KM

August 2010 Tweets

Admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:09:26 +0000

August 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

by Madanmohan Rao

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

3 Indians in MIT list of world’s top innovators http://bit.ly/cJFw4Q

Indian Council of Medical Research begins debate on ‘Knowledge Management Policy for Health Service, Ed, Research’ http://bit.ly/cony38

Agri + knowledge management conference in India: “Gains from knowledge-based research must reach farmers” http://bit.ly/cafggH #KM

International conference on “Agriculture Education and Knowledge Management” India, Aug 24-26 http://bit.ly/bkt3SH #KM

Knowledge management strategies: my blogpost from the Bangalore K-Community panel http://km.techsparks.com/?p=131 #KM

Enrica Porcari on communication and knowledge sharing in agri sector http://bit.ly/bLJy6T #KM via @mongkolroek

Knowledge management workshop in Philippines addresses better knowledge sharing between local government agencies http://bit.ly/cNtGqh #KM

Australian Conservation Foundation seeks Knowledge Management Coordinator http://bit.ly/c7Emxl #KM

Gervase Bushe on knowledge management approaches to project management http://bit.ly/dDp5AE #KM (WSJ)

Three Tips for an Innovation Agenda http://bit.ly/aKnCVB (Business Week)

Innovate, Yes, but Make It Practical http://nyti.ms/cDi9k6 “Banks of the Future” (New York Times)

Job description: Knowledge Management & Best Practice Coordinator for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company http://bit.ly/cduX0x #KM

Overviews of knowledge management at Infosys, Honeywell, Dell: Frameworks, Case Studies http://km.techsparks.com/?p=129 #KM

My blogpost: #KM Frameworks and Organisational Case Studies (Bangalore XIME workshop) http://km.techsparks.com/?p=129 #KM

Anil Kumar, WSJ: India is a good operations/innovation base not just for Western MNCs but SMEs as well http://bit.ly/aJqSO3

Good debate on offshoring: Is it time for Western and Indian services cultures to blend? http://bit.ly/cGOo6p

Review of “The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World” by Ben Wildavsky http://bit.ly/a54wAX

The knowledge movement: good story of Hong Kong Knowledge Management Society http://hkkms.wordpress.com/history #KM

RT @richardlalleman IFLA 2010: Global knowledge management initiatives in the development community http://bit.ly/bYyZoI #KM4Dev #KM

RT @KDialogues: Hong Kong Knowledge Management Society event on social media in corporate #KM 17 Aug http://hkkms.wordpress.com/events

Proud to launch Phase 1 of the Indian Proverbs project today, Aug 15, India’s Independence Day! @IndianProverbs: a proverb tweeted each day!

Industry-academia cooperation for mobile startups: Nokia + VTU in Bangalore http://bit.ly/9AKeIu

e-Reading: “active, participatory and social” http://bit.ly/dqhgcg (@MalaBhargava in Business World)

More authors weigh in on India v/s China in innovation edge http://bit.ly/bEtspP http://bit.ly/dmyPd0

End of Day One of #KM Workshop. KM is a piece of cake, dealing with Bangalore evening traffic isn’t… Bye/thanks retweeters….

KM Singapore 2010, Sep 16-17 www.KMsingapore.com #KM

RT @kmjuggler McKinsey Business Trend No.9 Innovation from the bottom of the pyramid. Needs new #km thinking http://bit.ly/cUaUj7 #kfm

Nancy Dixon on three eras of knowledge management: explicit, experiential, collective knowledge (#SocialMedia) http://bit.ly/axVItl #KM

RT @morrisgrass Science is organised knowledge. Wisdom is organised life (Immanuel Kant) #KM

Tom Davenport: BP’s “knowledge management” technique was all the rage in the 1990s. So what happened? http://bit.ly/9tBgjo Bring back #KM

Knowledge management as a strategy for law firms: providing “battle-tested guidance” to clients http://bit.ly/cHGlj7 #KM

Myths and Realities of Being an Entrepreneur in India (Knowledge@Wharton) http://bit.ly/aGjtjm

Startup experiences in India: India Angel Network invests in Innovize Tech (corporate productivity solutions) http://bit.ly/9nSfg1

Startup experiences in India: profile of #SocialMedia analytics firm InRev Systems Bangalore http://bit.ly/9JBT2z (CIOL)

Startup experiences in India: Founder Paras Chopra on the Kroomsa story http://bit.ly/9xYpra

Will be speaking on #SocialMedia tools at a knowledge management workshop in XIME Bangalore Aug 6-7 www.XIME.org #KM

RT @mongkolroek today is @thisisgerard 1st day in Bangkok as FAO Knowledge + Information Management Officer for Asia-Pacific #KM

My July 2010 tweets compiled: knowledge management, innovation http://km.techsparks.com/?p=126 #KM

How knowledge management can help governments’ foreign service/ministries http://bit.ly/b1atwp #KM

