KM Strategy and Governance

by Madanmohan Rao, Editor, The KM Chronicles, http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Bangalore; January 18, 2012; 6-8 pm

The first Bangalore K-Community session of 2012 will begin on a high note, focusing on issues of knowledge and strategy (http://www.Kcommunity.org). This panel discussion will feature eminent speakers addressing questions of KM alignment, organisational vision and knowledge societies. It will be followed by interactive discussions between the panellists and audience.

Topic 1: Is Knowledge Management Losing Sight of the Bigger Picture?

Speaker: Waltraut Ritter

Are some knowledge management initiatives too narrowly focusing on internal operations and not addressing larger questions about the nature and sustainability of the knowledge driving the organisation? This session will discuss the issues regarding ethics, risk, and governance of KM practices which do not address this broader context.

Waltraut Ritter is director with the Asia Pacific Intellectual Capital Centre, a Knowledge Economy Research Centre in Hong Kong. She is also founder-director of Knowledge Dialogues, specializing in innovation, knowledge, and intellectual capital. She has participated in initiatives of the Commonwealth Secretariat, European Commission, UN, Asian Development Bank, OECD and national governments (Finland, India, China and Korea). She is lecturing information science related topics at universities across the Asia Pacific region, including ISIM in Mysore.

Topic 2: Knowledge Strategy for State and Society

Speaker: Dr. M.K. Sridhar, Director, Karnataka Knowledge Commission

Moving from organisations to societies, this talk will focus on how the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) aims to increase the state’s competitive advantage in fields of knowledge. This includes educational capacity, indigenous knowledge, and efficient government. The talk will cover KM opportunities for KKC and for the state and society, and the roadmap of KKC.

Dr. M.K. Sridhar is Member Secretary and Executive Director of the KKC. He is a Professor of Management at Bangalore University, and holds a doctoral degree from Mysore University. He has completed projects on entrepreneurial awareness among youth, impact of mass media on adolescent youth and the Study of Interaction between Technical Institutions and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Hosting Organisation:

Unisys India, 135/1, Purva Premiere, Residency Road (Opp. Bangalore Club), Bangalore – 560 025. Phone: 4159 4000 Website: www.unisys.co.in

RSVP & Contact Person:  Randhir.Pushpa@ in.unisys.com Mobile: 99805-73382

 

November 2011 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation

by Madanmohan Rao
KM Consultant and Author http://bit.ly/TU12l
http://twitter.com/MadanRao

An interesting read: http://amzn.to/uh4Zhq  The #Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas & Make them Happen: by Boynton & Fischer #innovation

Forbes: Tech Gets Exciting In India, But 5 Years Behind China http://onforb.es/vU684B

Salon: Role of immigrants in US innovation; China, India http://bit.ly/vzWCbM

A terrific read: Peter Sims – “Little Bets: How breakthrough ideas emerge from small discoveries” http://amzn.to/voA6kc  #innovation

Turkey’s rising technopreneurs http://bit.ly/tWlrEk

Excerpt from The Little Black Book of #Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It by Scott D. Anthony http://bit.ly/rNRuZV

Roger Martin: Canada, like #SteveJobs, should zero in on #innovation and not just invention http://bit.ly/tGrH80

Clozette, Skydoor: Singapore firms tap social, 3D video as differentiators (Red Herring Asia Top 100) http://bit.ly/tisd3q

France-Singapore #Innovation Days http://fsid.sg  http://bit.ly/tTe6Dk

Festival of Media Asia sparks dialogue on opportunities in Asia http://festivalofmedia.com/asia http://bit.ly/tO2zU3

IT cos, developers embracing smart tech in Indian cities http://bit.ly/t2Rbi5

Robert Goldsmith: A practical guide to managing #innovation http://bit.ly/v7yDaD

Thomas Friedman: India’s #Innovation Stimulus http://nyti.ms/vtYpc9

India innovator profile: Yashveer Singh http://bit.ly/sC0xPX

India’s ministry of human resource development will launch #Innovation Fellowships to reward talent at school level http://bit.ly/rzBOk8

Edwin Heathcote: Mapping the innovative city http://on.ft.com/ur8oy8  #innovation

Being an #entrepreneur is ‘hot’; target ‘Chindia’ price: Vinod Khosla http://bit.ly/w0VJhy  http://bit.ly/t0GoW9  http://bit.ly/suWtV6

India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to set up eight #innovation complexes http://bit.ly/uHfvk3

Frank Jensen: Cities: The most important engines for growth http://bit.ly/twbrD3  #innovation

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2012 http://bit.ly/vz5Cxw  #Innovation a game-changer, must focus on poverty: India PM http://bit.ly/uxXxNU  http://bit.ly/u2IGCM

National Fair finale of the India #Innovation Initiative (i3) http://bit.ly/ud1df0

http://bit.ly/uokpwe

A good read: What the European Union can learn from India (Manu Joseph) http://nyti.ms/sHf948

Will check, gracias! @olgag Madan, @LarryChiang will be in Bangalore featuring Geeks on a Plane – It might be of interest to U

Learnings from “#Innovation in Education” conference http://bit.ly/tjCq2L

The Atlantic: The 8 Best National #Innovation Practices From Around the World http://bit.ly/t0aeiZ

Profile of 8 Indian Business Professionals/Academics Among Top 50 Thinkers http://bit.ly/sMgo2N

Montreal Gazette: Keeping up with China in science is key to West’s economic future http://bit.ly/upZW28

Richard Alvarez: In health-care #innovation, the future is already here http://bit.ly/sNT8Ia

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invests in radical science #innovation http://bit.ly/rHNJAa

Rowan Gibson: “People’s #innovation key to organisations’ productivity” http://bit.ly/tRHgim

Thomson Reuters Unveils the ‘Top 100 Global Innovators’ Study http://bit.ly/tJx0RY  http://bit.ly/vZU16y  http://usat.ly/tAFyfD

Justin Rattner: It’s Not Your Imagination: Technology Is Moving Faster http://bit.ly/v7VCt9

@TheEconomist Immigrant networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them http://econ.st/sz12jo Retweeted by MadanRao

RT @GautamGhosh “In India we have 19th century mindset, 20th century processes and 21st century needs” Sam Pitroda #nhrd11

India NHRD Network’s 15th National #HR Conference: “Live and Breathe the Change http://hrconference2011.com

@futuresagency RT @neilperkin: Dead Fish: ‘From The Wisdom Of Crowds, To The Wisdom Of Friends’ http://bit.ly/u0UXjj

@futuresagency RT @dtapscott: How Online Innovators Are Disrupting #Education

via @HarvardBiz http://ow.ly/7t3wl  #innovation Retweeted by MadanRao

#Infosys Science Prize: Research activity in India declining, need gov + industry support http://bit.ly/sz27MG

Scott Shane: Who Counts As an Entrepreneur? http://bit.ly/tjyoPu

Seminar: ‘Garage’ Start-ups Now Possible in Life Sciences Industry http://bit.ly/u7Do3b

Social Innovation: Lifebuoy soap’s “Global Handwashing Day” http://bit.ly/rMcF4A

Kevin Brown: Economic futures and #ASEAN summit: A fragmented forum http://on.ft.com/vQcjjm

Peter Bakker: Radical change and #innovation is needed to meet the sustainability challenges ahead http://bit.ly/uiZp06

The Knowledge Management Programme: Gyanodyan launched at India’s ONGC http://bit.ly/ui79Sp  #KM

Ramon Barquin: Should the United States Have a Chief Knowledge Management Officer? http://bit.ly/u1zXM6  #KM

The Cloud Of Opportunities: Profile of #cloud startups in India (eg. Wolf Frameworks) http://bit.ly/tWBhTJ

@manveergrewal RT @LucianT: By 2020 the average age in the world:India 27,China 39,US 47.India has a Demographic dividend that’ll payout with skills #WEF

@geertdesager “@vikaspota: Ethical Hacker, Fadia says #YouTube is the largest

training centre of the world #wef @IndiaIncorp” nice quote!

@YGLvoices “The world is changing but we’re stuck with old models. We can’t deal with Complexity and Velocity.” Klaus Schwab #YGL #WEF

@peggy_steele India not-so-quietly ramping up in global competitiveness? “@wef: India leads the world in frugal innovation – Sander Noordende #WEF India”

#WEF Global Shapers Community launches in India (Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi) http://bit.ly/vPhxOa  #entrepreneurship

World Economic Forum, India: press coverage http://bit.ly/rRPkRE http://on.wsj.com/rU8jRX  http://bit.ly/uvU8SD  #WEF

Awesome event, must add it to my list of favourites+regulars! #Alchemix Thx to @InnovAlchemy team! Now off to negotiate Bangalore traffic…

@amritochates Talk around first creating value & money would follow at #alchemix

reminds me of a phrase I read yesterday – ‘Value over valuation’

Shradha: Revenue model is important, but sometimes it emerges later, not apparent in the beginning #Alchemix

Attendee: Pay attention to quality and credibility of social content (especially for corporates) #Alchemix

Infosys attendee: Pay attention to the user experience. Observations, anecdotoes, states, research. #Alchemix

Me: Suggestion to companies using social media – periodically archive your tweets as static pages on your Web site; good for SEO #Alchemix

Looking forward to the brainstorming/feedback session next! #Alchemix

Sidharth/FLOH Network: Even in the age of social media, human connection cannot be replicated #Alchemix

Sidharth/FLOH Network: Use social media to connect urban singles who have passions (eg. blue cheese!) #Alchemix

Maya/Ashoka: Learnings: Original compelling content is king. Interest your staff in creating content. Stay connected w/ community #Alchemix

Maya/Ashoka: We have created an Impact series of interviews/chats with women entrepreneurs #Alchemix

Sati/Ashoka: We organise one FB event every two months, featuring one of our Fellows. #Alchemix

Sati/Ashoka: 50% of our Website traffic comes from social media referrals #Alchemix

Sati: Web site helps us become a key resource for the development community in India. Post-2011: blogs, SEO, stories of Fellows #Alchemix

Sati: Ashoka Foundation has 3K Fellows globally. Our first fellow was elected in India, 30 years ago #Alchemix

Up next: Sati from Ashoka India Foundation http://india.ashoka.org #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: Success factors for social media: honesty, transparency, resource sharing, collaboration, approachability #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: Social media helped us discover Radio Mirchi, who also created audio books for us #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: We used Twitter to get books for children running a mobile library for other underprivileged children in Calcutta #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: We uploaded audio books for the blind (Soundcloud) — others wanting to learning languages also downloaded them! #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: Twitter allows us to create conversations about content, win fans/re-tweeters, and network with publishers #Alchemix

Maya/Pratham: But look beyond the numbers in social media, look at level of engagement also. #Alchemix

Pratham Books: We have about 4K+ Twitter followers, 140K blog pageviews, 2.5K FB followers, 4K Youtube video views #Alchemix

Nathalia: What worked for mDhil – blending SEO with social media (eg. for YouTube videos) #Alchemix

Nathalia: We have used Facebook ads, Twitter to build a community of healthcare fans #Alchemix

Coming up: Social #Innovation Awards 2012 http://socialinnovationawards.com

McKinsey Invites Social Innovators to Present their Ideas http://bit.ly/tIw74F

Globalisation: Nathália Matychevicz, Social Media Manager of Bangalore-based mDhil, is from Recife/Brasil! #Alchemix

Board of directors of mDhil includes Ganesh Rengaswamy, founder of http://TravelGuru.com  #Alchemix

Entrepreneurial team of mDhil: http://mdhil.com/aboutus/   #Alchemix

mdhil.com – Indian + Brasilian teamplayers. Healthcare info via #SMS #Alchemix

mDhil: Societal impact can be created by SEO and social media in the healthcare industry Shradha: I even got Sushmita Sen on my site! But some called me opportunistic. I let those comments stay, and earned goodwill #Alchemix

Shradha: We have 3,500 stories so far, many are successful. Power of social media: be helpful, be maniacal/psychotic/passionate! #Alchemix

Shradha: Long term gain – successful startups will reward me later! India can be a giving culture #Alchemix

Shardha: Some flak I got – “You are doing just PR,” “These startups will fail in a few months” #Alchemix

Shradha: Though I didn’t make money in the beginning, it was gratifying to air/voice stories about entrepreneurs #Alchemix

Shradha: Startups which are not yet successful need a voice. Online was a feasible channel as compared to a print magazine #Alchemix

Shradha Sharma launched http://YourStory.in  when she realised how badly startups need good media coverage in their early stages #Alchemix

Terrific initiative by #InnovAlchemy and @DREAMIN_Team, thanks! http://InnovationAlchemy.com/alchemix2011  #Alchemix

Speakers today: Shradha Sharma (@YourStoryDotIn), mDhil (@mHealthTips), Maya (@PrathamBooks), @AshokaIndia, #FLOHnetwork  #Alchemix

Theme for #Alchemix 4: “Social Energy: An #Innovation Ingredient?”

How do innovators/entrepreneurs use social media/networks?

#Alchemix 4th session kicks off in Bangalore: “an active community of innovation practice” Webcast: http://bit.ly/v9WTiU

Winners of the African Social Venture Prize at the #AfricaCom 2011 Awards http://bit.ly/s9lYgk

Youth and #ICT4D: The World Summit Awards (Youth) – winners for 2011 http://youthaward.org/winners-2011

@beastoftraal The China Startup Report http://slidesha.re/szpL6U  /via @Aniketh Good backgrounder for those in #nasscompc

My #INMA South Asia presentation on “Social+Mobile Media Opportunities for Newspapers” http://bit.ly/uW88f4

INMA South Asia Conference, Bangalore: Roots and Wings of News Industry: Presentations and Pics: http://bit.ly/uW88f4  http://bit.ly/t3gHYd

@futuresagency RT @mtrends: The 20 Most Innovative Startups In Tech according @businessinsider http://ow.ly/1A6FjK  via @SAI

@YourStorydotin #India’s Billion Dollar Bet On The Next Decade Of

#Software http://your.st/rJU4m2  #NASSCOMPC

Looking forward to the Alchemix session tomorrow on #Innovation and Social Networking! Bangalore, Nov 12 http://bit.ly/tF8vdZ

Sarad Sharma: India is a hub of successful IT service companies. Can it be a hub of product cos as well? http://bit.ly/rWAh87  #NASSCOMpc

Vinod Khosla: “Try and fail, but do not fail to try” http://bit.ly/w0VJhy  #NASSCOMpc

Vivek Paul: Indian start-ups should be talking to one another http://bit.ly/t5a6HU  #NASSCOMpc

Ten Indian Products Which Clicked At NASSCOM Product Conclave LaunchPad http://bit.ly/skFeiE  #NASSCOMpc

NASSCOM: Indian software services industry earnings = $76-billion, product companies earnings = $2 billion http://bit.ly/sk1hbd  #NASSCOMpc

@wadhwa: Great meeting you! Here are the books I was referring to: http://bit.ly/TU12l  http://netChakra.net  Happy reading! #NASSCOMpc

@shelisrael Entrepreneurs here are frustrated w/not getting media coverage. They also seem impatient with the necessary process #nasscomPC Retweeted by MadanRao

@ServiceSutra Agree: @vijayanands A deer with the imagination of a tiger is a dangerous thing. #nasscompc Retweeted by MadanRao

@ConnectHarshal If you can’t invent, copy with a twist! #nasscompc Retweeted by MadanRao

Naveen Jain: Think big! You can’t create a billion dollar company by solving a million dollar problem #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain: Disruptive innovations never come from incumbent experts, but from outside the mainstream industry #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain: My philosophy of entrepreneurial philanthropy: social startups should be scaleable, sustainable #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain: God has been kind to us, I am just a trustee of his kindness and should give back to society #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain: Indian univs should focus on creating entrepreneurs, not just jobs; jobs will follow #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain: The two big product opportunities in India now are education, healthcare. Next: space, genetics #NASSCOMpc

Naveen Jain (InfoSpace, Intelius, Moon Express): There is a huge opportunity for Indian startups to build apps on top of Aadhar #NASSCOMpc

Vivek Wadhwa: Next big opportunity – healthcare IT, with a mix of tech skills, low cost sensors+tablets. Perfect for Bangalore! #NASSCOMpc

Vivek Wadhwa: I know Kapil Sibal and his cronies are crooks, but the concept of Aakash tablets is good, don’t dismiss it #NASSCOMpc

Vivek Wadhwa: It is a pity successful Indian entrepreneurs like Narayana Murthy have not given back to society, to local startups #NASSCOMpc

#AfricaCom 2011 Awards winners: Orange Surf and Pay, Helios Towers, Ericsson Rural NetCo, Skyvision, Seacom, AgaSha, Kachile, HRIS, MTN SA!

