Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge  reminded the 300+ audience that knowledge managment (KM) has really only been around for 10 years or so, the same as the Internet — so early days still.  Fundamentally, we only know what we know when we need to know it — something triggers a memory.  The way people know things in the field is different from how they describe it in an interview.  As Dave always says, “We know more than we can tell, we can tell more than we can write.  Knoweldge has three focuses — experience and practice, stuff that we can tell (engineers through stories), stuff we can write down which is limited and takes time and effort to do.  The bulk of knowedge  is in experience and narrative.  Social computing tools are now available to  support.

Aside, stopping smoking has stopped a number of natural story telling, narrative, pathways for sharing knoweldge.

Dave talked about:  sense-making — How do we make sense of the world so we can act in it?; complex adaptive systems (order systems constrains agent behavior and innovation; chaotic systems are unconstrained)   — are likely constrains the system and the agents co-evolve to create another system which is unpredictable.  He then told his wonderful amusing stories about childrens birthday parties (12 year old boys and 15 year old girls) which are great metaphors for his points around early signal detection, disrupting patterns, distributed cognitiion, etc.

And congrats Dave on receiving the Academy of Management’s Award for the best article by practitioners — and article which Dave wrote with Mary Boone which was published in Harvard Business Review, Nov 2007, Leader’s Framework for Decision Making.  To hear more about this join their workshop at KMWorld & Intranets 2008, Monday September 22nd in San Jose.

IFLA, International Federation of Library Associations, is hosting it’s 74th World Library & Information Congress and IFLA conference in Quebec City, August 10-14.  It’s an exciting time in Quebec City — celebrations are going on for it’s 400th anniversary.  A great time to visit.

Knowledge Management Workshop & Programs
The following info will be available online shortly.
The KM Section has a free pre-conference workshop scheduled for Friday June 8 in Quebec City:Knowledge Sharing Strategies & Initiatives
IFLA KM Section Workshop
Friday August 8, 2008
Laval University, Quebec City
Registration required (email jane at dysartjones.com), No cost.  Buy your own lunch with colleagues in university cafeteria.
 
Start networking with your colleagues over breakfast.
Enjoy an interactive morning discussing social tools and knowledge sharing with KM thought leader, Dave Pollard, VP, Knowledge Development, CICA, author of the “How  to Save the World” weblog , and former CKO, Ernst & Young Canada.  Pollard shares success stories of how organizations have introduced Weblogs, wikis, instant messaging, desktop videoconferencing, just-in-time canvassing, RSS aggregators, ‘know-who’ directories, and other social networking methods and tools to their budget-conscious organizations; the practical approaches used; and the secrets of their success.  Pollard looks at tools that improve work productivity, decision-making and innovation; and tools that increase capacity, understanding of risk, as well as connectivity, collaboration and knowledge transfer.  He focuses on social networking tools: people connectors that find and strengthen relationships, social publishing and information sharing tools that publish, subscribe, discuss and link what you know, collaboration and communication allowing people to connect and work together more powerfully, and other interesting leading edge tools.  Join Pollard and colleagues in an interactive discussion about the tools and their use in libraries and knowledge organizations.l
 
The afternoon focuses on international knowledge sharing initiatives.  Frank Tulus, Senior Program Officer, IDRC, International Development Research Centre, and global partners lead the discussion about the Joint Gates Foundation/IDRC global research project that is investigating the social and economic impact o f public access to information and communication technologies.  Good knowledge of why people use various computer and information services and the usage rates of these services has been acquired over the last several years. Little is known, though, about the actual connection of use to benefits, especially in transitioning and developing countries, and the magnitude of the social and economic benefits from this use.   The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in a number of public access to information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives through its global libraries program. IDRC has explored the use of telecentres in many developing countries.  Researchers are undertaking longitudinal and comparative research on the impact of different models of public access (libraries, telecentres, cyber cafe shared access mobiles, etc.). The research looks at both positive and negative impacts in areas such as employment and income, education level, civic engagement, government transparency, democracy, culture and language preservation, and public health. The idea is to inform future investment and advance overall understanding of public access to ICT.  As funders and interested stakeholders across the world, we need hard evidence to help us design and implement better programs and to help partner governments and other local players understand the value of continued investments and how they can make a difference in people?s lives. Hear about this large-scale research study covering every region of the world over a five-year period and the preliminary research results looking at the social and economic impacts of these programs.  A methodology for measuring impact will also be shared.
 
Khaled Fourati, Program Officer, IDRC ACACIA Initiative (Communities and the Information Society in Africa),  and global partners discuss the second initiative focuses on access to knowledge in Southern African universities and open approaches to research in the Internet age.  Southern African universities face several constraints to access published knowledge for research and teaching whether in print or digital forms. Removing these constraints is essential for the effective participation of universities in the knowledge economy and for the development of research centres in Africa.  It explores approaches to open access for research and how they can facilitate the availability of academic and other relevant research publications to the benefit of students and researchers. The project is a collaboration between the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) and the LINK Centre looks at new approaches to knowledge production and dissemination in the Internet age, elucidates insights on the meaning of open access for scientific collaboration, and investigates the value of creating a SARUA regional open access network based on an ‘Open Knowledge Charter’.  WLIC & IFLA Conference Opening ceremonies are Sun am, June 10.  Always spectacular!