RT @rossdawson World Economic Forum on Technology and

Innovation in Financial Services: Scenarios to 2020 http://bit.ly/drMevD

Book extract: Raghav Bahl, author, “Super Power” http://bit.ly/bFVPUC http://superpower.in.com

Interview with Raghav Bahl, author “Super Power? The Amazing Race between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise” http://bit.ly/aZwcQK (Zee News)

What Indian can learn from Japan’s success: public cleanliness, politeness, service culture http://bit.ly/9UTXvu

Automotive sector in India ripe for innovation, unprecedented growth http://bit.ly/d52nTX (WSJ)

Knowledge Management Strategies: Formulation and Evolution

Admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:11:36 +0000

Knowledge Management Strategies: Formulation and Evolution

by Madanmohan Rao; August 22, 2010

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

If you are ever in Bangalore on the third Wednesday of any month, you must attend the Bangalore K-Community: the monthly gathering of knowledge management professionals! This time panellists from four companies – Oracle, Wipro, Unisys, Nokia – discussed the formulation and evolution of knowledge management (KM) strategies in their organisations.

The event was hosted in the Oracle offices near Bangalore Dairy Circle, and the canteen has spectacular views of the city’s green cover (and concrete jungle!). As usual, questions flew fast and deep, and I had to cut off the discussion at closing time to enable attendees to brave evening traffic…

Categories of KM Strategies

Nirmala Palaniappan, Senior Manager, KM, Oracle APAC, began by outlining key foundations for an effective KM strategy: organisation culture, management philosophies, HR policies and fundamental skills (eg. in conversing, collaborating). To ensure KM “stickiness,” organisations should focus on the branding of their KM initiatives, regular communication, daily usage of KM, and effective tools (with useful and innovative features).

Nirmala classified KM strategies into five types: dictator, broker, psychologist, peacemaker, and doctor/surgeon. In the dictator approach, everything in KM is integrated, centralised, and controlled from one place. In contrast, the broker strategy is to connect everyone in the organisation, and is not focused just on assets and capture. This approach has a strong focus on communities, relationships, conversations and expertise location.

The psychologist approach is centred on personal knowledge management and is IT-savvy in nature (eg. it relies on tools for artificial intelligence and business intelligence). As the name suggests, the peacemaker strategy for KM embraces differences, and uses multiple approaches and tools. No KM manager or committee forces employees to use one approach and not another (this is the KM style adopted at Oracle).

In the doctor or surgeon’s strategy, the management strongly believes in KM and leads by KM (eg. Buckman Labs). It is possible of course for an organisation to migrate from one strategy to another as it evolves.

Evolution of KM Strategy

Ved Prakash, Chief Knowledge Officer, Wipro Technologies, and Ravi Shankar Ivaturi, Operations manager, Unisys Global Technology Centre, described how their KM strategies evolved over the years in response to external shifts in technology and business as well as internal restructuring and priorities.

Ved began by describing the business evolution at Wipro Technologies (a global MAKE Hall of Fame winner). Twelve years ago, the business buzzword was Web solutions, and the company had to scale its strategy and operations to a global level. The group CEO Azim Premji established the need for KM, and a group was formed with members from other teams such as Six Sigma and training. An early challenge faced by this group was that back then there was no major industry body of knowledge on KM.

“We decided that tech would be a key KM enabler, and brought in the CTO for the KM initiative,” explained Ved. Early sweet spots for quick KM wins were sales proposals and reusable components (in technology).

Another inflection point in the KM journey was with a strong addition of productivity and quality factors to increase efficiency of delivery. The Quality Group which had a reach into most of the organisation was brought in at this stage.

Culture building remained a continuous process throughout the KM journey. Other changes came along with the String of Pearls strategy for company acquisition. Wipro Technologies was doubling every year, and was acquiring companies by domain, geography and technology.

“With M&A activity, knowledge integration and expertise retention was key,” Ved explained. Managing complexity of projects and client relationships later became another objective of KM.

“How to make Wipro a learning organisation also became a major thrust of KM. This involved going beyond training, which was one-way or one-to-many and used canned content. A learning organisation has to facilitate many-to-many learning,” according to Ved.

Subsequent stages in KM strategy evolution included extending KM to the non-IT arms of the Wipro group (eg. consumer, retail) and to its business partners and clients. For instance, many learnings from the Indian supply chain sector can be taken globally (there is more complexity in emerging economies). Boosting innovation is a KM thrust as well.

Ravi Shankar Ivaturi, who manages operations for Unisys in India, China and Australia, traced the 130-year history of the company from custom hardware into IT services.

“A challenge we face is that we are many companies rolled into one,” Ravi began. KM drivers at Unisys were: knowledge retention to deal with attrition; providing support across the global organisation; and dealing with a huge influx into the workforce.

“We created an e-zine called Unibytes, to tell the rest of the global organisation what was happening in India,” said Ravi. They had to pick their KM tools with care so as to be useful for all parts of their matrix organisation.