Shortlisted nominees for #AfricaCom 2011 Awards http://africacomawards.com/shortlist/  Am looking for good case studies (projects/services/innovation) for my Africa Mobile Report 2012; see earlier reports – http://bit.ly/leLR1g  #AfricaCom

Speaker lineup: NASSCOM Product Conclave, Bangalore; Nov 9-10 http://bit.ly/rKby7v  http://bit.ly/uOOIlh

@treyka Carl Sagan was born 72 years ago today. I like to think he’s still out there somewhere in his Spaceship of the Imagination. RIP, man. Retweeted by MadanRao

Jim Downie, Jane McKenzie: “It’s time to get social at work” (social media and #KM) http://tinyurl.com/bvldsxo

Gartner on social media and knowledge management #KM http://bit.ly/uqjHCL

Walmart to start innovation lab in India; likely to woo talent from Amazon, Google and Yahoo http://bit.ly/sTRG9m

Kartik Hosanagar, UPenn, on Internet startups in India http://bit.ly/sDA9iL

World Innovation Summit for Education (Qatar, Nov 1-3) http://wise-qatar.org

South Africa: Cell C and Google Launch Business Incubator http://allafrica.com

South Africa director wins digital innovation prize for mobile concept http://bit.ly/rQwlVl

INMA Conference, Bangalore, Nov 7-8: Innovation and growth in the news industry, challenges/opportunities for newspapers, digital strategy

Looking forward to my session at the INMA conference on social media & news! Bangalore, Nov 7 http://bit.ly/sptkl6  http://inma.org

Goa ThinkFest (@goathinkfest): Forum for cutting edge ideas from all over the world. November 4/5/6 in Goa http://goathinkfest.com

RT @isoc_bangalore: “Yahoo India R&D is very strategic to Yahoo globally” – come hear from Yahoo India at Bangalore INET conference Nov

@isoc_bangalore Economist magazine profile of India’s ecommerce leader Flipkart – come hear them at Bangalore INET conference, Nov 4! http://economist.com/node/21532445 Retweeted by MadanRao

Looking forward to my panel and social media workshop at Bangalore’s INET conference, Nov 4-6! http://inet.isocbangalore.org

My Bangalore K-Community blogpost: How to sustain Knowledge Management initiatives in the long term http://km.techsparks.com/?p=282 #KM

Knowledge management challenges: preliminary results from the Knowledge Management Observatory Global 2011 Survey http://bit.ly/txP2WF  #KM

@isoc_bangalore Snapdeal.com wins Red Herring Asia Awards 2011; come hear them speak at Bangalore INET conference Nov 4! http://inet.isocbangalore.org

Snapdeal.com wins Red Herring Asia Awards 2011 http://bit.ly/sl9lAd

Thai netizens get creative with flood survival techniques http://bit.ly/v49vPM

 

October 2011 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, crowdsourcing

by Madanmohan Rao
KM Consultant and Author http://bit.ly/TU12l
http://twitter.com/MadanRao

My Bangalore K-Community blogpost: Knowledge and #Innovation Management: Sustaining and Scaling Initiatives #KM http://km.techsparks.com/?p=282
Thanks tweeple for more terrific feedback; have updated my concept note: iBrew #Innovation Cafe Network! http://km.techsparks.com/?p=295
Finalists: 2011 Red Herring 100 Asia Award – Most Innovative Companies http://bit.ly/nggVix
Most can see other peoples faults. A few can see other peoples virtues. And two or three can even see their own shortcomings. – Sanskrit proverb
Hany Nada, Founding Partner, GGV Capital: “fans are more valuable than recorded music” http://tinyurl.com/3b9s327
Mike Elgan: Why Microsoft’s vision of the future will really happen http://bit.ly/rWT44g
Steven Levy on Facebook, Spotify and the Future of Music http://bit.ly/ssNHLR
Tweeting the Universe: Tiny Explanations of Very Big Ideas (Marcus Chown, Govert Schilling) http://bit.ly/sAAja3
Art Spiegelman On The Future of the Book http://bit.ly/uZ79Wu
Ken Wheaton and Art Murray – The continuing saga of the knowledge librarian http://bit.ly/vjxNPH
DHL Introduces Global Open #Innovation Competition on City Logistics http://bit.ly/mQmw7n
Speaker lineup for Green IT #Innovation Dinner Series, South Africa http://bit.ly/rdak7j
Shiv VIshwanathan on understanding #SteveJobs: http://bit.ly/qjuMky Eccentric v/s managerial aspects of creativity
Paddy Rao, Infosys: Don’t you want to know what you “know?” (#KM environment + tools) http://onforb.es/okrdl4
MAKE winner quotes: Infosys, Tata, Woods Bagot, ADB #KM http://bit.ly/qWrAVp http://bit.ly/pX4LZG http://bit.ly/r05Y1A http://bit.ly/nuduJC
Teleos Names Asia’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE Awards, Asia, 2011) #KM http://bit.ly/oUMFAj
Dubai conference: ‘Managing Knowledge and Innovation for Sustainable Development in the Arab World’ Oct 23 #KM http://bit.ly/n9lHWZ
Knowledge Communities: Sharepoint Strategies for Knowledge Management #KM http://bit.ly/mPPbx4
New words I learned today: sustainovation, eduneering, tryvertising!
Singapore Aims To Become Space Powerhouse; Attract Young Engineering Talent http://bit.ly/nBHZOW
Thanks to Pavan Soni for highlighting importance of #innovation in organisational knowledge initiatives! http://pavansoni.net
Thanks to guest panelist Jeff Stemke, ex-KM head, Chevron, for sharing their knowledge journey! #KM http://km.techsparks.com/?p=282
Thx to speakers from Wipro, Infosys, Thoughtworks, Mindtree for superb K-Community panel on sustaining knowledge/innovation management! #KM
Looking forward to chairing the Bangalore K-Community meetup today: Knowledge and Innovation Management #KM http://km.techsparks.com/?p=282
Bangalore K-Community meetup, Oct 19: Knowledge and Innovation Management: Sustaining and Scaling Initiatives #KM http://km.techsparks.com/?p=282
fn Frederick Noronha  by MadanRao
Old Konkani saying: When you stop changing, you stop growing. (Original from Domnic PF Fernandes’ Dispott’ttem Chintop, Daily Thoughts)
fn Frederick Noronha  by MadanRao
Old Konkani saying: He who doesn’t look ahead, stays behind. (Original from Domnic PF Fernandes’ Dispott’ttem Chintop, Daily Thoughts)
JulianoGimenez Juliano Gimenez  by MadanRao
RT @euopeninnovatio: Open Innovation, Closed Innovation and Related Terms http://bit.ly/nqAlO2 #innovation
Alok Das on open #innovation in the air force http://bit.ly/nFskUi
Economist Innovation Awards 2011 http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/innovation/home
Diabetics Look to #Crowdsourcing For Better Medication http://bit.ly/nLYow6
US White House to #Crowdsource Ideas For Improving Websites http://bit.ly/oMxeF2
Dun & Bradstreet on the Value of Researched vs. Crowdsourced Data http://rww.to/qCElec
SocialAttire.com to Use #Crowdsourcing to Help Fledgling Fashion Designers http://bit.ly/mZElLr
#Lego makes #crowdsourcing platform global http://bit.ly/o7ri7o
#Crowdsourcing: In search of beautiful minds http://thetim.es/pdVxau
PC Magazine: The Wisdom of #Crowdsourcing http://tinyurl.com/6lbxxwh
#Crowdsourcing science: how gamers are changing scientific discovery http://bit.ly/piyDiq
99designs: #Crowdsourcing Design Site Launches in Canada http://tinyurl.com/5snaxlx
Googles Dead Sea Scrolls is latest #crowdsourcing project http://tinyurl.com/3btbmfs
Hatforce: #Crowdsourcing Meets Vulnerability Testing http://tinyurl.com/3z4m4oc
#YouTube launches Space Lab, the latest in #crowdsourcing academia http://wapo.st/n77l3k
How film-makers use #crowdsourcing http://bit.ly/q1TmHm
“A leap in the dark”: Guardian newspaper goes into #crowdsourcing news policy http://bit.ly/n4gLUz http://bit.ly/necQ1N http://tinyurl.com/5vhstct
Near-Earth Asteroid Discovered via #Crowdsourcing http://bit.ly/oBSOE1
Dennis Ritchie: Remembering Another Computing Genius (Unix, C) http://bit.ly/qmeMrP http://bit.ly/pOLuhX
Information Week: 10 Smart Enterprise Uses For #Twitter http://bit.ly/oXiOfk
#Twitter used as a tool to map epidemics http://bit.ly/qppBGd
ParnaSarkar Parna Sarkar-Basu  by MadanRao
RT @CommunispaceCEO: The Rise of Customer-Driven #Innovation http://mashable.com/2011/10/13/crowdsource-consumers/
Manthan 2011 Awards for best e-Content in South Asia: http://manthanAward.org An honour to be on the jury again!
RT @KumarSinha 450+ valid Nominations, 20+ Jurors, deliberating over the next two days.This @ManthanAward 2011 Grand Jury is a special one!
India winners of MAKE Asia awards: Infosys, L&T Hydrocarbon, MindTree, Tata Chemicals, TCS, Wipro Technologies #KM
MindTree Wins Asian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award for Fourth Consecutive Year #KM http://bit.ly/qSGWkj
The World’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 Global MAKE Finalists #KM http://bit.ly/mOS5p5
North America’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 North America MAKE Finalists #KM http://bit.ly/p95K2i
Iran’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 Iran MAKE Finalists #KM http://bit.ly/rdPEUW
Europe’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 Europe MAKE Finalists #KM http://bit.ly/r6v8NF
Asia’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 Asia MAKE Finalists #KM http://bit.ly/pbkK3Q
Indonesia’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises: 2011 Indonesian MAKE Winners #KM http://bit.ly/nzsVA6
#BASF experience of #innovation and research in China http://on.wsj.com/pVcd8n
Russian #startups in Moscow’s Skolkovo IT Cluster http://buswk.co/pVNSb2
Malaysia Star: The father of Post-it Notes, Geoffrey C. Nicholson, shares the #3M philosophy of #innovation http://bit.ly/pw6cDF
Steve Denning: We are in the The Great Disruption + The Big Shift http://onforb.es/pm2eyT
Haydn Shaughnessy on #innovation in harder times and in emerging economies http://onforb.es/oMelyH
“No dearth of technopreneurs, but funds and IP ownership lacking in Singapore” http://bit.ly/pT004h
RT @IndianProverbs “Listen to popular opinion but follow your own mind.” – Marathi proverb
MarketWatch: Perhaps a revisionist view of #SteveJobs will focus more on his shortcomings http://tinyurl.com/3jq8glq
lorievela Lorie Vela   by MadanRao
The “Big Five” IT trends of the next half decade http://owl.li/6Lquf #social #mobile #data #km
Content management and #KM in the insurance sector (KM World magazine) http://bit.ly/rk0tgD
Steve Denning: Can Higher Education Be Fixed? The Innovative University http://onforb.es/pXmNPS
CSC Receives ‘Best-Practice Partner’ Award for Knowledge Management from APQC http://bit.ly/rtd9bO #KM
Knowledge management in Australia: Parsons Brinckerhoff Asia Pacific wins actKMs Gold Award http://bit.ly/pEEwpv #KM
What would #SteveJobs have said about knowledge management and #innovation management? Bangalore K-Community will discuss on Oct 19 eve! #KM
Finalists for India’s NASSCOM EMERGE 50 Awards for 2011: Growth, #Innovation, Startups http://bit.ly/nwCwtA
Young Turks cashing in on Internet boom in India http://bit.ly/ni8Sqk
Mobile #innovations: annual and weekly awards http://www.ideasproject.com
#SteveJobs: “wired to a uniquely California culture, prizing intuition, creativity, community and risk-taking” http://huff.to/oG2Qtg
V. Sumantran on #innovation at Ashok-Leyland http://bit.ly/rgABLN
Cross-border #innovation networks: India, Chile http://bit.ly/nTFVoh
In Flip-Flops and Jeans, He’s the Unconventional Venture Capitalist http://goo.gl/oTGnl #startup #entrepreneur
“In a post #SteveJobs world, there is no longer an excuse for large corporations to be less bold than start-ups” http://bit.ly/nL6vgC
grazianig Gianni Graziani  by MadanRao
@GuyKawasaki: Pixar gang bids farewell to Steve Jobs http://is.gd/MQBNq3 #rememberingstevejobs #Stevejobs
Deron Kershaw: How Apple turned the fountain of US youth into a fountain of cash http://bit.ly/n9jnNH
DigitalTrends: “Without #SteveJobs, Im convinced that the phone industry would still be a complete mess right now” http://bit.ly/nobGyJ
#SteveJobs: legacy “the poetic aspect of the entire enterprise,” beyond commodity http://nyti.ms/nxP7FE
Justin Fenner on #SteveJobs and his black turtlenecks! http://bit.ly/r47hHf http://bit.ly/pxcIGl
Adel Zakout: Top 10 Tech Company Office Spaces http://huff.to/nn6ebM
Slate: Did Dropping Acid Make #SteveJobs More Creative? http://slate.me/pYbbly
Buzz and celebrity music stars: impacts on Apple iPod brand http://bit.ly/r13Wu7 #SteveJobs
USA Today on what brand values Apple must continue to focus on http://usat.ly/n35Voc #SteveJobs
Anne McIlory: The minds of creative geniuses, like #SteveJobs, remain a scientific mystery http://bit.ly/otNVX4
Nathaniel Borenstein (creator of the MIME e-mail standard) on #SteveJobs http://bit.ly/qImgdJ
Guardian on technology and human emotion: Why do some people really hate Apple? http://bit.ly/nxT0bC #SteveJobs
ashrafamr Amr Ashraf  by MadanRao
Steve Jobs saved technology from itself – CNN.com http://bit.ly/nPGZfE #cnn #stevejobs #technology #apple #mac #internet #computers #rip
#SteveJobs Impact on Asia’s Technology Industry: contract manufacturing jobs, design http://on.wsj.com/mVgyxc
Brian Ardinger, Digital Screenmedia Association, on #SteveJobs http://bit.ly/mPnX37
Even geniuses arent perfect: Apple products created under the direction of #SteveJobs that flopped http://nyp.st/nDrChF
Stewart Brand, Founder, Whole Earth Catalog, on #SteveJobs http://bit.ly/n2MSYa
#SteveJobs: Ad/Filmmaking Industry Reflections http://bit.ly/q5Djv1 “The Apple Store is probably the best ad Apple has ever done”
Horace Dediu: #SteveJobs brought engineering processes to works of creativity and the creative process to engineering http://bit.ly/rtA10Y
Tributes to #SteveJobs – but also critiques of proprietary systems http://bit.ly/qmknAv
Christian Lindholm: The design genius of #SteveJobs http://bit.ly/orjlVF
Profile of Auguste Rodin: “perhaps the most sensual of all sculptors” http://bit.ly/qTw0hQ
#SteveJobs design legacy more than just than a pretty phone: architecture, fashion http://bit.ly/onS8Vm
Joan Muller: How #SteveJobs changed the automobile industry http://onforb.es/oLSMTw
#SteveJobs in 1997-2011: design talents, software prowess, Asian manufacturing http://buswk.co/qgNwaU (Business Week)
Blair Leven: #SteveJobs: The Black Swan CEO http://politi.co/qIAKzL
#SteveJobs: His 10 Best Quotes about art and creativity (WPost) http://wapo.st/rls0II
“The most beautiful, marvellous creation on earth is not the computer, but the person using it” (Guardian) http://bit.ly/oyJsin #SteveJobs
Regional #innovation: #SteveJobs Is Part Of One Big San Francisco Bay Area Family http://bit.ly/ncyKyR
Next: Will #Apple and other companies be able to transform television? http://bit.ly/rcbH96 #SteveJobs
Global entrepreneurship: Singapore as a Chinese/Western hub http://bit.ly/pv9oAY
#ThankYouSteve: Twitter outpouring for #SteveJobs http://lat.ms/ooBazB http://cnet.co/qaXAxw
#SteveJobs: Mainstream culture + counter-culture http://nyti.ms/nqP8RF
mikejulietbravo Mike Briercliffe  by MadanRao
Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT Computer in 1991 to create the first web browser and web server. #Stevejobs Source: Wikipedia
digimindci Digimind  by MadanRao
Fantastic re-working of the Apple logo by 19yr old in tribute to #stevejobs http://ow.ly/6P3jJ
dweinberger David Weinberger  by MadanRao
A no-BS, insightful, respectful obit by @dsearls of #stevejobs. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2011/10/05 .
ZimmerJohn John Zimmer  by MadanRao
RT @ThisIsSethsBlog Seth’s Blog: A eulogy of action http://bit.ly/rjCyRe #SteveJobs
Always a terrific motivational speech: #SteveJobs Stanford commencement speech 2005 http://bit.ly/nPlSqR (video) http://bit.ly/ranmsJ (text)
More #SteveJobs tributes and insights http://bit.ly/mQmQfS http://bloom.bg/pt8aDf
“For the people’s obituary of #SteveJobs, look on #Twitter.” http://yhoo.it/nKp0XQ
Yunus_Centre Muhammad Yunus  by MadanRao
RIP #SteveJobs . You will be remembered as one of the most creative geniuses the world has ever seen. http://goo.gl/2lDgZ
MafazAlSuwaidan Mafaz Al-Suwaidan  by MadanRao
I am saddened by the death of every creative soul that has contributed to the advancement of humanity.. #SteveJobs you will not be forgotten
TelegraphNews Daily Telegraph News  by MadanRao
#SteveJobs great quotes: “I wish Bill Gates well… I only wish that he had dropped acid at some time.” http://tgr.ph/vtD4zY
billhicks_movie Paul & Matt  by MadanRao
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. – Arthur Schopenhauer #BillHicks #SteveJobs
More Steve Jobs tributes, from #TIME magazine to #Twitter http://ti.me/pVeMxg http://bit.ly/qSNw1q
mashable Pete Cashmore  by MadanRao
“Steve Jobs was the greatest inventor since Thomas Edison. He put the world at our fingertips ~ Steven Spielberg – http://on.mash.to/oc9CJF
More Jobs insights http://bit.ly/nGOXaI wapo.st/p7XM8R http://bit.ly/ruMcQQ http://bit.ly/pRLtuQ
More Jobs tributes bbc.in/pEMsYj http://huff.to/mQ8j6B http://wapo.st/omlr5i http://tgr.ph/mPb7Z0 http://cnet.co/nq7KQ5
HuffingtonPost Huffington Post  by MadanRao
Steve Jobs remembered through incredible mosaics http://huff.to/qGUCTQ
MikeBloomberg Mike Bloomberg  by MadanRao
Steve Jobs saw the future and brought it to life long before most people could even see the horizon http://bit.ly/nxI3N4
RT @IndianProverbs “He who does not fall does not rise.” – Hindi proverb
Quotes from late Apple founder Steve Jobs http://bit.ly/n6VQAH
RIP Steve Jobs http://bit.ly/o715O6 http://nyti.ms/pLhwUu http://bit.ly/pvTUM6 http://on.wsj.com/rihD0t http://on.msnbc.com/nIiPC8
 