The KM section programs are as follows –

Wednesday, Aug 13, 10.45-12.45
Moderator: Xuemao Wang, Head, Systems, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
 
Keynote
Knowledge Management: Towards Understanding in the Multi-Cultural World
Donna Scheeder, Director, Library Services, Law Library of Congress
 Q & A
Knowledge Sharing and Practice
Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) Harvard Business School
Linda Stoddart, Dag Hammarskjold Library and Knowledge Sharing Centre & Chair, UN Knowledge Sharing Task Force, United Nations
Ratna Bandyopadhyay, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calcutta
Kennedy focuses on the strategic and organizational work that is currently being done by KLS and the importance of linking up global knowledge assets and experts in the pursuit of addressing research puzzles and developing leaders who will make a difference.  She discusses the Institutional Memory program for collecting, packaging, and enabling the exchange of experiences among past and present members of the HBS, the Scholarly Communications program to manage, disseminate and measure the impact of scholarly research, and the development of a global research sharing program.
Stoddart highlights shares some new ways of working that have had an impact on the use of information and decision-making in the UN.  She shares learnings from the rethinking library services and skills sets, the new roles, and partnerships to accomplish this. 
The last presentation discusses how public libraries are helping the preserving and sharing traditional knowledge and culture in an oral community — the state of West Bengal in India which has a multi-cultural and multi-lingual population of 80 million where about 40 tribes form 5.5% of the population.
 
KM Tools in Practice
Lynnette Simpson, Information/Knowledge Architect, Robbins-Gioia, LLC
Kathyrn Breininger, Manager, Boeing Reports Management Services & Mary S. Whittaker, Librarian, The Boeing Company
Louis Rene Dessureault, CEDROM-SNi & TBD, Caisse Desjardins
Simpson discusses the learnings from developing a Knowledge Center (an intranet using enterprise portal framework based on Microsoft SharePoint) that enables personnel to effectively collaborate, share best practices, and access critical business data from within a business management consulting firm with 700 employees dispersed globally.
Boeing practitioners focus best practices and practical tips on how to determine business requirements for a taxonomy, how to identify concepts and methods for developing a draft taxonomy as well as techniques for validating a taxonomy, processes for incorporating changes, applying a taxonomy to content, and methods for maintaining a taxonomy over time.
The last presentation discusses content management in a multi-lingual environment within the knowledge management framework with emphasis on the challenges and learnings from developing a bilingual interface, managing a bilingual taxonomy to support a multi-lingual content database, and implementing it in a financial institution.
 
Thursday, Aug 14, 10.445-12.45
Co-sponsored program by the following sections: Library and Research Services for Parliaments, Information Technology, and Knowledge Management
Social Computing Tools and Knowledge Sharing
Social computing is having a huge impact on the sharing of knowledge in all types of organizations.  The social tools (blogs, wikis, social tagging, social networks, etc.) are much different than traditional knowledge sharing tools and put knowledge sharing power in the hands of the users themselves.  As a consequence, enterprises are changing from traditional top down command and control, hierarchical organizations built around traditional centralised IT systems into flatter, more fluid networked organizations built around social tools.  Hear how our expert discusses social tools and their impact on knowledge sharing and then hear how libraries are utilizing these tools in their environments to share knowledge with staff and customers.
David Gurteen, Knowledge Advisor, Educator, Coach, and Leader of the Gurteen Knowledge Community
Panel: Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services (KLS)
Harvard Business School; Moira Fraser, Parliamentary Librarian & Group Manager,  Information & Knowledge, New Zealand Parliament & others

Alex Bennet, former (and first) Chief Knowledge Officer of the U. S. Department of the Navy, just sent me a copy of the book she, her husband and others just published — Knowledge Mobilization in the Social Sciences and Humanities: Moving from Research to Action.  From the prologue: “The leadership shown by the government of Canada in creating and implementing the Knowledge Impact on Society program designed to moe knowledge from the researcher to the citizens has stimulated the preparation and research forwarded in this book….The Canadian approach to knowledge mobilization serves as a model for future research…”  Chapters include: Exploring knowledge mobilization(KMb); Theory & approaches; The KMb program and process; The KMb activities model; Involving & evolving students; Execution in the action space; Outcomes & impacts; The KIS of SSHRC (mini case study of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada); Power plus comes of age.  

Alex & David Bennet are also founders of The Mountain Quest Institute – “a research, retreat, and learning center dedicated to helping individuals achieve personal and professional growth and organizations create and sustain high performance in a rapidly changing, uncertain, and increasinly complex world.”