The CEO sent out a strong message that collaboration is the key for organisational success, and this was a good boost for the KM initiative. The CEO also leads by example, and himself communicates by blogs and personal sites rather than just emails. Innovation is promoted by prototype competitions and organisation-wide voting.

From Organisational to Societal Knowledge

The focus of the discussion changed with the next speaker, Bhanu Potta, Global Product Manager for Emerging Markets, Knowledge and Information Services, Nokia. His group is focusing on the intersection between KM, education and mobile content. The aim is to align internal KM strategies and roles with external knowledge needs for the consumer sector in emerging economies (particularly Asia and Africa).

“There are two billion people in India, China and Nigeria living at below $5 a day. What are their information needs? We found that they asked for ‘how to’ information and access to knowledgeable people on leading better lives,” Bhanu began.

Nokia’s Life Tools offers a range of services such as general knowledge (in education), agricultural news and guidelines, and actionable health tips.

“Mobiles can help ease consumer knowledge pains. Geo-targeting can help offer different kinds of information services,” explained Bhanu. Content partners roped in range from the Spices Board of India and ITC to BBC and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria. The LifeTools editorial desk collates, categorises, creates and delivers profiled hyper-localised information.

“Mobiles can help in societal knowledge endeavours and help create a knowledge society for all,” Bhanu concluded. A lively discussion followed, urging that such information services be extended to non-Nokia phones as well and to all community members (not just experts)!

Speakers and attendees also concurred that Personal Knowledge Management skills are becoming increasingly important, and should be taught at inductee and senior student levels. Mentoring is also key, and new roles are emerging for knowledge custodians, caretakers and curators.

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Panellist Bios:

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.

Ved Prakash is the Chief Knowledge Officer of Wipro Technologies. He has set the strategic KM Vision for Wipro which includes ‘One-KM’ for both IT and non-IT businesses of Wipro. He has been driving transformation of KM within Wipro to make it more people and community centric, and more relevant to business. Wipro has been inducted into the elite Global MAKE Hall of Fame. Ved Prakash has been with Wipro since the last eighteen years. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering (Gold Medalist) from GB Pant University, Pantnagar, and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Ravi Shankar Ivaturi is the Operations manager of Unisys Global Technology Centre, India, Australia and China. His Operations portfolio includes Knowledge Management. GTC KM is based on the foundational principles of knowledge acquisition, retention and propagation. Ravi has filed for a patent application (jointly with his Unisys colleague) recently in India and the US. Ravi’s interest includes tracking emerging global cricketing talent, and likes to explore India by road.

Bhanu Kiran Potta has over 14 years of experience in the world of knowledge, content, learning & OD initiatives. Currently in Nokia, he spearheads R&D and deployment of societal knowledge & information services over mobile devices into 22 emerging market countries. He also oversees IPR, patents & copyrights liaison across countries for this portfolio. Earlier Bhanu was associate director – KM group at Perot Systems, where he lead the Global Knowledge Management Program and set up its customer facing advisory & consulting practice. He previously was with NIIT.

Knowledge Management: Frameworks and Case Studies

Admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:11:04 +0000

Knowledge Management: Frameworks and Case Studies

by Madanmohan Rao; August 9, 2010

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

A two-day workshop on evolution of knowledge management and organisational case studies was held recently in Bangalore at the campus of Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (www.xime.org). Workshop leaders included KM practitioners, authors and academics, and the attendees were from the private and public sector.

One of the attendees remarked that average age in his organisation was 55, and he expected that knowledge retention after employee retirement would be a huge problem. Another attendee was of the opinion that KM works better in private sector companies than public sector or government organisations. Yet another opinion expressed was that KM seems to work better in younger organisations than older ones!

Speakers at the workshop showcased how KM has benefited organisations in a number of ways: speedier response to customer queries (Xerox), bringing operational knowledge to onshore engineers (Schlumberger), reducing operational costs (Chevron), using experiences for future use (World Bank), reduced knowledge attrition despite a retiring workforce (Harvard Pilgrim), and quantifiable effort savings in accounts/projects (Infosys).

KM Frameworks

Prof. Kanti Srikantaiah (http://amzn.to/cJwOYs) from Dominican University kicked off the workshop by explaining key drivers of KM today: rapid product change (every six months, not just 18 months), need for innovation, globalisation, and attrition. He traced the alphabet soup of antecedents of KM: DBMS, MIS, DSS, ERP, JIT, TQM, BPR, benchmarking, datamining and competitive intelligence.

KM has evolved in three phases, according to Kanti. The first phase revolved around best practices and lessons learned, and was IT centric (tools, Internet/Intranet). The second phase was defined by the view that “knowledge assets are no good if the people can not use them,” and was dominated by a human relations movement: CoPs, organisational culture, formal/informal, learning organisation, tacit knowledge. The third phase was centred more on discovery (“It’s no good if people can’t find it”) – with a focus on taxonomy and a growing inclusion of information professionals. (Interestingly, KM author Nancy Dixon has her own version of three phases of evolution of KM: see http://bit.ly/ac5wJT.)