The iBrew Innovation Café Network: “We brew innovation”

by Madanmohan Rao

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Email: madan@techsparks .com
October 16, 2011

Given the rapid pace of innovation across socio-economic sectors and the global potential of emerging innovations, the time is ripe for a worldwide chain of iBrew Innovation Cafes (“iBrew” = innovation + coffee/beer!).

The Cafes will focus on commercial as well as developmental aspects of innovation. Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood have built on rock and Hollywood themes — the iBrew Innovation Cafes will use a similar model for the domain of local and global innovation. The iBrew Cafes will facilitate innovation within a range of sectors, promote inter-disciplinary innovation, and popularise the innovation message among mainstream audiences as well.

Each iBrew Innovation Café will be a café – think Starbucks or Hard Rock Café – but with important additions. Each iBrew Innovation Cafe will be a gathering spot for the local innovation ecosystem: startups, students, investors, policymakers, service providers, academics and civil society.

The Café will host networking and capacity-building events, display photos of innovators/innovations from around the world, highlight inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs, play videos of innovation, exhibit and sell books by innovation experts, promote local and international innovation conferences, provide directory services of local innovators/investors, and serve an international mix of food and beverages. Each iBrew Innovation Cafe will also have an online social media component and facilitate meetups, eg. between local innovators and visiting global investors.

Each Cafe will have separate meeting rooms for breakout sessions and private functions. In addition to informal gatherings, there will be formal events organised according to a specific programming calendar. Weekly themes will address innovation in different sectors (eg. Internet, energy) different phases of innovation (eg. starting up, prototyping, exit strategy), and the role of investors and government. Formats will range from panel discussions and brainstorming sessions to startup pitches and unconferences/barcamps. There will also be monthly and annual special events (eg. Annual Innovation Conference).

The retail Café chain in different cities will also be networked via social media, thus facilitating regional roadshows of investors and startups, sponsorship across countries, and a petri-dish for analysing innovation trends. The retail operation will be profitable as a café by itself; the innovation component will open up new revenue streams. This model will vary with maturity and diversity of innovation in different cities around the world. Each city will start off with only one iBrew Café, with more added depending on demand. The Cafes will perhaps be best suited for emerging economies, but eventually will have a place in all innovation hotspots.

Across the world, there is growing appetite for innovation, spurred by startups, investors, government incubators and universities. Globalisation is going hand in hand with local and cross-border innovation, thanks to migration, business travel, budget airlines, the Internet and book series such as the “Entrepreneur Guides” for specific countries. The iBrew Innovation Cafes will play an important cultural and business role in this new ecosystem of knowledge flows.

The Cafes will not only attract entrepreneurs but also reach out to mainstream society to spread the energy and message of innovation. Even people who do not think of themselves as innovators will leave the place feeling creative and inspired. Innovation communication and design thinking, after all, should target not just innovators but all of society.

The Cafes will therefore be located in ‘main street’ areas. (There will also be related iBrew Cafes set up within corporate and university/college campuses; other versions will be in schools, to bring the social energy of innovation right down to younger ages.)

Sample weekly programming calendar in each Cafe: Monday (mobile/Internet/ICTs), Tuesday (healthcare/agriculture), Wednesday (investors/VCs/incubators), Thursday (education/learning/HR), Friday (automotive/manufacturing), Saturday (media/entertainment/arts), Sunday (urban/rural, energy, governance).

Monthly features: Mobile Monday, Women Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneurship Panel, National Innovation Agenda Roundtable, Government Services Innovation, Public-Private-People Partnerships roundtable, Corporate Intrapreneurship, Country Spotlight (eg. focus on Singapore, Finland, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Australia, Brasil, South Africa, South Korea), book launch/signing.

Special Features (once a year): iBrew Innovation Festival (local), iBrew Innovation Awards (local + national).
Publications/Research: Annual iBrew Innovation Report; white papers released by consulting firms, VCs, government agencies, UN/World Bank.

Branding tagline: “iBrew Café: We brew innovation”

Everything about the Café experience will evoke the word ‘innovation.’ A strong innovative design ethic will be built into each and every element of the retail Cafes: beverages, furniture, cutlery, music, interiors, seating formats, activities, employee dress codes. This will also bring in the local creative community to showcase their designs, and be a possible source of sponsorships and awards (eg. Funky Furniture!).

Each Café will become a magnet for local design, media, tech and business students who will get a chance to showcase their work and ideas in the design of the Café (eg. posters on innovation advances in biology, checklists for organisational innovation teams, daily quiz competitions on innovation, interactive touchscreen exhibits). Parents will be attracted to the Cafés to learn about creative thinking techniques for children and teens; seniors will also be invited to share their interpretations of key innovations over their lifetimes.

Each city will highlight its local and international innovations in the local iBrew Cafe. This local angle will make the Café attractive to government agencies who want to promote local innovation achievements to a broader audience, attract foreign investors/entrepreneuers, and nurture local innovation talent.

Unlike other hubs which focus only on technology or social causes, the iBrew Cafes will span the whole spectrum of sectors and thus encourage inter-disciplinary innovation and cross-fertilisation of ideas. The Cafes will thus have a more informal air than incubators, and a more serious air than a normal café.

The Cafes will address not just technology innovation but also creative achievements in culture (eg. musical genres, creative movie directors), agriculture (eg. farming techniques), education (eg. teaching styles for children) and governance (eg. co-creation of energy grids).

Phase I may begin with iBrew Innovation Cafes in three cities in India: say Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Phase II will expand to five other cities (covering all five continents), and Phase III will cover 100 cities.

OK, maybe that is getting ahead of the story a little bit! But if you are interested as an investor, partner, advisor, manager, sponsor, event organiser, talent scout, government ministry, tech/business academic, or business journalist – drop me a line!

Status Update: October 21
(1) The domain name iBrewCafe.com and Twitter account @iBrewCafe have been registered.
(2) Expressions of interest in setting up iBrew Innovation Cafes have been received from Bangalore, Delhi, Dhaka, Bangkok, Singapore and Dublin; more to come!
(3) I have received 300+ emails over the two days since I sent out tweets/emails; thanks to all for the suggestions, keep them coming!

Knowledge and Innovation Management: Sustaining and Scaling Initiatives

by Madanmohan Rao
Editor, The KM Chronicles
http://twitter.com/MadanRao
Bangalore; October 19, 2011

The monthly meeting of the Bangalore K-Community (www.Kcommunity.org) focused on long-term KM initiatives. Many organisations have had KM and innovation initiatives for a decade or more. How do organisations sustain and scale up KM and innovation despite management change, increasing workload and changing directions/demographics? How are pain points addressed in terms of process, culture and knowledge champions? What renewed role do KM and innovation play in the 21st Century organisation? The panel ended with the provocative question “What would Steve Jobs have said about KM and innovation?”

Here are the Top Fifteen recommendations of the six panellists to sustaining KM success and innovation in the long term.

1. Connect KM to the business goals of the organisation

A key challenge for long-running KM initiatives is to show that they are relevant and essential to achieving the organisation’s business goals. Continuous business alignment is needed to show that KM worked not only in one phase of the organisation’s evolution but remains essential throughout business lifecycles. KM professionals should not get stuck in their jargon and metrics, but learn to talk the language of their business as well. KM leaders should be involved in co-creation of strategies with top business leaders.

2. Demonstrate that KM is essential for the growth of an organisation

Effective KM practices can help new recruits learn quickly and effectively, and hit the ground running. Good KM environments can help employees learn on the job and improve their productivity when faced with their next tasks. For instance, Infosys will soon be hiring 45,000 new employees; KM will help them prepare for customer-facing engagements such as consulting. Its KM portal experiences submissions of 60-100 documents a day and 5,000 downloads; there are over 50,000 knowledge artefacts which have been validated by experts.

3. Show that KM can stem knowledge loss

Particularly for organisations where a large proportion of the workforce is retiring in the next few years (eg. Indian public sector units), KM can help reduce knowledge attrition and thus KM initiatives need to be sustained and nurtured.

4. Create the right kinds of conversations

Make sure there is online and offline space for the rights kinds of conversations in the organisation, even if these may be of a critical or controversial nature. The challenge sometimes is in finding that the right kinds of conversations emerge in more unusual situations. Don’t just look at pumping employees with knowledge and measuring their output; look at the conversations they are involved in. “Enterprise Conversation Management” and “Enterprise Community Management” may be as important as “Enterprise Content Management!”

5. Align KM culture with the work expectations of multiple generations

For the first time in history, there are four generations of employees working in the same professional organisations. But each generation has different expectations when it comes to choice, rewards, achievements and work-life balance. KM cultures, practices, tools and incentives should be aligned for all generations.

6. Align organisational KM with individual personal aspirations

Participation and leadership in KM initiatives should ‘make sense for the resumes’ of employees and be aligned with their personal aspirations. A sense of pride should be inculcated in employees for their knowledge sharing behaviours.

7. Nurture the passion for knowledge sharing, it will solve everything else

Instead of worrying about tool/infrastructure details like whether email should be phased out and social media ushered in, just focus on creating and nurturing the appropriate knowledge culture of passion, sharing, curiosity and professionalism. It is important to keep this culture vibrant even as an organisation grows in scale, domains and geography. Once you have a solid culture, you can piggyback a range of KM tools and processes on it.

8. Balance 1: Universal and customised approaches

Some KM features (eg. portals, CoPs) seem to cut across all KM practices, but others may need to be tweaked or homegrown to meet local organisational needs. Some practices work well in the industrial/manufacturing sectors, others fare differently in services and government organisations.

9. Balance 2: Quantitative and Qualitative Metrics

It can help to use quantitative metrics, but don’t ignore qualitative statements which endorse the gut belief of top managers that KM works.

