expressed by using words implying concepts that might be alien to us.

A different perspective on KM…
Md Santo, founder of the Mobee Knowledge Management CoP on NING, developed an approach to Knowledge Management based on an analogy with the human body. With a (as he referred to it) “provoking statement” in the MKM CoP forum, he states that ->

“After Singularity between Human Mind and Technology reaching its peak (in 2012 ?), it will be the “Jump Time” for us to make “Great Turning” from the BRAIN as locus of Mind to the DNA as locus of Consciousness and Value”.

Although I have to confess that I still don’t grasp the connections between -> & -> the attributes of the universe dynamic, the human body, human behaviour, and KM Entities:

* structure – anatomy – consciousness and value (Bahasa: Kehendak) – km standards
* function – physiology – human senses (Bahasa: Rasa) – km tools
* process – metabolism – mind (Bahasa: Akal) – km process frameworks

… I like Md Santo’s definition of the KM Entity:

* Knowledge (Management) is the staging of Human Enlightment Process.
* The process is to managing the transformation of Information content into Knowledge and beyond.
* The Goals are towards Learning, Growth and Innovation.
* The management should leveraged by KM Standards, KM Tools and Process Framework
(Md Santo, EPISTEMOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DERIVED FROM ANALOGY WITH HUMAN BODY GENOME MANAGEMENT.pdf)

KM in other words…
Md Santo also gives the Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) expressions in his graphs and I am wondering if there are particular (culture-related) connotations to them that would not become apparent when using the English expressions only.

In their introduction to the The Knowledge Forum 2008 of the Knowledge Management Society of Japan (KMSJ), the KMSJ President Matsutaro Morita
and the Forum President Norio Agata recognized the creation of Chi as increasingly important as companies focus on knowledge and intellectual capital management: “We should focus our research effort on international standardization of methodology for evaluation and comparison of Creation of Chi.”
Chi is often translated as an energy flow forming part of any living thing. With regards to KM, Agata and Morita refer to the creation of Chi as an approach to utilizing “people’s knowledge and wisdom productively within a organization”.

Another Asian concept that has been adopted by KM practitioners is Ba: Ba is a context which has a meaning and, according to Nonaka, can be seen as a shared space of emerging relationships.
Nonaka defined four different types of Ba: -> Originating Ba, Interacting Ba, Cyber Ba, and Exercising Ba. From this principle, an approach for the transformation of the workplace has been derived: The “happy workplace“, being -> “a Ba that fosters knowledge creation and innovation in the organization”. This approach takes Knowledge Management to a next level; it goes beyond IT infrastructure and management principles and even beyond the creation of intellectual capital and its direct impact on the share holder value. It focuses on “management and leadership to seek satisfaction at the workplace, and the good of society.” (ibid.)
At the APQC website, however, we are back to the truly western view of Ba as they say it helps organizations to “achieve key goals such as accelerating innovation and reducing costs and cycle times associated with product development”. Anyway, there is a presentation on Ba for free download you shouldn’t miss.

knowledgecamp 2009

It’s been quite a while already, but a short report about the KnowledgeCamp 2009 and – far more important – a big “thank you!” and “well done!” to Karlheinz Pape and his team must not be missing here. The KnowledgeCamp 2009 took place in Karlsruhe, Germany on October 9th and 10th, 2009. It was the first time in my life I attended a BarCamp and I liked it right from the beginning. As a short introduction round, everybody had to say their name, the city they came from, and three tags indicating what they do or their areas of interest regarding KM. After that, those of us who wanted to hold a session were asked to come to the front and briefly explain the topic of the session planned. Then Karlheinz asked whether anyone of the group was interested in the topic proposed, hands went up (sometimes more, sometimes less) and the prospective presenter pinned a card with their session’s name on a large timetable. In no time, we had a program featuring five tracks with five sessions each ready. This was the greatest grass-roots democratic thing I’ve ever experienced! The sessions were absorbing, their subjects ranging between improvised rounds of talks, product presentations, and scientific research findings. Besides the collaboratively created program, there was also sufficient time for networking and informal discussions.

Those of you who are interested in the event, its program, and the participants can find more information directly at the knowledge camp.mixxt.org website. I strongly recommend a participation in 2010 !

There is also a website available listing upcoming BarCamps all over the world: Check barcamp.org and engage in the grass-roots-thing!