Kanti also addressed why people may not share knowledge: the organisation has no formal process or dialogue space, employees do not know what they know, the organisation’s environment may be excessively competitive, there is lack of trust and time, and there is no air of curiosity in the organisation. Organisational transformations needed to create knowledge today include comparison, connections, and conversation, Kanti summed up.

I explained the role of tools in KM initiatives, running through classifications of knowledge processes and roles, activities for each, and relevant tools. I covered the “alphabet soup” of KM tools, in three phases of evolution: content, collaboration and narrative (social media).

I showed the power of global social media with a couple of slides of tweets, re-tweets and realtime feedback about the workshop, which is always an eye-opener to those who have never before seen the power of Twitter! I also covered upto 15 reasons why emphasis only on technology or tools can cause KM initiatives to fail (more details in my KM books: http://bit.ly/TU12l).

Case Study I: Infosys

A. Latha, Group Head for KM at Infosys, presented an excellent case study of its KM journey which has won multiple MAKE Global/Asia/India awards. She said key drivers of KM are pervasion of knowledge infusion in decision making, and need for knowledge stocks and flows.

KM scope and scale should be broadened and deepened in organisations. For instance, strategic planning usually involved a conclave for top management for three days - but this year Infosys opened it up to newer employees also via Knowledge Cafes.

The KM initiative at Infosys is fueled by its cross-disciplinary aspects: cognitive sciences, organisational behaviour, information sciences, epistemology, and economics (eg. theory of value exchange).

KM eventually should become a regular part of work. The ultimate objective of a formal KM programme, according to Latha, should be: Build, Own, Operate, Disappear! KM is a journey, not a programme or project.

KM at Infosys has helped with quicker responses to market changes and client needs, and dealing with people movement/turnover in projects. Key success factors for KM include high level sponsorship, mid-level support and drive, and participation at all levels. Managers must set the example here; one of the Infosys managers in China set a good example to employees by personally committing to contribute knowledge assets.

At the same time, organisations should accept that only a small percentage of knowledge can be codified. The extent of codification needs to be tempered with organisational realities, advised Latha. “It is critical to let go of old knowledge,” she added; knowledge currency should be recognised, and eventually some knowledge becomes outdated (eg. Y2K solutions).

The launch of KM in Infosys was sponsored by the then CEO of the company. Infosys has a KM steering committee with regular reviews of KM maturity, mapping knowledge gaps in processes, architecture, KRAs and measures.

Today, Infosys has a Body of Knowledge as well as a KM Showcase on InfyTV, an internal channel. Infosys based its KM journey on the four principles of sharing: reciprocity, repute, altruism, trust.

Organisations should also focus on “stealth” initiatives which do not require change management, eg. Kmail, Project Snapshots at Infosys. The company has an automated tool called Infosys KMail – employees send queries first to this specific id; and a database is searched for responses.

As for metrics, Latha said KM measurement is primarily to feed to the KM culture and demonstrate quick wins. Pockets of KM gains are measurable. A pre-launch audit identified barriers to knowledge sharing (who to ask, where to look, too many portals, too much information, poor quality, too busy, not a priority, geographic spread).

Without proper planning and evolution, KM approaches tend to get into a “whirlpool of value erosion” due to lack of vision, alignment, consistency and synergy. KM initiatives cannot just be translated from one office of a company to another office in another country – the local cultures and business practices need to be studied.

Today, the KM initiative at Infosys is active in 4,000 knowledge areas, reflecting the growth of technologies and business offerings. The company has filed a patent for its mechanism of knowledge assessment and ratings called Knowledge Currency Unit. Infosys also has a brand manager specifically for the KM group, whose brand personality is defined as reliable, responsive and sensitive.

Over the past dozen years, KM at Infosys has evolved over a number of phases: e-learning, Sparsh Intranet (pre-1998); KM launch, KShop (1999-2002); KM in projects, accounts; blogs (2003-2006); integrated framework, Wiki, federated search, InfyTV (2007 onwards); and KM brand measurement, deepening engagement in geographies (planned).

“Evolve your strategy over time. Find the balance between decentralisation and centralisation. Bring in outside consultants,” Latha added. An adaptive architecture also helps (eg. with open source components such as T-Wiki, MediaWiki). “For promoting KM, start with incentives, then switch to recognition,” Latha advised.

Case Study II: Honeywell

Maria Christine, Lead at Honeywell Technology Solutions, began her case study with a superb magic trick featuring a box with multiple opening flaps (a great beginning for a post-lunch presentation!). She later included a “prisoner’s dilemma” exercise among groups of attendees to explain employee knowledge sharing.

Honeywell’s KM initiative is called KALEIDO: “Knowledge and Learnings I Do,” and reflects the kaleidoscopic nature of knowledge work.