10. Not all KM practices can be rolled out via pilot projects

Some pilots for KM will just not work if their scale is too small; you can find some knowledge behaviours (eg. serendipitous discovery) only if the scale of the KM initiative is organisation-wide.

11. Find and nurture KM champions

KM champions help reinforce knowledge sharing cultures. Find champions and teams who ‘get’ the KM spirit and highlight their work practices and achievements. Peer-driven KM can work better than top-down KM.

12. Use a phase-wise approach to KM

Companies who have been in KM for 10+ years (eg. Chevron) evolved their KM strategy over phases: eg. best practices (KM 1.0), connecting people (KM 2.0), knowledge transitioning to a new generation (KM 3.0).

13. Connect KM to Innovation

While a lot of KM focuses on ‘old’ knowledge (lessons learnt, experiential knowledge, organisational history), there are some overlaps and enablers for ‘new’ knowledge or innovation strategies. Innovation approaches like networking, experimenting and observation apply to KM as well; KM should effectively leverage idea management practices too. While a lot of KM focuses on ‘internal’ knowledge, efforts should be made to bring in ‘external’ knowledge and ideas as well. Good companies to learn from are Amazon, IDEO and Apple. KM may help incremental innovation, but extra effort will be needed to create disruptive innovations.

14. The number of patents as knowledge assets is not always a guarantor of business success

Don’t obsess with filing for large numbers of patents when you connect KM with intellectual capital. An estimated 99.8% of awarded patents are never used. And the company with the largest number of patents in the world, GM, went bankrupt last year!

15. Learn from Steve Jobs!

Even for those who are not users of iPods and iPads, Steve Jobs and Apple offer useful lessons for KM and innovation management, according to the panellists.  Bridge knowledge between different domains. Don’t just ask what customers want today. Go with your gut feelings and develop a good sense of intuition in addition to knowledge and logic. Hire creative and imaginative people. Be with the best. Learn from innovations of other organisations. Go visit other organisations. Pursue what is mysterious. Encourage eccentricity.

———————————————————————————————————-

Distinguished guest panelist:

Jeff Stemke is a knowledge strategist and is the primary architect of Chevron’s global KM environment. He has worked with many groups to design, launch and sustain global communities of practice. Over the last few years, the boomer “Big Crew Change” was a top priority. He summarised his approach in a case study in “Knowledge Retention: Strategies and Solutions” by Jay Liebowitz. Jeff will join us via videoconference during his India visit in October.

Panelists:

Rajendhiran N. is KM Group Head at Wipro, leading KM initiatives in several verticals, service lines and functions.  He is one of the pioneers in the company’s KM initiative over the last ten years. He is a hands-on KM practitioner supporting a base of 60,000 employees. Prior to the KM position he worked for technical support, customer service, quality and training for 18 years.

Dinesh Tantri is Global Head-Knowledge Strategy in ThoughtWorks. He has about ten years of overall experience in knowledge management, consulting, application development, teaching and evangelism. His current challenge at work is bridging customer and employee communities and getting the B2B social strategy right. He is also intensely passionate about alternative education models and education technology.

Pavan Soni (http://www.pavansoni.net) is an innovation evangelist by profession and a teacher by passion. He has consulted on innovation and creativity for Dell, Ericsson, GlaxoSmithKline, Infosys, Mahindra, Marico, Tanishq, Tata Steel, Thermax, Titan, and Wipro. He graduated from JNVU Jodhpur and NITIE Mumbai. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies from IIM Bangalore with a focus on innovation management.

Vikram B. is a principal architect associated with the KM group at Infosys Limited for over ten years. He has architected, program managed and deployed several KM solutions at Infosys. He has also contributed to Infosys KM processes, strategy, promotion, and measurement of KM metrics. He has consulted on KM solution engagements with Infosys customers and has helped in their KM strategy, roadmap and implementation.

Sagar Paul heads Knowledge Management at MindTree. His areas of focus are generating new product or process ideas, reducing cycle times, reducing costs and improving customer experience. Sagar has a work experience of nineteen years and worked with PwC and with the Tatas. He travelled extensively in the US and Singapore prior to taking up leadership of Knowledge Management. He is an MBA from XLRI and BE in Computer Sciences from the Birla Institute.

Moderator: Dr. Madanmohan Rao, Editor, The KM Chronicles (http://twitter.com/MadanRao)

Venue: Microsoft India office
————————————————————————————————————–

See previous K-Community blogposts at:

KM and Innovation: Converging or Complementary Practices?
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=237
KM and HR: Mutual Synergies
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=248
“Case Study: Knowledge Management at Titan Industries”http://km.techsparks.com/?p=223
“Knowledge Management Strategies: Formulation and Evolution”
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=131
“Embedding KM in Organisational Workflow and Culture”
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=119
“Conversational Flows for Knowledge Sharing”
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=108
“Open Content and Access in the Knowledge Society”
http://km.techsparks.com/?p=91

KM Singapore 2011: Riding the Wave of Experience

by Madanmohan Rao

Editor, The KM Chronicles http://bit.ly/TU12l

Singapore; September 1-2, 2011

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

The eighth KM Singapore conference, one of my favourite annual KM events, kicked off this September with the theme “Riding the Wave of Experience” (www.KMsingapore.com). (See my earlier articles from KM Singapore 2010 and 2009: http://km.techsparks.com/?p=160 http://km.techsparks.com/?p=15). 

Organised by the Information & Knowledge Management Society (http://www.ikms.org), the conference this year extended to two days (with a pre-conference masterclass as well). In addition to the morning keynote sessions, there were very useful parallel sessions in the afternoon on case clinics (eg. change management, conversations, cloud computing, records management, Intranet design, social media), case studies (eg. public sector CoPs, British Council, HK Polytechnic, IPOS, MoM, Temasek Polytechnic) and peer assists (eg. discovery in a complex information environment).

An interesting format at the conference was a pause after each keynote to let delegates discuss the issues at each of their tables. A useful suggestion would be to get each table to then present three problems/counterpoints with the speaker’s presentation! But that is getting ahead of the story a little bit.

Here are my Top Twelve Takeaways from the KM Singapore 2011 conference; am sure  there are more than a dozen other highlights from the various blogposts and videos (see more links from the conference Web site)!

KM as a field is still evolving

Due to its diverse inter-disciplinary nature, KM as a field continues to evolve in different directions. “KM is still an ‘immature’ profession, we are from different fields,” explained Patrick Lambe, founder of Straits Consulting. Sometimes people feel pulled in different directions and can even burn out after a few years. “A round of applause for all those who have been in KM for more than two years,” Lambe joked!

Perspectives at KM Singapore 2011 came from a wide range of disciplines and organisational functions, clearly evident from this stack of business cards in front of me: organisational development, educational technology, leadership development, information policy, competency development, information design, strategic planning, systems integration, knowledge resources, cognitive studies, operational planning, organisational excellence!

KM skills needed today in the industry include information searching, socialising (dialogue, interviews), and cognitive abilities (reflective, learning), according to R. Gopinathan (“Gopi”) from Civil Services College. Of these, socialising skills are hard to build via training, since they draw on in-built personality traits, said Gopi. KM practitioners should develop networking and trust skills; they should cultivate a curiousity about other people’s problems, and share their answers, advised Lambe.

Asia as a Knowledge Hub

A number of global organisations have chosen Asia as a hub for their information and knowledge activities. This ranges from back-end KM content support to full-fledged R&D labs. For instance, the British Council in Asia has 12 regional knowledge champions, and Delhi/Noida is a major hub of their activities.

Effective KM at a global level calls for good technology, knowledge sharing culture, and stories to capture insights, according to Shanti Chandrasekar, Information & Resources Manager, Knowledge Champion, British Council Singapore. “Our global hub for financial and IT activities is in India,” said Pauline Chuah, Regional Information Policy Advisor, British Council. “We operate in multiple regulatory environments and need compliance in data sharing. We are sharing knowledge between South and Southeast Asia,” she said.

Metaphors for Knowledge and KM

As usual, a range of metaphors was used to characterise knowledge and KM, in addition to the usual ‘stocks and flows’ descriptions. Earlier metaphors I’ve come across compare knowledge to gold (“mining”), water (“wells” and “taps”) and even milk (“finite shelf life!”). “Not all knowledge is equally valuable; some knowledge withers and dies like flowers,” said Bill Proudfit from Hong Kong.

KM and the Pace of Change

The rapid pace of globalisation and political/economic swings means that a key objective of KM has become sense-making: how to gather comprehensive intelligence and actionable insights about the outside world, share internal innovations with outside stakeholders, and shape dialogues about organisational strategies. If an organisation’s learning rate and response cycle cannot help it keep up with the rate of external change, then the organisation will eventually run into trouble. Only 30% of organisations succeed in change initiatives, according to Michelle Lambert, Facilitator, KM Roundtable, Australia.

Storytelling Frameworks

A number of frameworks for knowledge sharing via effective organisational storytelling are emerging. The key to get people to talk meaningfully is content, collaboration and verbalisation, according to Karuna Ramanathan, deputy head of leadership development at Singapore Armed Forces. He offered a range of useful frameworks in this regard: POST (point, opinion, see, think) and STOP (see, think, opinion, point) as mental models for questioning assumptions.

“Creating of knowledge is driven by our vision of ourselves, and our relation to the organisation,” he said. True learning comes from being emotively engaged, especially through experiences and anecdotes (“episodic memory”). A useful tip for creating conversation is to show a provocative video, then start diving down to the heart of the subject.

Social Media Enriches and Extends Conversations

Social media are a terrific platform for sharing knowledge during events; see my earlier checklist on ‘Knowledge Sharing at Events: Top Fifteen Twitter Tips” http://km.techsparks.com/?p=42 

Free social media tools readily downloadable from the Web have made it amazingly easy to do realtime and global knowledge sharing from events, according to Pier Andrea Pirani, co-director at Euforic Services. Event organisers should rope in volunteers (eg interns) to do live blogging, tweeting, video interviews and editing.

Video interviews of varying lengths with speakers and delegates can be posted on the conference site and cross-linked to other content, thus opening up multiple channels of extended knowledge. Tools such as YouTube, SlideShare, BlipTV, Flickr and Picasa are useful in this regard.

A range of interesting formats/designs is emerging for Twitterwalls during conferences.

“I use Blips (90-second recordings) rather than interviews for quick video updates/briefs during conferences. Different social media tools are suited for different personalities; I am more of a Wiki guy than a Twitter guy,” Pier joked.

It is important to do social reporting planning, involving resources at the event as well as subject experts to proof-read and validate blogs. It is important also to create independent archives of the material since sites like Twitter do not archive hashtag tweets for long.

Interesting social reporting trends are the rise of livecasting, more embedding of social media tools in workflow, and greater use of social media by development agencies. UK’s Overseas Development Institute (http://www.odi.org.uk/) uses live streaming and has its own Twitter channel.

For internal activities, reporting via social media produces an instant set of meeting minutes blended with individual perspectives.

KM Foundations: Communities of Practice

Classic KM approaches such as communities of practice have reached the next level thanks to new interaction methods, social media and inter-organisational initiatives. These KM sharing techniques include world café and fishbowl (experts in inner circle, observers in outer circle, novices in between). The Method Cards approach can also be used in a range of KM activities right from the knowledge audit stage; they help focus on the criticality and uniqueness of organisational knowledge and culture, using fun/pictorial cards.

“CoPs are more art than science. Don’t treat them just as a task force,” advised R. Gopinathan (“Gopi”) from Civil Services College. Sponsorship and support are important, especially for cross-organisational CoPs.

“Always keep time for reflection, think beyond execution. Don’t measure too often but set up a rhythm for the CoPs. Use quantitative and qualitative indicators,” advised Gopi. CoPs need to balance online and offline interactions; face-to-face connections help build trust, respect and comfort, and online interactions leave a useful knowledge trail. CoPs should be embedded with core work where possible. “Do not institutionalise a CoP but institutionalise its existence. Do not put hard KPIs and timelines,” advised Gopi. Well-run CoPs bring strategic capability to an organisation.

A number of Singapore government agencies and public sector organisations have successful CoPs (eg. MINDEF, MOE, AVA, MAS, MOM, SubCourt, National Parks, SG Poly, HPB). Some inter-organisational CoPs have also been launched (eg. OD, smart regulation, learning design, international relations, HR, IP) and others are in initial stages of design (eg. e-government, best sourcing, grant management, economic regulation).

KM and Knowledge Retention

Stemming attrition risks, knowledge retention, and succession planning are useful impact areas for KM practices. Aw Siew Hoong (“Ash”), Knowledge Advisor, Shell Global Solutions, presented an update of their approach to knowledge retention. The Society of Petroleum Engineers published an article in 2004 called “Big Crew Change” about the knowledge retention challenge due to a retirement wave. Shell came up with a Retiree Network, established the “Chief Scientist” position, and increased job tenures for knowledge retention. Shell also developed a well-branded programme called Retention of Critical Knowledge (ROCK), with interesting variants: ROCK Classic (started in 2005, for retirees), ROCK Lite (launched in 2006, for transferred staff), ROCK X (started in 2007, for newly hired experienced staff), and ROCK Live (for high profile employees).

First, assess the longevity of knowledge, criticality, exposure in the organisation, and participation of successors. In scoping interviews, do not go into details, leave that for the in-depth interview. For an in-depth interview, you should show the expert what you are capturing and ask for confirmation; support this with mindmapping tools. ROCK works better if the successor is already identified, advised Ash. 

“Recording of the expert interview is not a court transcript, and the interview is more of a peer conversation, not an interrogation,” Ash explained. “ROCK is not about sucking out all the expert’s knowledge, but only what is needed for specific tasks and organisational mission,” Ash cautioned.

ROCK facilitators should learn better techniques for dialogue and knowledge elicitation, Ash advised. ROCK should be part of the off-boarding process (run by HR) and should be used in the Lessons Learned database. New techniques such as Causal Learning interview should be tried. ROCK should be part of a larger programme, and not stand-alone (a 10 hour interview is not enough to capture useful learnings from a 30-year career).

It is important not to just ‘dump’ the interview archives on the Intranet, but condense it into modules of different granularity, index the script, and tag the content. These assets should then be marketed effectively in the organisation, otherwise they will not be re-used.

Shell also has its own internal video channel called ShellTube. There is already anecdotal evidence that the ROCK initiative is having a good impact; an expert shared one of his formulas in a ROCK conference and people liked it so much that they said it should become standard operating procedure.

One of the success factors for Shell’s ROCK strategy is that being asked for an interview is seen as a badge of honour, a symbol of prestige. Doing exit interviews has to be driven by business case and the company’s culture must value such knowledge.

(Paolina Martin of Singapore Management University threw in an interesting question here: How do we distinguish expert knowledge from long-held assumptions that may no longer hold true?)

Organisational Knowledge Tyrannies

People are smart and they can scale up their knowledge and skills by forming organisations – yet, many organisations tend to become ‘stupid’ or develop fatal organisational blindspots and exhibit dysfunctional behaviours (eg. IBM and HP at various points in their histories). Collective knowledge does not always seem to work, and KM professionals are well advised to be aware of typical knowledge ‘tyrannies.’

These were well presented by Patrick Lambe, Founding Partner, Straits Knowledge, in a provocative presentation titled “Smart People, Stupid Organisations.” Individual ignorance can be due to denial, inexperience, uncertainty or deception – whereas socially produced ignorance is caused by structural secrecy, structural forgetfulness, and structural inattention. These are well illustrated by NASA’s behaviours leading to the shuttle disasters.

Lambe presented five “Tyrannies of Collectives” – tyrannies of Role (inability to think of new product roles and price points, eg. print Encyclopedia Britannica), Plan (over-commitment to earlier expensive plans), Infrastructure (industry inertia in earlier infrastructure, eg. US tyre manufacturers in pre-radial tyre era), Culture (looking inwards and not outwards, eg. IBM in the mainframe era), and Feast (eg. stock market crashes: inability to break the bubble).

Cultures grow unconsciously, and build thinking patterns for us. Culture gives us tools, values, and mental models. These affect organisations and societies; for example, it has become hard for New York Jews to criticise Israel, according to Lambe. The current Singapore government has problems because it is communicating only rationally, and not at the level of people’s emotions. 

The mob or feast mentality, along with fear of dissent and its consequences, prevents individuals from showing any signs of disapproval. “But we become more intolerant of problems beyond certain predictable thresholds,” said Lambe, showing a graph of outbreaks of anti-government violence mapped with rising food price index in some Middle East and African countries.

KM fails if the infrastructure does enable people to think or work on auto-pilot. Lamble cited Alfred Whitehead (1911) who said civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them.

It is therefore important for KM professionals and organisational experts to learn the grammars of collective behaviour, advised Lambe. Assumptions about collectives may not always hold true individually. He cited the Abilene Paradox, where mutual ignorance leads people to do things collectively which they did not want to do individually.

This session raised a number of provocative questions. Innovations happen faster when big organisations die. Can big organisations become more innovative via open networks, or are there limits to changing momentum and attitudes? Individuals should make friends inside and outside of the organisation to respond better to the tyrannies in organisations, Lambe advised.

Organisational Knowledge Traps

Gary Klein, author of Sources of Power and Intuition at Work, presented seven cognitive traps in KM practices: feeding frenzy, inappropriate metaphors, dance of details, mining, reliance on words, thrill of hunt, and myth of control. 

He offered the following principles for positive KM design: help users achieve higher skill levels, make the system more enjoyable, and make users more effective.

“Use action learning as a complement to formal training. This helps in becoming a reflective practitioner,” advised Klein. He cited seven ways of improving “action learning” activities: estimating, experimenting, extrapolating, explaining, examining, exchanging, and expert coaching. Extrapolating is about envisioning surprises and failures, which lead to reflection and richer mental models. Experimenting involves trying out new ways, trial and error, piloting, testing hypotheses, and attaining a stretch goal.

The Myth of Control assumes that plans/structures will operate as designed; but this works only in well-ordered situations. In The Thrill of the Hunt, all energy goes into gathering knowledge, not packaging it.  KM practitioners should focus not just on creating knowledge assets but marketing them and training people how to re-design their work around these assets.

Stories, pictures and animations can be used to elicit mental models in addition to straightforward inquiry; these are all ways of anchoring meanings. “Using only words to do KM can lead to common ground breakdowns. Words can be slippery; people end up talking about different things yet believing they are talking about the same thing,” cautioned Klein. Cognitive Task Analysis involves knowledge elicitation (via interviews/observations) for concept maps and critical decision methods.

In the Strip-Mining trap, the focus is on explicit rather than implicit knowledge. In the Details trap, there is lack of balance between coarseness and precision. Knowledge is dynamic, it has context, and cannot be reduced to ‘lumps.’ Categories of knowledge also change over time.

“People take 10,000 hours to become an expert. We don’t have that amount of time in this day and age. Organisations need to move people quickly up the skill curve,” said Klein. But the Feeding Frenzy trap occurs when experts leave, and there is a rush to capture all their knowledge rather than focusing on what is really needed for the organisation.

It is important to interview experts in a manner that encourages them to explore their own thinking. Klein narrated an incident of an expert being interviewed and then commenting that “he heard himself explaining things that he never did before.” A good interview is good not just for organisational employees but also good for experts themselves.

There are challenges, however, in storytelling. “It is hard to tell a story. Sometimes it becomes a chronology, or does not lead to an insight,” said Klein. Some people do not speak freely if they see voice/video recorders. It is time consuming for editors also, and many tapes never get seen again.

In groupthink, people may have differing opinions but do not voice them, they stick to the consensus. Technology may be a way around some of these groupthink problems, eg. Twitterwall – where people in the room and around the world articulate their differences over the conversational topic.

Human Development: Knowledge Sharing for Global Stakeholders

Roxanna Samii from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) took the discussion to a global level with her wide-ranging presentation on “Social Media: Development Workers’ Best Ally.”

“As an Iranian, I feel the excitement of Asia,” she began. She appreciated the Twitterwall at the KM Singapore as way of sharing conference insights with a global audience and stimulating conversations. (Interestingly, my friend Colin Miles was also sharing some of these conference tweets with another parallel conference in Singapore: Social Media Forum Asia!)

IFAD is using social media to raise awareness about agriculture and the role of smallholder producers in feeding future generations. A new expert world is available thanks to Twitter. ”The UN system is finding it hard to raise funds. We use social media to raise awareness, amplify our messages, and come out of silos. The pillars of social media — community, collaboration, contribution – contribute to an Open Social Network for knowledge sharing,” she said.

There are wider impacts also of social media. “Look at how social media has facilitated the Arab Spring, and its effect on my country Iran,” said Samii. Twitter was abuzz with news about the famine in the Horn of Africa even before the UN and CNN covered it. The head of IFAD, a Nigerian, also tweeted that African governments had to get their act together to prevent famine.

“Social media have consistently covered development issues and raised awareness. It helps IFAD listen to donors and recipients,” said Samii. However, organisations should have an open culture to let employees tweet. “That is why trust is so important in social media. Organisations need to come up with guidelines for appropriate social media usage,” Samii advised.

“Reciprocity is key for social media success. It also creates a sense of excitement in how new media can help humanitarian causes. More precisely, Web analytics show where followers are coming from, and which of our links are interesting,” Samii explained. Rather than ‘store and forget’ as in some existing enterprise portals, social media narratives help engage participants, develop empathy, share and correct facts, and build a vibrant community.

“Social empathy is important, not propaganda. We use Facebook as a channel to reach younger generations and answer all questions we get. Younger generations are future policymakers, we need to engage them with positive messages and attitudes right now via social media,” urged Samii.

“We have a social reporting blog, and listen to social media chatter. Our blogs are written from the heart,” she said. IFAD posts project documentaries and public service announcements on YouTube and tweets the links.

“Social reporting is a mix of journalism, facilitation and social media. Internally, we noticed that Yammer opens up dialogue between some people who would normally not talk to each other,” said Samii. IFAD used social media during the launch of its Rural Poverty Report. “We reached half a million people – this was unprecedented for any of our reports. Social media led to surge in requests for the Report, more than from the Web site. We also hosted a Web chat with the author,” she added. IFAD also used social media to build up the launch of its Environment and Natural Resource Management report.

Social media opportunities lie in crowdsourcing, reaching out to future policymakers, and forging new partnerships. Challenges in social media reporting include resources, systematic monitoring, and multilingualism, said Samii. “Seeing is believing; you need to set up situations where your management leaders see and taste the benefits of social media and train them to use it themselves,” she advised.

“We are funded by taxpayer money. Social media helps transparency and openness,” she added. She also shared her 10 commandments of social media: Get connected with everyone. Be creative. Explore social media. Set Alerts. Upload. Create profiles. Blog. Podcast. Comment.

“Social media are a new philosophy, a whole new way of living. Embrace it!” Samii concluded.

Intranets and Beyond: IT Tools for KM

Two presentations brought the discussion back to the core IT platforms for KM: Intranets. Winner attributes of Intranet design for Explicit Knowledge include great usability and making content social. Winner attributes of Intranet design for Implicit Knowledge are: connecting people, making the frontline work, and creating social organisations.

There are three life stages for Intranets: ad hoc (organic), useful (taken for granted), and essential (support core business), according to James Robertson, Managing Director, Step Two Designs, Australia. Success measures differ by stage of evolution of the Intranet: ad hoc (adoption), useful (usage), essential (impacts, metrics).

KM should draw on disciplines like usability, eg. tree testing. Some KM projects have a history of producing white elephants; technology has not always worked well, said Robertson. A Social Intranet is deigned and works “with you” not just “for you,” he advised.

A prerequisite of knowledge sharing is awareness about who may know what. Tools should help you visualise activity streams and tap the stocks and flows of knowledge. “The small things are the successful things on Intranets, not the big fancy tech stuff. Look at the small opportunities,” he advised.

Robertson drew heavily on examples from the 2010 Intranet award winners: British American Tobacco, Bennet Jones, UK Parliament, CRS Australia, AMP, and Oxfam America (“social Intranet”).

Ace design firm IDEO’s Intranet has people at the centre, not content. Lundbeck connects its staff directory to LinkedIn and builds expertise profiles internally and externally. ScotTrade uses a MediaWiki.

American Power saved $8 million a month through innovations on its Intranet. Sabre Holdings reported that 60% of its posted queries were answered within one hour, with 8 answers per question. British Airways used YouTube to solve frontline problems (eg. sticky icecubes).

Maish Nichani, Founding Partner, PebbleRoad, presented key problems with “Iceberg Intranet Projects,” i.e. many Intranet projects overlook key factors such as mindset, leadership, governance, adoption. There is no real ‘end’ to an Intranet project but a continual loops of improvements.

Change in culture and tool usage is hard since people are creatures of habit. Without empathy and knowledge about one’s colleagues it is hard to fuel knowledge sharing. He used interesting descriptions of KM professionals, activities and places, eg. Men in Black, Genuis Bar, Demo Pit! As a tool, GoogleWave was fascinating from a technology point of view but it was hard to figure out the personal and business use of it. 

Over and above the Intranet, knowledge workers need personalised learning environments, according to professor Eric Tsui from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who presented examples from courses at his institution.

 

The New Edge In Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing The Way We Do Business

 

by Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert, APQC (www.apqc.org)

2011 John Wiley & Sons, USA

236 pages; 11 chapters, 4 case studies

 

28 April, 2011: Review by Madanmohan Rao http://twitter.com/MadanRao

(see my other book reviews at http://amzn.to/lkzCWl http://www.techsparks.com/KM_BookReviews.html)

 

 

 

The American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) has been benchmarking knowledge management (KM) initiatives for almost 20 years and will be holding its 16th annual Knowledge Management Conference next month. This book’s co-authors Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert are prolific writers and speakers (eg. see my review of “The Executive Role in Knowledge Management” (http://www.techsparks.com/The-executive-role-in-knowledge-management.html).

 

I attended the eighth annual KM conference of APQC in 2003 (http://www.techsparks.com/A-Decade-of-KM.html), and my 2004 book “KM Tools and Techniques” includes a chapter by APQC: “Building a Knowledge-sharing Network: Plan, Design, Execute… Reap?” (http://bit.ly/TU12l).

 

The co-authors do a good job of culling key learnings in KM over the past two decades, while also identifying emerging challenges and opportunities. The book begins by addressing KM’s “new playing field” – Enterprise 2.0 tools, ubiquitous mobile devices, retiring baby-boomers, and incoming digital natives.

 

The book draws on in-depth case studies of KM in ConocoPhillips, Fluor, IBM and MITRE (all headquartered in the US), and also has inputs from organisations outside the US such as SAP, Research in Motion, Petrobras and Singapore Armed Forces. (My next book on KM in the public sector and government includes a case study of Singapore Armed Forces.)

 

The material is solidly focused on making a business case for KM, ranging from strategy and governance to tools and metrics. “KM was born to address the teachable moment,” the co-authors begin. Practitioners and business leaders should begin (or re-assess) their KM journey by identifying the competitive value of their knowledge, its innovative and customer contributions, and how it will ensure business success. This will involve three kinds of knowledge maps: enterprise, cross-functional and process-explicit.

 

APQC’s five Levels of KM Maturity are as follows: Initiate (awareness), Develop (involvement), Standardise (alignment), Optimise (outcomes) and Innovate (improvement). These should be applied not just to IT and content management but culture and communication as well. Each level in turn has different outcome measures: activity, process efficiency and business performance.

 

Depending on level of human interaction and tacit nature of knowledge, the co-authors classify KM approaches into four categories: self-service, lessons learned, communities, and best-practice transfer. In addition to proven KM approaches such as CoPs and best practices, emerging approaches such as social computing promise to democratise relationships and content.

 

Social computing decreases content publishing time, increases the number of publishers and consumers, improves ability to ‘chunk’ content, gives employees more control, and adds an element of fun. Cited examples include wikis in Siemens and Rockwell Collins, RSS alerts in Accenture, internal mashups in HP, blogs at Royal Dutch/Shell, social tagging in IBM, and micro-blogging at MITRE (via its own tool TWITRE).

 

The spread of mobile devices requires us to make sure that enterprise knowledge can be brief, be there and be quick. “Being there at the teachable moment and speed of response is a direct predictor of satisfaction and participation in KM approaches,” the co-authors advise.

 

Knowledge managers should try to imitate what works in consumer social media, but also observe what really happens in the enterprise. The key is to mix communication and education without sidetracking into frivolity, and find a balance between security and flexibility.

 

The majority of global MNCs initially spent well over US$1 million to implement their first KM program. Majority costs are for people, followed by technology. Examples are provided of funding and sponsorship models for KM in Shell, Schlumberger and Fluor.

 

The chapter on knowledge leadership is superb, and identifies 10 categories of knowledge champions: progressive, investigative, all-for-one, trusted, methodical, visionary, implementation, observant, innovative and follower-centric. The treatment of the importance of fun in knowledge work is most welcome and refreshing.

 

“KM is not static. What keeps it exciting and fresh are the way KM professionals respond to the cultural forces swirling around us,” according to the co-authors.

 

“Your KM program will demand a lot. You will need stamina and persistence, steadfast conviction of your beliefs on what will work and the courage to say so, and change management and communication skills so employees will listen,” the co-authors conclude.

 

In sum, this book is a terrific resource for organisations launching their KM initiatives — as well as for those in intermediate stages to re-calibrate their approaches, and those in advanced stages to reach for industry leadership. Also check out the book’s Web site for a wealth of resources: www.newedgeinknowledge.com

 

>>>>>

 

Madanmohan Rao is editor of five book series including “The KM Chronicles” http://bit.ly/TU12l

 

KM and HR: Mutual Synergies?

 

 

by Madanmohan Rao

Editor, The KM Chronicles

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Bangalore; May 18, 2011

 

 

The monthly meeting of the Bangalore K-Community focused on the synergies between knowledge management and human resources (sign up for updates at www.Kcommunity.org). HR professionals in Indian organisations are facing serious challenges of scale, growth, cost-pressures, competition and diversity. Knowledge retention is a key challenge due to high churn, and competitive pressures mean new employees have to be brought up to speed extra fast.