In addition to mentoring, CoPs, expert validation, and best practices (for software reuse), KM at Honeywell includes social network monitoring and analysis. “We used sociometric analysis to discover informal knowledge networks in knowledge areas, knowledge actors and knowledge flows,” said Maria.

Graph theory helped come up with maps of expertise and people connectivity with experts; this was used to help improve collaborative links. For instance, low connectivity was perhaps an indicator of a potential knowledge attrition point.

Maria focused on many of the human dimensions of knowledge sharing, and even joked that sometimes knowledge contributions increase close to appraisal times and bonus evaluation periods! She also cautioned that KM rewards and incentives schemes have to be transparent; they should not be seen as biased or as favours from the management.

Contrary to popular perception, looking at others’ solutions does not hamper creativity but helps improvise or extend them. “The business context has time pressures, and knowledge sharing definitely helps here,” Maria added.

Honeywell has developed elaborate schemes for tracking knowledge competencies (eg. create, validate, store, share), across timeframes – which are then colour coded for effective visualisation.

“KM has helped Honeywell build global talent, enable synergy across product lines, given better career prospects for employees, and spurred innovation,” Maria summed up.

Case Study III: Perot/Dell

C.S. Shobha, Head of KM, Quality and Training at Dell Services (formerly Perot Systems), covered the objectives and outcomes of the company’s KM initiative in areas such as project management.

The objectives of the company’s KM Office include: elevate knowledge work to a key focus direction, maximise value of collective learning in project teams, integrate KM into daily workflow and longterm planning, deliver innovative solutions to customers in a sustainable manner, and make the organisation an attractive choice for knowledge workers

The initial knowledge audit was driven by the “8 Cs” framework (http://bit.ly/dBbBkl background: I was the external KM consultant at Perot Systems): connectivity, content, community, capacity, culture, cooperation, commerce, capital.

“KM has helped our project management performance,” explained Shobha, who also has a chapter on this topic in a forthcoming KM book. KM in projects helped build testimonials/credentials for customers (new services as well as upselling/cross-selling).

“We created part-time roles for each project called Knowledge Champions, chosen by project managers,” Shobha explained. Knowledge Champions received induction kits about expertise mapping, facilitating knowledge sharing sessions, preparing case studies, and focusing on reusability and innovation.

Dimensions of KM in project ecosystems include: methodology, technology, applications, domain knowledge, customer knowledge, and project management. Different kinds of projects in varying environments - product, services, maintenance – entail different flavours of KM. KM has proven to be useful at all project phases in Dell: feasibility analysis, initiation, planning, execution, and closure – including case studies, best practices, expertise maps and reusable artefacts.

KM has helped create a perception shift in the way in which project and service managers were regarded: delivery heads (knowledge leaders), project leads (knowledge champions), team member (knowledge workers).

The company’s portal is called K-Edge, and there are 30 CoPs, some of which involve customers in co-creation of knowledge assets and the KM plan. Dell also has an ideas management tool with a number of “thumbs up or thumbs down” features for rating and validating innovations. KM metrics and assessment include percentages of employees involved in different kinds of knowledge activities.

Leadership plays different roles in different stages of knowledge maturity, explained Shobha: “You need strong initial support of organisational leaders for launch. Then you need to explain RoI to them!”

The initiative is 30 months old now, and KM is a part of project compliance. “The company has quarterly Knowledge Champion conclaves. Many went on to become better project managers. More employees want to become Knowledge Champions,” she explained. KM success factors include investment and perseverance, Shobha summed up.

July 2010 Tweets

Admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:48:51 +0000

July 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

by Madanmohan Rao

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Thailand conference addresses importance of knowledge and innovation in 21st century organisations http://bit.ly/apTHhO

Can Innovation Management Be a Profession? http://bit.ly/9rC1yD (Tim Kastelle)

Novations initiative for mobile innovations in Pune, India: green ways to charge a phone http://bit.ly/cYHV0x

Who buys what? Research finds clues to marketing innovation

http://www.physorg.com/news199441307.html

Social Business Intelligence: The Knowledge Management Connection http://bit.ly/btN1Np (James Kobielus) #KM

Singapore startups: http://2359media.com www.GoToCamera.com Odeon (www.od-eon.com) www.MyAdEngine.com www.EntiViti.com

At cool startups meetup in Singapore! http://www.flickevents.com/e/founders-meetup www.e27.sg

Mobile Monday Palestine showcases local mobile innovations http://bit.ly/cg7Ctk www.mobilemonday.ps Souktel: classifieds; Tatweer: ringtone

Broadband Internet will wire the next generation in US http://bit.ly/cRmpp8

Knowledge Process Outsourcing: Netscribes raises second round capital from Basil Growth Corporation http://bit.ly/9fn39G

Interview with Ash Siew Hoong, Knowledge Management Advisor for Shell Global Solutions (Malaysia) http://bit.ly/arr4am #KM