 

How can KM help HR? And how can corporate HR improve knowledge capacity in an organisation — via KM workshops/awards and formal KRAs for knowledge work, for instance? How can HR and KM metrics be aligned? Externally, how are Indian colleges and universities responding to the KM and innovation needs of Indian companies, and how can enterprise HR and KM partner with them in this regard?

 

Panelists from Nokia, Oracle, Unisys and Wipro addressed a number of interesting issues on these lines. I had a good time as usual chairing the session, hosted by Unisys; here are some of my observations and takeaways. See also the excellent blogpost by panellist Pavan Soni on the K-Community discussion:  http://www.pavansoni.net/2011/05/role-of-hr-in-knowledge-management.html

 

1. Knowledge sharing comes naturally to digital natives

 

Students by nature tend to share their work and discuss it with their peers; when they join the workforce this sharing nature is amplified by social media. However, many of their innovative behaviours and risk-taking attitudes tend to get stamped out by the uniformity of corporate life. Hence knowledge managers should pay special attention to tapping the sincerity and curiosity of digital natives.

 

2. A key balance is between collective and individual innovative behaviours

 

Some non-conformist behaviours in innovative thinkers don’t gel well with collective activities and collaboration. Collaborative thinking, knowledge sharing and brainstorming should be nurtured in organisations but without stamping out the sometimes radical creative sparks in employees.

 

3. The ‘knowledge quotient’ of employees should be nurtured and promoted

 

It is important to hire people who have sufficient ‘knowledge quotient,’ or inculcate it among them, i.e. a respect for knowledge, an understanding of knowledge dynamics in an organisation, learning on job, mentoring and peer activities.

 

4. Knowledge cultures should be embedded in organisational ecosystems

 

Expectations of knowledge sharing and advancement should be encouraged in organisations at all stages: knowledge champions and knowledge leaders, at the level of projects, products, processes and policies.

 

5. Succession planning and knowledge retention should go hand in hand

 

Knowledge mapping plays an important role in understanding organisational, industry and competitor knowledge advantages and gaps. Succession planning and stemming knowledge attrition can gain from a combination of these mapping techniques as well as tools for knowledge pattern detection at the individual, project and organisational levels. The “science and art” of exit interviews calls for much sharpening of skills and scenarios.

 

6. KM and strategy should go hand in hand

 

Smart CKOs should be right at the head table with the CEO, aligning KM activities with organisational strategy. Knowledge behaviours should be exhibited in an exemplary manner right at the drawing board stages of organisational evolution. Ideas for pursuing strategies should be managed in a transparent and accountable manner.

 

7. Training&development and KM should be opposite sides of the same coin

 

Knowledge roles like knowledge champions are a crucial overlay on other roles such as project managers. But to be successful curators and custodians of knowledge, knowledge champions will require additional capacity building in soft skills such as mediation, handling delicate powerplays, and becoming brokers between multiple parties. HR should devise appropriate reward and recognition schemes to promote knowledge sharing – but should also know when to phase out such incentives and make knowledge sharing the expected norm in the organisation.

 

8. Knowledge deficits and liabilities should be actively addressed by HR

 

In addition to building knowledge champions, it is important to address factors which inhibit knowledge sharing, such as lack of diversity in the employee pool, differing vision, and inadequate training in knowledge activities.

 

9. Management ‘disconnect’ should be minimised

 

Many organisations suffer from ‘bloated middles’ and a disconnect between top management and the ‘doers’ in the workforce. There is a lack of alignment between purpose, autonomy and mastery in organisations that must be overcome.

 

10. Organisations should creatively deal with failures

 

There can be as much learning from failures as from best practices, but many organisations do not have systematic and even fun ways of learning from failures at the individual and group levels. How many managers ask you what your Top Five failures are and what you’ve learned from them?

 

A number of issues were debated by the panellists and audience. Does collective thinking kill creativity? How should organisations find the balance between ‘studio’ and ‘factory’ modes of activities? What happens to knowledge behaviours and HR alignment during mergers and acquisitions? How does role rotation help guard against knowledge loss while also building muti-disciplinary skills? When do teams become more destructive than creative? How can ‘hunting’ and ‘farming’ behaviours be nurtured in an organisation? What are the different KM contributions by HR at the foundation stage and yield stage? How is management theory evolving after its short one-century history as compared to millions of years of human cognitive and social development?

 

 

 

Panelist bios:

 

Bhanu Potta is Global Product Manager, Learning & Knowledge Services in Mobile Phone Services at Nokia. He spearheads design & deployment of Societal Knowledge Services through Nokia Ovi Life Tools and related ecosystem development in Emerging Market Countries across the world. He has 15 years of experience in knowledge management, human performance & OD initiatives. He was previously leading KM function at Perot Systems (now DELL Services) and earlier lead KM consultancy teams at NIIT & Informatics Group. Bhanu is the guest faculty for Enterprise Knowledge & Content Management, an M.Tech course at International School for Information Management, Mysore. He can be followed on Twitter at @bhanupotta

 

Nirmala Palaniappan is Senior Manager for KM at Oracle. She leads KM for Oracle’s APAC business. She has almost eleven years of experience in KM and has had the opportunity to lead KM initiatives in multiple organisations. She led an Intranet initiative from scratch at a small organisation, has been a KM evangelist for the second largest business unit at one of the top three IT service organizations in India, has been the lead KM consultant to a utility company in the UK, and now leads KM for Oracle’s APAC region. She has conceived, designed and rolled out an innovative E2.0 application that fits into the Oracle environment. She was awarded a patent for her work on a KM framework, methodology and toolkit by the US patent office earlier this year.

 

Pavan Soni is an Innovation Evangelist at Wipro. He has trained at a three-day Blue Ocean Strategy workshop conducted by INSEAD, and conducted Innovation Workshops for Tata Steel, Titan, Tanishq, Future Group, Glaxo SmithKline, TotalGaz, TVS Motor Company, Cyro Save, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ericsson. He pioneered the concept of Innovation Bazaar and Story Book on Innovation at Wipro. He has published 21 articles and papers. Pavan is an advisor to the Karnataka Knowledge Commission and is a prolific blogger at www.pavansoni.net.

 

Kotappa Mulugu is Recruitment Director at Unisys. He is an electrical engineer by education. He did M.Tech Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and has 28 years of industry experience. He has worked at Syntel, Philips and Sony and has established world class test and repair facilities for computers assemblies, peripherals at Bangalore. He joined Unisys in 2004, and specialises in high volume and specialist recruiting for the IT product and services industry.

 

Moderator: Dr. Madanmohan Rao, K-Community co-founder, and editor of five books series, including “The KM Chronicles” (http://bit.ly/TU12l http://twitter.com/MadanRao). 

 

See previous K-Community blogposts at:

KM and Innovation: Converging or Complementary Practices?

 

by Madanmohan Rao

Editor, The KM Chronicles

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Bangalore; April 20, 2011

 

 

The monthly meeting of the Bangalore K-Community (www.Kcommunity.org) featured a lively discussion on the connections between knowledge management practices and innovation strategies of organisations. The panelists came from three organisations: Wipro, Unisys and Infosys, joined in discussion by KM professionals from Bosch, Oracle, KPMG, MeshLabs, Wolff Frameworks and Sairmay Consulting.

 

KM practices can address not just productivity aspects of knowledge workers but also innovation strategies through new formats of brainstorming, social media narratives and external alliances. The discussion addressed how innovation strategies should be formulated by KM practitioners, how they should be rolled out in terms of activities and roles, and what the exciting new frontiers in this area are. I had a good time chairing the session, hosted by Oracle; here are some of my observations and takeaways. See also the excellent blogpost by panellist Pavan Soni on the K-Community discussion: http://www.pavansoni.net/2011/04/role-of-innovation-in-knowledge.html

 

 

 

Speaker Bios:

 

Pavan Soni is an Innovation Evangelist at Wipro. He has trained at a three-day Blue Ocean Strategy workshop conducted by INSEAD, and conducted Innovation Workshops for Tata Steel, Titan, Tanishq, Future Group, Glaxo SmithKline, TotalGaz, TVS Motor Company, Cyro Save, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ericsson. He pioneered the concept of Innovation Bazaar and Story Book on Innovation at Wipro. He has published 21 articles and papers. Pavan is an advisor to the Karnataka Knowledge Commission and is a prolific blogger at www.pavansoni.net

 

Dr. Kavi Mahesh is a professor at PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, and co-author of the book “Ten Steps to Maturity in Knowledge Management.” He is also a Principal Consultant with the Knowledge Management Group at Infosys. He has two US patents and has published two books, 9 book chapters and over 50 papers. He was previously with Oracle and has consulted with Hewlett Packard, United Nations and EasyLib.com. He holds an M. Tech. in Computer Science from IIT-Bombay and a PhD (1995) in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.

 

Prasad Krishnagiri is a project manager at Unisys. He has over 13 years of experience in the IT industry. He has been working with Unisys for the past 6 years. He has expertise in systems engineering including product development and support. Prasad is a key member of the Innovation Technology Steering Group, Unisys’ in-house Innovation program. As a member of this group, Prasad is instrumental in building a culture of innovation across the India, China and Australia teams of Unisys. He has coordinated a successful Innovation contest in 2009-10.

 

The moderator was K-Community co-founder Dr. Madanmohan Rao, editor of five books series, including “The KM Chronicles” (http://bit.ly/TU12l http://twitter.com/MadanRao). 

December 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

 

by Madanmohan Rao

KM Consultant and Author http://bit.ly/TU12l

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

 

 

New word I picked up today from Frederik Haren’s book: “Newledge” – knowledge about the new!

Great book I just finished on global innovation: Frederik Haren’s “The Developing World” (name could be better!) www.TheDevelopingWorld.com

Thanks for #Titan #KM session re/tweets! @saikrishna_rao @Feisty_Ta @padma8376 @r_dileep @ilya

#KM session wraps up, I present #Titan with my new book on Indian Proverbs (@IndianProverbs)

#SocialMedia + ERP = Increased Focus, Knowledge Retention http://bit.ly/g5ReUH  (Network World)

#Wikipedia celebrates 10 years as an unrivalled source of knowledge http://ind.pn/fpLcma  (The Independent)

Bangalore K-Community meet tomorrow: Case Study of Knowledge Management at Titan Industries http://km.techsparks.com/?p=223  #KM

HP: “India lab is leading our big bet on the Internet” http://bit.ly/fS0EI9

List of #Manthan e-Content Awards 2010: South Asia winners http://bit.ly/dLI2ga  (finalists: http://bit.ly/gfd1uJ) See you all in 2011!

List of #Manthan 2010 finalists http://manthanaward.org/section_synopsis.asp?id=212

And now the #Manthan Awards Gala — looking forward to compering it again this year! #Manthan #ISOC

Hear hear! RT @misskaul: amazing day interviewing ICT entrepreneurs, all have such innovative helpful projects. very humbling! #manthan

Rousing applause for Magsaysay Award Winner Mahabir Pun (“Nobel Prize of Asia”) #Manthan #ISOC

Pun: Please see www.himanchal.org  www.OleNepal.org  www.ENRD.org  #Manthan #ISOC

Pun: Last mile to mountainous villages has to be wireless #Manthan #ISOC

Mahabir Pun, Nepal Wireless: Grew up in a village, studied in the US, came back to do community development and teaching #Manthan #ISOC

Osama Manzar : #Manthan now has built up a database of 2,000 #ICT4D innovations over the past seven years of awards www.manthanaward.org  

Book review: “Innovation: Myths and Mythstakes” by Tim Coffey, Dave Siegel, Mark Smith http://bit.ly/dZUlcU

“An idea to make the world a better place” – Dell Social Innovation Competition www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com  http://bit.ly/eT9CoU

Global innovation race: confidence in Asia http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12316801

O’Reilly, Tushman: 10 Tensions in Innovation http://bit.ly/fUdxBN

“Inspired Innovation” – profile of 3M http://bit.ly/f54lmq

Summaries of MAKE 2010 Award winners: India, Asia, North America, Europe, Global http://bit.ly/ez7ZNG  #KM

Mukul Asher: “Indian organisations need to focus on knowledge & its management” http://bit.ly/hAJDHF

United Nations World Tourism Organisation to hold conference on #KM for the world tourism industry www.unwto.org  http://bit.ly/eVVWPh

Bangalore K-Community: Case Study of #KM at Titan Industries. Dec 22, 6-8 pm http://km.techsparks.com/?p=223  See you all there!

@vernaallee: Here’s my wrapup of #KMindia 2010: http://km.techsparks.com/?p=219  Your keynotes were great, thanks! #KM

You are always welcome, see you again soon! @vernaallee: Had a great time in Bangalore. Special thanks to @MadanRao and parents for lunch!

RT @IndianProverbs “Learning is as hard to digest as iron.” – Hindustani proverb

RT @IndianProverbs “Knowledge is not something to be packed away in some corner of our brain.” – S. Radhakrishnan

Over and out, back to Bangalore traffic now! See you all at #KMindia 2011…

Kar jokes: Why does India not have a good football team? Because when there is a corner they would rather open a corner shop! #KMindia

Kar: The next Nokia will come from India. Innovations here – dual SIM card, cost-effective manufacturing #KMindia

Anil: Clean up your water, less kids will miss school due to diarrhoea #KMindia

Anil: China is centralised and ageing, India is more innovative (“missed calls”) and young – but don’t get too complacent #KMindia

Anil: China is building high speed trains to cities that don’t even exist yet #KMindia

Anil: China is building 200 cities of million+ people in 10 years. #KMindia

Anil: China is far ahead of India in digital infrastructure. The city of Dalian wants to target and overtake Bangalore. #KMindia

Anil: Don’t just look at bottom of pyramid — look at their children too. Use ICTs to take knowledge to rural areas #KMindia

Anil: India has 100s of millions of people without education. Huge knowledge loss/gap #KMindia

Anil: Massive urbanisation is a global trend in the next 10 years: 100s of millions of people will move to cities. #KMindia

Me: How does Cisco see China’s knowledge edge as compared to India? How can India and China use cloud as knowledge infrastructure? #KMindia

Kar: The future is in creating knowledge and value one experience at a time. Need realtime anlaytics for customers, employees #KMindia

Kar: Digital interactions are the new building blocks of knowledge creation. Challenge: we create knowledge anytime, on mobiles #KMindia

Pradeep Kar shows Dilbert cartoon on cloud computing! “Store your ideas in a cloud and then meditate!” #KMindia

Pradeep Kar, Microland: The only thing harder than speaking in front of a professor is to speak in front of two professsors! #KMindia

Anil: The moment you try to protect your knowledge, you take your eyes off the success imperative and focus on knowledge systems #KMindia

Anil: I worked for IBM, then Cisco, who I help to understand emerging markets where the real growth and innovation will be #KMindia

Anil: As a Sony Fellow, I learnt how Sony valued its people as trade secrets, not assembly lines. Cultures of knowledge are key #KMindia

Anil: Information can be misused in an organisation for political purposes #KMindia

Anil: Third kind of knowledge is conceptual/framework knowledge – it defines what your options are. But how do you measure it? #KMindia

Anil: CEOs need theoretical frameworks more than academics do. CEOs are starving for meaningful theory #KMindia

Anil: Symbolic, instrumental kinds of knowledge. Academics are not interested in middle managers. Senior managers need frameworks #KMindia

Anil: I measure how companies use knowledge. Companies hire consultants to tell them what they already know! <Applause> #KMindia

Anil: IBM was most profitable in 1991 – then went bankrupt in 1992. Hard to manage transitions in economy #KMindia

Anil: In 1986 Digital was the most admired corporation in the US, Ken Olson was the most admired leader. In 1992 it was acquired #KMindia

Anil: I had two PhDs – statistics, and knowledge management. Applause and confusion in the audience! #KMindia

Anil Menon, President, Globalisation and Smart Connected Communities, Cisco: jokes that he was an academic first #KMindia

S. Sadagopan: Cisco has acknowledged India’s knowledge advantage, it has its second global HQ here in Bangalore #KMindia

Do you drool over bald men too? @Feisty_Ta: Anil Menon from Cisco is that good-looking salt pepper hair dude! #KMIndia

Sadagopan: Knowledge gives you the power to reinvent yourself #KMindia

Sadagopan: Story of India = devotees of Saraswati + devotees of Lakshmi! #KMindia

Hear hear! S. Sadagopan: I am impressed with high attendance even late on a Saturday afternoon! #KMindia

Thx for #KMindia re/tweets! @raghuveer_v @tonybkim @themytoday @Greenbizstartup @Thebluefrog @ Annemcx @nsridharan @himanshunagpal @bleuguy

Thanks for #KMindia re/tweets! @olgag @thirsty_crow @iamamberaul @Jane3962 @managementsushi @DavidGurteen @JeanneAWebb

Thanks for #KMindia re/tweets! @padma8376 @Feisty_Ta @Drmcewan @padma8376 @kumarsinha @saikrishna_rao @ariefamron

Last panel coming up now at #KMindia, with my ex-bosses S.Sadagopan (IIIT-B) and Pradeep Kar (Microland)!

Verna Allee: Also see http://valuenetworksguide.com/  #KMindia

Allee: Also see www.OpenValueNetworks.com  - our new book will be there #KMindia

Allee: Social media analysis does not give you value network analysis #KMindia

Allee: “Intended consequences may or may not happen; the unintended consequences always do.” – Dee Hoc #KMindia

Verna: Value networks for Regional innovation = R&D + community building + market validation + commercialisation #KMindia

Verna: Other applications of value network analysis: regional innovation in Europe; global activist networks #KMindia

Verna showing example of value network analysis to model customer service ticket escalation and resolution #KMindia

Verna gives case studies of Value Network Analysis at Boeing, Kimberly Clark, Mayo Clinic #KMindia

Welcome – that’s the first edition, please buy the second!! @Feisty_Ta: So @MadanRao gave me his book – Pearls of Wisdom

Verna: Focus on roles, not job titles. Spend some time differentiating between tangibles and intangibles in your deliverables #KMindia

Verna: Organisational agility needs renewal and re-creation. Good example: people taking on different roles during disaster relief #KMindia

Verna regales audience with possibility of drawing a “living system” graph of Bangalore traffic! #KMindia

Verna: A social network is a social network – people participate in them for individual purposes. Don’t overkill for “value” #KMindia

Verna Allee on creating agility with networks: social graphing is a good start #KMindia

Coffee break chatter: some of us are going to the jazz festival in Chowdiah this Sat/Sun – join us! http://jazzutsavfestival.com  #KMindia

Sivaguru: We have a hybrid wiki, a wiki with some structure on top of it. Rajashree: Use wiki to cluster collective wisdom #KMindia

Rajashree: Think of social design from the ground up, not just social layers #KMindia

Q: Current companies add social layers on top of business systems — future companies can get it right first time round? #KMindia

Rajashree: What may be data to you today may be knowledge tomorrow; context is key #KMindia

Rajashree: Our #KM journey over the last four years has been written up in a number of books #KMindia

Rajashree: Our measures of success at Cognizant: engaged associates, knowledge enablement, continuous improvement, innovation #KMindia

Rajashree: The ultimate mashup = personal + professional life #KMindia

Rajashree: Older generation used to differentiate between task and personal — younger generation integrate everything naturally #KMindia

Rajashree: Your collaboration graph should be more than X + Y axes #KMindia

WOW, bravo! RT @nsridharan: @MadanRao @N_Rajashree we changed it to Knowember #KMindia

Rajashree: Need to observe how people work socially. Blog platform is the most popular in Cognizant #KMindia

Rajashree: Task environment should not be a tasking experience! #KMindia

Rajashree: Nothing works unless the users want it to work and use it. User’s experience is critical #KMindia

RT @saikrishna_rao: Rajashree: knowledge creation is a distributed function. it should remain that way. #km #Kmindia

Rajashree: Cognizant 2.0 model of #KM: Long tail KM, Mega Collaboration, Real time ops, Active process guidance #KMindia

Rajashree shows awesome Zen duality diagram of knowledge. Structured + unstructured. Duality is reality #KMindia

Knovember? Rajashree: November is K-November – knowledge month #KMindia

Rajashree: Culture of participation – go to whichever social media people are comfortable in participating (eg not all like FB) #KMindia

Rajashree: “Seek and Ye Shall Find” – encourage knowledge seeking behaviours. Use “Router Model” – don’t centralise #KMindia

Rajashree: Our challenges: silos, disjointed communication between global teams, doc overload #KMindia

Rajashree: Our challenges: NIH syndrome, 1% rule (few think they have something to contribute or are good writers) #KMindia

Rajashree: Company started in 1994. Now 100K+ employees. Each is an asset. Need more than just process quality for #KM #KMindia

Rajashree Natarajan, #KM VP, Cognizant; Lead of Cognizant 2.0 initiative: says it is hard to present yet another case study now! #KMindia

Sivaguru: Data and networks need to persist with context. We also have an “empowered individual model” #KMindia

Yes @padma8376 – we need a Koffee break! #KMindia

Sivaguru: We are now in the era of Everything 2.0 #KMindia

S. Sivaguru, HCL: Our organisation dos not have a hierarchy but a wirearchy #KMindia

The Knowledge Movement: If your city does not have a K-Community chapter, please form one and sign up on www.Kcommunity.org !!! #KMindia

Terrific to meet organisers of Mumbai K-Community (Alak), Chennai K-Community (Cynthia) as well! #KMindia

Up next: panel on Resilient Enterprise. But where is the coffee?! #KMindia

More blogposts from #KMindia 2009 last year http://km.techsparks.com/?p=56  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=60  #KM

My blogposts from #KMindia 2009 last year http://km.techsparks.com/?p=50  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=53  #KM

Q: How to integrate external social networks into internal flows, or launch corporate channels on external social media? #KMindia

My previous K-Community blogposts: http://km.techsparks.com/?p=129  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=119  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=131  #KMindia

Dinesh: Orgs need resilience which can come only from adaptive work environments, sociotech systems #KMindia

Knowledge mobilisation: Dinesh: Social networks should be accessible on the go #KMindia

Dinesh: Employee social networks must integrate info from outside and inside enterprise #KMindia

Dinesh: Social media help you tap into “activity streams” of peers and colleagues (who knows who/what) #KMindia

Dinesh: Organisations tend to move towards “one big bucket” approach for knowledge assets #KMindia

Dinesh: Walkthrough of SocioTech Ecosystem: search, collaboration, organisation, tagging, company-wide views #KMindia

Dinesh: Social software keeps complexity in the social network, and not try to extract it into software #KMindia

Dinesh: Socio-tech systems in “adaptive work environments” help innovate, improve efficiency, improve customer intimacy #KMindia

Dinesh: Just trying to replicate a Facebook in your organisation is not enough. #KMindia

“Knowledge Ninja” = Kninja? #KMindia

RT @ Feisty_Ta: Dinesh Tantri’s title is ‘Knowledge Ninja’ #KMIndia

Dinesh: Respect, humility, passion and being comfortable with ambiguity are core cultural values for #KM #KMindia

Dinesh: Make work as observable as possible. Documentation is not a substitute for interaction #KMindia

Dinesh: KM and social networking + set of principles, practices, socio-technical systems will deliver competitive advantage #KMindia

Up next: Dinesh Tantri, Head of Knowledge Strategy, Thoughtworks (also core group member of Bangalore K-Community) #KMindia

Good case studies at #KMindia. On Dec 22 our Bangalore K-Community will feature the case study of #KM at Titan www.kcommunity.org

Hear hear! RT @Feisty_Ta: Waiting to hear Dinesh Tantri, ThoughtWorks.. Young dude but appears to be focused. #KMIndia

Nirmala: No presentation is complete without a Dilbert cartoon! #KMindia

Nirmala: #KM advice – pitch your KM tools/portal as a reliable way of getting information/answers/people #KMindia

Nirmala: Our K-Book initiative started in the Asia-Pacific region, rolling out to other regions now #KMindia

Lunchtime chatter (proverb): “Eat only as much as the size of your plate” #KMindia

Lunchtime chatter: We need a directory of all Indian organisations doing #KM #KMindia

Nirmala: K-Book on #KM portal has personal tags – info, interaction, discovery, dashboard #KMindia

Nirmala: #KM = trigger + key + glue (more metaphors!) #KMindia

 (Dan Tapscott) RT @Feisty_Ta: Nirmala: “The FB generation will wipe out the Command control in Information and Business.” #KMIndia

Nirmala: Oracle’s #KM framework is called S M I L E #KMindia

Nirmala: We have so many #KM initiatives at Oracle that we need KM for KM! #KMindia

Nirmala: Social networks help reinforce organisational culture and values #KMindia

Nirmala cites Allee’s work on value networks and importance of social intangibles #KMindia

Nirmala: Cites blog of “Three Cs” in people’s social network profiles: consuming, contributing, connecting #KMindia

Nirmala Palaniappan, Oracle now has to keep audience awake after humongous lunch buffet with awesome desserts… #KMindia

Nirmala: Food metaphors for #KM: food court, consumer ratings, friends recommendations #KMindia

Miller: dharma=stakeholder; renewal=arta; leadership=kama; human=moksha #KMindia

Miller: Goals of life – dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Need balance #KMindia

Miller: My wife and I have lived in India for 11+ years, we love it here! #KMindia

Miller: 5 kinds of intellectual capital: renewal, process, human, leadership, stakeholder #KMindia

Miller tracing values of knowledge movement in India from business/political/spiritual leaders #KMindia

Gentle reminder about “infrastructure” – power keeps going in the #KMindia conference hotel…

Miller: Creativity, integrity, global thinking are key for sustainable innovation #KMindia

William Miller, Values Centred Innovation Enablement: Address the values and meaning of why you do #KM, why you are alive #KMindia

Thanks again Ron for citing from my book! @IndianProverbs #KMindia #KM

Ron: “Think of yourself as if you were the only unenlightened person in the world. Everyone else is your teacher.” – Buddha #KMindia

Ron: “One’s knowledge is only a handful of sand, there is still an ocean of knowledge to learn.” – Tamil proverb #KMindia

Ron: Can India lead the world into the next dimension of #KM? Exploring knowledge within #KMindia

Ron: NASA has a 25-year #KM roadmap – goes into intergalactic KM! #KMindia

Ron: Worker productivity increased 50-fold in 20th century. Can knowledge worker productivity increase that much this century? #KMindia

Ron: Some people think that #KM is dead – it has yet to begin! #KMindia

Ron: #KM is for everyone! It has got to be fun and enjoyable as well. Apple as a “Director of Fun!” #KMindia

Ron: Facebook is now the digital passport – it can authenticate people via their friends better than security firms can! #KMindia

Ron: Organisations used to drive #KM; now individuals using Web tools are placing demands on their organisations for better #KM #KMindia

Ron: Effective personal knowledge management is the most critical skill of the 21st century #KMindia #KM

Thanks, had an Internet connection problem! @saikrishna_rao: Ah, @MadanRao is back. now i can take a long break from Tweeting! Z #KMindia

Ron: #KM resources from Asian Productivity Organisation www.apo-tokyo.org  #KMindia http://bit.ly/fNSWKT  http://bit.ly/g0NP8e

Ron shows Asian Productivity Organisation’s #KM framework and four books #KMindia

Ron: “Lessons Identified” is a better term for good practices than “Lessons Learned” – they have to be internalised #KMindia

Ron: #KM in UK: British Standards Institute published a Guide to Good Practices (good ones can be improved!) #KMindia

Ron: #KM infrastructure has addressed stocks. Knowledge flows: personal, team, organisation, inter-organisational #KMindia

Ron cites from his earlier book, “Knowledge Asset Management.” Addresses interdependent stocks & flows of knowledge #KMindia

Ron explaining how #KM and innovation studies can learn from quantum science #KMindia

Thanks Ron for mentioning my “Indian Proverbs” book! @IndianProverbs #KMindia

Ron: We are now in an age of interdependence and interconnectedness #KMindia

Ron: “If it is man’s privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be interdependent.”- Mahatma Gandhi #KMindia

Ron: My association with India has helped my thinking about #KM. I started off wanting to be a yoga teacher, read Indian scriptures #KMindia

Ron: I started Knowledge Associates in 1994 in Cambridge. I liked my CKO title – till one day met a “Chief Wisdom Officer” in US! #KMindia

Ron Young, CKO, Knowledge Associates: I have learnt so much from the speakers at #KMindia

Coffeetime: attendees crowd around Trivedi, much hope expressed that Indian government can improve at central/state levels #KMindia

Q: Leadership change in government may hinder continuity of #KM #KMindia

Hear hear! Trivedi: Civil Services Bill has agreed to have a CKO for the gov of India to bridge silos #KMindia

Trivedi: Graph: effort v/s perception of #KM in OECD countries. France, Canada, Sweden rank well. Finance, trade ministries do well #KMindia

Trivedi: Many gov KM heads are not aware of how much budget they will get #KMindia

Trivedi: Half of surveyed OECD govt depts have #KM with CKOs, the rest in three years #KMindia

Trivedi: #KM Survey in OECD countries: Cultural changes are taking place, but overall outcomes till now are low #KMindia

Trivedi: In many countries governments are the last to adopt new management reforms #KMindia

Trivedi regales audience with joke of how many ways you can measure the height of a building using a barometer! #KMindia

Trivedi: gov needs to work on performance incentives, evaluation, IS #KMindia

Trivedi: Al Gore – gov needs to move from red tape to results #KMindia

Trivedi recommends David Osborne books: Banishing Bureaucracy; The Reinventor’s Fieldbook. Also “Yes Minister!” #KMindia

Trivedi: If you can’t recognise failure you can’t correct it #KMindia

Trivedi: Indian gov agencies need surgery, not just band aid. 80% systems, 20% people. Bad gov is a risk to good business #KMindia

Prajapati Trivedi, Secretary, Performance Management, Gov of India: Gov agencies suffer from performance deficit #KMindia

Siemens wins MAKE Europe 2010 award http://bit.ly/eSunta  #KM #KMindia

MAKE India 2010 winners: list, citations http://bit.ly/hcrRIR  #KM #KMIndia

RT @IndianProverbs “The one who teaches is the giver of eyes.” – Tamil proverb (thought for the day for #KMindia!)