Knowledge management director of Institution of Engineering & Technology calls for innovation awards http://bit.ly/dweRR4

India: Rice Knowledge Management Portal (RKMP) launched under National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) http://bit.ly/c7ukg1 #KM

Tales from the trenches: using laptop Personal Knowledge Management tools http://bit.ly/cB9HGv (WebWorker Daily)

Billboard magazine “innovators showcase” program at Mobile Entertainment live!, the Music App Summit http://bit.ly/9U0VeQ

MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) event on #mobile marketing, #SMS http://bit.ly/9zfgKx

UNESCO’s Open Access web page is now live http://bit.ly/6jMt9 (scientific information)

Rob Salkowitz, author of “Young World Rising,” on India’s entrepreneurial/demographic advantage as compared to China http://bit.ly/diknlI

Do emerging markets need the West? http://bit.ly/bIlDGt “Emerging economies have much more to offer one another”

Innovations in India: platform-as-a-service gathers speed http://bit.ly/9U9gyr (Information Week profile: Wolf Frameworks)

Singapore Human Capital Summit, Sep 29-30 http://bit.ly/clKP5g

Girija Pande, Asia-Pac chairman, TCS, on management leadership in India and China http://bit.ly/c4fN0W

India-US higher education summit: knowledge cultivation and talent development http://bit.ly/b1gNER

Third annual symposium, International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) www.ispim.org (Quebec, Dec 10)

Innovation Perspectives – How to Create the Environment to Spur Innovation http://bit.ly/baozIY (Jose Mello, Brasil)

Understanding The Evolving Ecosystem Of Innovation Service Providers http://bit.ly/baRbxp (CIO magazine)

Malaysian government launches special unit to strengthen strategy and policy to help promote innovation http://bit.ly/c1j9Cw

Red Herring’s list of Top 100 innovative companies (by region) http://www.redherring.com/topcompanies

Knowledge Management: #KM World 2010 speaker lineup www.kmworld.com Nov 16-18, Washington DC. Tom Stewart, Peter Morville, Manjula Ambur

Mainstream businesses take to Cloud computing http://bit.ly/9zdCZ3

Jeffrey Kaplan: The Cloud’s Answer to the Knowledge Management Challenge http://bit.ly/bInw97 #KM

UK government needs to invest in knowledge management before cutting posts http://www.ovum.com/news/euronews.asp?id=8733 #KM

Good advice for startups! RT @mtripathi Experiences from our launch of VoiceTap: http://bit.ly/dADggN

June 2010 Tweets

Admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:22:02 +0000

June 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

by Madanmohan Rao

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Good review of new Indian mobile/Internet startups: AskBirbal, VoiceTap, etc. http://bit.ly/d8IKdw www.pluggd.in

Student start-up in Pune, India: #SMS service for actual bus departure time alerts http://bit.ly/aj7k8F Bravo!

Micro-content, micro-blogs, micro-learning: Enterprise micro-sharing revisited http://bit.ly/9BoT3C http://bit.ly/1Itwzs #KM

Knowledge management and organisational learning in Indian SMEs http://www.erima.estia.fr/2010/?p=201 #KM

ITU’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Awards 2010 http://bit.ly/8XtCqw

Knowledge Management and Collaboration Create Knowledge Sharing http://bit.ly/asrji6 Three-part article by Guy Currier #KM

Great to meet Australian professor Stephen Quinn, author, “Knowledge Management in the Digital Newsroom” & “Mobile Journalism” at #AMIC2010

RT @brainpicker Globe Forum – platform for crowdsourcing sustainable ideas and the funding for them http://bit.ly/bgKby4

UNESCO-IGNOU develop grassroots innovation management course http://bit.ly/bdOGht

Mark Dodgson: Diverse thinking is key to innovation in Australia http://bit.ly/cFoj8z

Red Herring North America 2010 finalists in Innovation http://bit.ly/d9ENM0

United Nations Presents 23 Institutions with Awards; including Knowledge Management in Government http://bit.ly/cdkFeM #KM

Sixth India Innovation Summit, Bangalore: Government role, democratic access to ICTs http://bit.ly/9tPwic http://bit.ly/abMJuy

RT @surekhapillai HT-Mint partnership for ‘innovation project’ in India http://bit.ly/ao7Tok

Nielsen survey: Hands-off Approach Spurs Organisational Innovation http://bit.ly/caiqek

Knowledge management: Abu Dhabi Department of Municipal Affairs hosts fourth Knowledge Champions Event http://bit.ly/9RXGU7 #KM

Thanks to all tweeters at #KMUK10 — picked up some juicy bits from Bangalore…

Hear hear! @rondon Speaking at #KMUK10 in London - everyone should bring their Vuvuzelas to make some noise at the awards ceremony

RT @BenPlouviez Stop being just a networker and start being a connector. Nick Davies at #KMUK10

RT @BenPlouviez We live in an age of continual partial attention

RT @markgould13 Professionals need to get over themselves. The audience may be more expert than you. #kmuk10

Knowledge management: #KM UK Awards 2010 http://www.kmuk2010.co.uk/awards.html

RT @markgould13 Divorcing theory and practice dooms you to making the same mistakes. (@snowded) #kmuk10

RT @BenPlouviez: Librarians knew more about knowledge management than any knowledge managers, but we forgot about them @snowded #KMUK10

RT @snowded http://bit.ly/cihhsS Loaded slides from this mornings keynote at #kmuk10 great twitter stream as well

RT @BenPlouviez KM must focus on defined&specific problems & solve them. Big enough to be difficult, small enough to solve. Dhanecha #KMUK10

RT @TisMeHonest Dillon Dhanecha at #KMUK10 : ‘if KM doesn’t drive performance and innovation we shouldn’t be doing it’

RT @rondon #kmuk10 @snowded in a suit #thingsineverthoughtiwouldseeagain

My blogpost: Embedding #KM in Organisational Workflow and Culture http://km.techsparks.com/?p=119 (Bangalore K-Community)

#KM Conference: Knowledge Management UK, June 15-16, London www.kmuk2010.co.uk Tweets: @ArkKMUK #KMUK10

Dubai Internet City on Lookout for ‘Technopreneurs’ (June 23)

www.democampdubai.org http://bit.ly/9DimoX

Sixth India Innovation Summit, June 17-18, Bangalore http://cii-innovation.blogspot.com/

How Singapore SMEs create value through knowledge management http://bit.ly/cXpXdF #KM

Hey thanks, you made my day!!! @gaurisalokhe: today’s #ff goes to @MadanRao for consistently posting useful, amusing links!

APQC promotes knowledge management benchmarking solution http://bit.ly/d7CCHO #KM

Startups honored at SiliconIndia Startup City 2010 awards http://bit.ly/brfibz

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE): winners of the TiE50 Awards http://bit.ly/aZXIfi

Kurt April of Knowledge Management Professional Society wins award http://bit.ly/8ZgGfX

Winter Olympics: knowledge transfer from Canada to Russia http://bit.ly/bxuP7D #KM

Knowledge Management System launched by the African Union Commission http://bit.ly/anlEtv #KM

Terrific participation at my first knowledge management workshop in Sri Lanka, looking forward to the next! http://slasscom.lk/node/267 #KM

Article: Better collaboration and knowledge transfer is needed during change of government http://bit.ly/97PJgB #KM

Philippines’ Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) forms Knowledge Management Division http://bit.ly/9NfCCo #KM

4 Innovation Management Tools on Mobiles for Enabling Ideas While on the Move http://bit.ly/9PIGL0

Role of internal communications in organisational knowledge management http://bit.ly/9cN6Ay #KM

Overview of Web 2.0 startups and performance for investors http://bit.ly/bnyQH5 (CNN)

Policy recommendations for Ireland’s Knowledge Society http://bit.ly/cHepwb

Silicon Valley, SF: hub of Web2.0 innovations http://bit.ly/9dUR4E (San Jose Mercury News)

Embedding KM in Organisational Workflow and Culture

Admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:23:59 +0000

Embedding KM in Organisational Workflow and Culture

by Madanmohan Rao

Editor, The KM Chronicles

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Bangalore; June 16, 2010

If you are ever in Bangalore on the third Wednesday of any month, you must attend the Bangalore K-Community: the monthly gathering of knowledge management professionals! This time we were delighted to have organisers of the Mumbai K-Community and Chennai K-Community join us as well.

Despite competition from the World Cup football matches (last time it was competition from the IPL cricket matches!), the “KM faithful” gathered this month at the office of TCS in Whitefield for presentations and discussion on embedding KM in organisational workflow. Speakers this time were from organisations of very different size: eClerx with 3,000 employees, and TCS with 150,000 employees.

Kishor Desai, senior consultant in banking and financial services at TCS (www.tcs.com), profiled some uses of the company’s KnowMax KM platform. Desai has spread the essence of KM within his unit and also identified a passionate bunch of KMers to champion and keep the spirit going.

Desai talked about how they have created a proposals workspace, for employees across geographies to pool their resources and ideas on how to develop new proposals for client services. The collateral library is used by sales, marketing, delivery and technical teams.

The ultimate goal is to create frictionless flows of knowledge, agnostic of hierarchy but with adequate security built in. The focus is on meeting customer demands of quality as well as timeliness of project execution. Social media are extensively used by Desai’s team, ranging from peer-driven “Ask Me” facilities to Wikis, blogs and tweets.

Employees new to a project contribute to the knowledge assets by creating Wiki pages summarising and connecting different assets (eg. background papers, tech specifications).

“No KM practice is an island – all new knowledge assets are integrated with or linked to prior assets. Knowledge supervisors ensure that employees make the explicit knowledge connections, so that an integrated body of knowledge emerges,” explained Desai.