See you all tomorrow for Day Two, #KMindia !!! www.KMindia.in  #KM

Thanks for #KMindia re/tweets! @prem_k @Greenbizstartup @gervis @pkaroshi @digitalecurator @olgag

Thanks for #KMindia re/tweets! @saikrishna_rao @maryadamsICA @padma8376 @Feisty_Ta @teany_ds

And now: speed geeking with MAKE India 2010 award winners! Followed by dinner – and then traffic jams of Bangalore #KMindia

Verna: #KM has been visible a lot in IT, but they are believers in KM and their products are often in intangibles #KMindia

Verna: #KM’s contribution has been in changing people’s mindsets and expectations when they come to work, for collaboration #KMindia

Verna: #KM has helped us move beyond a training perspective to a learning perspective #KMindia

Jagdish: Seamlessness does not come from portals, but time, trust, understanding between people for #KM #KMindia

Jagdish: Another challenge – translating knowledge across the linguistic barriers of organisations, countries #KMindia

Jagdish: CFO will definitely ask #KM team what they have delivered to the bottom line of the company #KMindia

Q: Has #KM delivered much in India beyond IT sector, customer-centric orgs? May not apply to scientists – more wary of sharing #KMindia

TCS: #KM as a movement has just started to move. #KMindia

TCS: #KM helped create a sense of one-ness in our huge organisation, even for employees who have just joined the company #KMindia

TCS: Without #KM we cannot run the company. It brought people together, helps them participate actively in running the organisation #KMindia

TCS: #KM has definitely delivered for us across our multiple centres/countries. How else can we connect them? #KMindia

Me: Has #KM become a commodity for corporate achievers? MAKE winners don’t have that much differentiation in their KM initiatives #KMindia

Q: What would a dialogue about #KM assessment between a CKO and CFO sound like? #KMindia

Verna: #KM no longer perserve of MNCs as in the 1990s — now NGOs, SMEs, government agencies too #KMindia

Verna: Costs of technologies for #KM have dropped dramatically: global collaboration platforms, for free #KMindia

Verna: #KM has received a boost from IT, Internet – every Netizen can contribute to the knowledge movement, unlike earlier eras #KMIndia

Verna: #KM focus was initially not on monetary metrics, but on long term foundations of success for productivity and innovation #KMindia

Jagdish: #KM metrics have focused more on use of knowledge assets, less on creation of knowledge assets and their contributions #KMindia

Debate: Has #KM delivered on its promises? Verna Allee v/s Jagdish Ramaswamy #KMindia

MAKE India Award winners 2010: EurekaForbes, Infosys, L&T Construction, Tata Steel, TCS, Wipro Technologies, MindTree #KMindia #KM

And now: MAKE India awards winners !!! #KMindia

Wow, a standing ovation for Vinita Bali, bravo! #KMindia

Vinita: Difference between knowledge and habit/faith. Cigarette warnings/info aren’t enough to dissuade smokers #KMindia

Vinita: Look beyond boundaries, see them as horizons. You can never know all that you want to know #KMindia

Q: What does #KM success look like? Vinita: There is no fixed end state, knowledge is dynamic; horizons change #KMindia

Vinita poking fun at definitions of “reuse” of knowledge – let’s avoid misuse, overuse, abuse of knowledge! #KMindia

RT @IndianProverbs “Experience is as important for knowledge as education.” – Tamil proverb #KMindia

RT @saikrishna_rao: #kmindia vinita bali the track record of successful #innovation for consumer companies is one in ten #km

Q: How do we apply #KM concepts to Indian forms of medicine? To yoga? #KMindia

Yes, we are trying to do the same at the Indian Music Experience! http://bit.ly/eaNhwh  (signed on as research director last month!) #KMindia

Vinita: There are people now trying to codify the knowledge of Indian classical music #KMindia

RT @Feisty_Ta: Listening to Vinita Bali #britannia … Always thought of her as brilliant.. Also same college alumni thingi. #KMIndia

Cheers and thanks! RT @Feisty_Ta: #nowfollowing @madanrao just met him at #kmIndia and loved the enthusiasm

Malladi: Message – Be the leader or first follower in a dance! #KMindia

Malladi: “Leadership by dancing” – if I switch on music, 2 people in this audience will dance right away, all the rest in an hour! #KMindia

Q: How to classify people by collaborative behaviours, and encourage greater organisational collaboration? Some do so naturally #KMindia

Allee: Managers don’t thank their employees enough. Give them a sense of achievement #KMindia

Me: I agree; I train #KM facilitators to act like DJs! #KMindia

Allee: #KM initiatives are promoting conversation; next step: improve the quality of the conversations #KMindia

Allee: Intel coached employees in better conversation, dialogue – and brought out one of their chips a year ahead of schedule #KMindia

Malladi: How to increase user adoption: learning roadmap, customise, show metrics, put user at centre #KMindia

Devendra Malladi, SAP India: Stages of user adoption: change, effectivenesss, efficiency (with own enhancements) #KMindia

Allee: Rob Cross’s book on Hidden Power of Social Networks is terrific reading www.robcross.org  #KMindia

Allee shows social networks of who is dating who in school! Also: network-centricity of portals, search #KMindia

Allee: How to model work? Beyond production lines, process flow, game boards, social networks #KMindia

Allee: Social media and networks are changing conversations+work. See www.theconversationprism.com #KMindia

Allee: Recalling when new ideas were new – process engineering, teams, coaching #KMindia

Allee: If #KM is the answer, what is the question? Innovation? Cooperation? Collaboration? #KMindia

Allee: Challenge – to move knowledge upwards to decision makers, not just top-down or laterally #KMindia

Allee: The most basic knowledge process is also the most ignored: conversation! #KMindia

Allee: People’s personal sense of identity is beginning to shift. No longer just functional unit #KMindia

Allee: Human interactions and social reputation are indicators of success #KMindia

Allee: Business gains happen not just because of performance but value networks: business relationships #KMindia

Allee: Roots of #KM movement: learning organisation, intellectual capital, knowledge repositories, CoPs, #SocialMedia #KMindia

Thanks! RT @bridgetmck: Enjoying tweets by @MadanRao on how KM has to be more human, cultural, interdisciplinary #KMindia

Allee: “The empires of the future will be the empires of the mind” (Winston Churchill) #KMindia

Verna Allee www.ValueNetworks.com : I was first here in Bangalore in 1998! Back then I showed a slide on Machu Pichu; old knowledge #KMindia

Awesome conference, but such insipid elevator music in the breaks! Must take over as DJ next time…. #KMindia

Coffee time chatter: @VernaAllee is coming out with a new book on Value Creation, in January. Congrats! #KMindia

Q on IP. Sandhya: Companies should not obsess about IP even before they create IP! #KMindia

JK: 90% of our employees are below the age of 25. I don’t understand how they use words like “whatever” ! #KMindia

Q: The US has clear demarcations of babyboomers, GenX, GenY, etc. These don’t apply well to other parts of the world #KMindia

JK: I look forward to a new era with a more holistic appreciation of knowledge and humanity #KMindia

JK: Emotions such as feelings, affection are not discussed much in #KM #KMindia

JK: Culture as a unifying idiom is critical for #KM #KMindia

JK showing stats of college educated workers across US, Europe, Japan, India #KMindia

JK: The world will not be flat, there will be hierarchies based on expertise #KMindia

JK: Challenge in #KM metrics – proving causality rather than just correlation #KMindia

JK: Elements of #KM strategy at Infosys: evolution, non-intrusion, empowerment #KMindia

JK makes a plea to organisations to understand human dimensions of #KM; multipdisciplinary aspects of knowledge #KMindia

JK: Need to move from legacy groupings to Knowledge grouping and hybrid grouping #KMindia

JK: Key challenges for organisations: mobilisation of knowledge and resources, across social and cognitive distances #KMindia

JK shows cool video of collapsible/foldable/luggable car of the future. SciFi or reality soon? #Kmindia

JK: Look at all the products around us, eg. cars, how complex they have become over the past two decades. See how youth use ICTs #KMindia

JK: Organisational complexity mandates knowledge infusion. Stocks and flows of knowledge assume predominant status #KMindia

Always a pleasure to hear JK Suresh, a true philosopher of knowledge plus a practitioner of #KM! #KMindia

RT @maverickwoman: (My experience too!) RT @MadanRao: India’s advantage – we are not a knowledge-hoarding culture #KMindia

JK: Next orbit of #KM will come from understanding the nature of experience – Leibnitzian world #KMindia

JK: We have to get out of the comfort zone that #KM has gotten into #KMindia

JK: Notions of objects and forces have been challenged. Need new imagination of the world #KMindia

JK: India’s GDP share in the world was 24%; UK was 2%. Colonial rule reversed that ratio. #KMindia

JK tracing historical trends such as rise and fall of Spain as a colonial power; limits of Newtonian universe #KMindia

JK: People tend to talk about #KM in far too glib a manner these days. #KMindia

JK: We now have to address some of the problems facing the field of #KM over the last decade #KMindia

JK Suresh, Principal Knowledge Manager, Infosys: #KM as a field is now between a hard place and a rock #KMindia

Sandhya: India needs more conducive innovation ecosystems across the board #KMindia

Sandhya: But you have to have a method to the madness, not just chaos. The environment and landscape of innovation have changed #KMindia

Sandhya: India’s advantage – we are not a knowledge-hoarding culture. It is in our DNA to share knowledge. #KMindia

Sandhya: Structure is an important player of knowledge behaviours. We have discussion rooms and whiteboards all over our tech park #KMindia

Sandhya: Community advantage in tech parks – the “luster of clusters” #KMindia

Sandhya: The open innovation entreprise needs to understand facilitation, cross-domain expertise, external knowledge repositories #KMindia

Sandhya: Other #KM clusters/networking are promoted by industry lobbies like NASSCOM, CII in India #KMindia

Sandhya: Students are less risk-averse than employees! #KMindia

Sandhya: Collocation with value creation partners can facilitate innovation in tech parks #KMindia

Sandhya: IIT Madras Research Park is one of the first in India to be headed by an academic research institution. #KMindia

Sandhya: Indian companies did not have these open innovation networks, need to create the open enterprise now #KMindia

Sandhya: Organisations are moving away from insular mode to networked modes of value generation #KMindia

Sandhya: There is a strong correlation between the #KM and innovation abilities of an organisation #KMindia

Sandhya: Innovation is no longer the preserve of technocratic elites. This is the age of mass innovation #KMindia

RT @saikrishna_rao: #Kmindia ved quoted tom davenport’s blog: “If only BP knew now what it knew then” #km

Sandhya: How can research parks and enterprises plug into the new global innovation system, especially during a recession? #KMindia

Up next: Sandhya Shekhar, co-author of first #KM book from India (with Ganesh Natrajan), now CEO of IIT Madras Research Park #KMindia

Ved: BP had good #KM in the 1990s, then mantra became cost-cutting. And then the oil spill disaster. (blog by Tom Davenport) #KMindia

Ved presenting a range of statistical data on #KM impacts in Wipro. Submitted to Harvard Business School also for a research paper #KMindia

Ved: Reusable components: code, frameworks, templates. Leads to higher productivity, better quality #KMindia

Ved: We started off with #KM as a pilot in a few projects; now it is mandatory across projects #KMindia

Ved: #KM benefits: faster on-boarding in projects. Come up to speed in productivity ASAP; getting the right mentors and networks #KMindia

Ved: Time saved last year = equivalent of 100s of millions of dollars #KMindia

Ved: Portal governance helps ensure quality and usefulness of documents #KMindia

Ved: #KM metrics: portal traffic, doc views; tacit knowledge exchange forums. #KM needed due to high organisational churn #KMindia

Ved: #KM Dashboard – based on balanced scorecard with comprehensive indices. Compare across different business units #KMindia

Ved: #KM metrics: activity measures, outcome measures; effectiveness surveys; correlation studies #KMindia

Ved: Benefits of #KM: operational effectiveness, productivity improvement, accelerated innovation cycle, higher employee motivation #KMindia

Ved Prakash, CKO, Wipro Global IT Business: We launched our #KM initiative in 1999, sponsored by our chairman Azim Premji #KMindia

MP Singh, Asian Instt of Mgmt Alumni Association: AIM, Manila is regarded as the Harvard of the East www.aim.edu  #KMindia

RT @VMaryAbraham: A Knowledge Management Conference that Actually Used #KM Principles http://bit.ly/hdMG1k  (blog by Nancy Dixon)

The knowledge movement: RT @johngirard Planning #KM workshops in Oman in Jan. Both will be based on our book “A Leader’s Guide to KM”

Q: How big is the #KM industry in India? Ashok Soota: Hard to put a number on it, how to measure it? #KMindia

Mobile phones ringing all around, “knowledge mobilisation” happening on a big scale… #KMindia

Uppal: Not all share that cultural view! But yes a good #KM culture takes a lot of nurturing #KMindia

Q: Will “chalta hai” attitude in India get in the way of scaling and sustaining #KM? #KMindia

Nayar: #KM gives you sustained competitive advantage #KMindia

Nayar: We have invested in Cafe Coffee Day. I hope they can take on Starbucks with their success and innovation! #KMindia

Nayar: My current firm KKR is less structured than Citi. #KM focus: risk management, taking Indian entrepreneurs global #KMindia

Nayar: #KM in global firms also requires political re-design #KMindia

Nayar: Knowledge flows require transferability, scale — and global flows can be quite political in nature #KMindia

Sanjay Nair, CEO, Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts: When I was in Citi, we tapped India as a source of innovation on a global level #KMindia

Uppal: #KM is all about bringing about a change in attitude, culture, work organisation #KMindia

Uppal: We have used #KM for 5+ years. More Indian organisations need to launch KM gameplans, strategies #KMindia

Uppal: We have used #KM in the largest construction projects in India. Projects + R&D lab (materials, including industrial waste) #KMindia

Ravi Uppal, CEO, L&T Power: #KM has helped improve our productivity. Advice: take a long-term view #KMindia

My blogpost: Knowledge Sharing at Events: Top Fifteen Twitter Tips (starting with WiFi!) http://km.techsparks.com/?p=42  #KMindia

RT @saikrishna_rao: #Kmindia Ashok Soota: km’s true potential yet to be unlocked, human centricity is critical to km for longevity

Strange, a #KM conference with no free WiFi! Long live data modems… #KMIndia

More blogposts from #KMindia 2009 last year http://km.techsparks.com/?p=56  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=60  #KM

My blogposts from #KMindia 2009 last year http://km.techsparks.com/?p=50  http://km.techsparks.com/?p=53  #KM

Looking forward to the #KMindia conference in Bangalore today! www.KMindia.in

Welcome to Bangalore, see you soon!! RT @ronyoung: Working in Delhi and #KMindia in Bangalore this week. In Taiwan next week

RT @IndianProverbs “Wisdom is the daughter of old age.” – Hindi proverb

RT @IndianProverbs “Experience is as important for knowledge as education.” – Tamil proverb

Terrific book on my reading list: “Future Minds: How the Digital Age is Changing Our Minds,” by Richard Watson

Welcome to Bangalore, see you at KMindia tomorrow! @VernaAllee Getting settled in in Bangalore. Appreciating the lushness & pleasant weather

Trends in “social business intelligence” (SBI) in 2010, 2011 http://bit.ly/hHNV60

Gartner Reveals Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users for 2011 and Beyond http://bit.ly/hyrUGn