Blogs are used for leadership communication, solicitation of ideas, and technology debates. A Twitter-like application is used for a range of activities including tracking the competition and exploring new technologies. The advantages of using such an application include the ability to overlay search on the tweet feeds, which yields more useful results than searching emails.

Kishore Poduri, KM head at eClerx (www.eclerx.com), covered the evolution of KM in his company and highlighted the use of multiple KM practices that have helped stem the challenges of rapid growth, enable operational excellence, and foster a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing. Poduri is principal in the resource management group at eClerx, and leads the human resource, knowledge management and quality teams at the KPO company.

At eClerx, KM is integrated with training and organisational learning. This serves as the backbone for better scalability and rapid innovation at the operational level. Since knowledge-based services form the core of the firm’s competitive advantage, the firm’s leadership has made a significant investment in KM. The central KM team employs 15 full time KM practitioners and the operations verticals have another 45 knowledge champions.

eClerx has been experiencing rapid growth since 2004. The last three financial years’ revenue growth has been averaging around 64%, while the headcount growth has hovered around 59% (both figures in CAGR). Such exponential growth exposes the organisation to multiple challenges like the ability to scale rapidly and knowledge attrition.

KM was launched formally in 2005, and the initiatives rolled out in the company include CrossConnect, Lesson of the Fortnight, Client Visit Insights, Expertise Locator and Eureka (innovation repository).

The KM team includes KM Anchors: KM professionals who are embedded in project teams and help create knowledge assets and knowledge associations in complex work environments. The company also aims to make KM a regular part of employee workflow, and employees are regularly assessed for the nature of their contributions to organisational KM.

Key learnings from the eClerx experience include the need to blend centralised with de-centralised approaches to KM, and to link KM with learning and development. “Capturing knowledge in written form is a skill – do not shy away from investing in documentation specialists,” advised Poduri.

eClerx has truly imbibed the KM spirit, and is now actively organising the Mumbai K-Community (http://kcommunity.ning.com/group/mumbaikcommunity). Alakh Asthana, associate process manager for KM, runs the eClerx KM Channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/eClerxServices). The company was also a MAKE India finalist in 2009.

A. Srinivasan, KM Head at TCS, made some concluding remarks and said the company is working on the Tata Business Excellence model. He joked how some years he did not give enough of his time to some employees who wanted to start KM in the company – but they now take digs at him for being the KM head at TCS!

A lively Q&A session followed, with queries about everything ranging from KM benchmarking and knowledge maps to KM contributions in decision making and the limits of excessive KM metrics. I had to eventually cut off the questioning period so that the speaker could catch his flight later in the night!

See you all in July at our next K-Community gathering; suggestions for topics, sponsors and hosts most welcome!!!

May 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

Admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:09:35 +0000

May 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

by Madanmohan Rao

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Dubai forum: Organisations Must Foster A Culture Of ’Openness’ To Encourage Innovation http://bit.ly/dr5oTk

Global CIO: The Innovation Revolution And IT’s Indispensable Role http://bit.ly/bzBe3y (Information Week)

A good read: Open Access to Scientific Literature in the Developing World http://bit.ly/cRONZJ

The most innovative companies in Europe: Red Herring magazine’s Top 100 pick http://bit.ly/aa7tot

Profile of innovation approaches at Adobe’s Idea Lab, by by Janelle Noble http://bit.ly/cD6Ifl

Australia: Mark Dodgson on challenges to #KM education and innovative practices in academia http://bit.ly/aodv2z

Brunei: Application of #KM in disaster preparedness http://bit.ly/bdSbuW

Profile of IT, #KM solutions at Monsanto http://bit.ly/b1Ss8D

GlaxoSmithKline Shares Its Research Data Online in Test of Open-Source Principles http://bit.ly/c0z6nX (WSJ)

Two-part article by Anurag Gambhir, Ericsson India, on organisational innovation for India http://bit.ly/anCAt3

Geoff Zoeckler on Idea and Innovation Management Tools http://bit.ly/cxFS5u Top Five Roundup

Knowledge sharing of best practices in Indian firms http://bit.ly/9dt0RJ #KM

Knowledge sharing for globalised products: examples from Pepsi http://bit.ly/9My76a

Niall Sinclair on how to develop and enhance knowledge management strategies http://bit.ly/cfoVdL #KM

Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) gets new CTO www.iskme.org http://bit.ly/cTlK1e #KM

Knowledge management: challenges to knowledge sharing in defense organisations http://bit.ly/9gUkSz #KM

Know of good #mobile data collection projects? Input info in public spreadsheet hosted by @MobileActive http://bit.ly/mdinventory

Conference agenda: Knowledge Management for Government http://bit.ly/cpvZod Washington DC #KM

#SocialMedia is now “mission media” for US Department of Defense http://bit.ly/c7Hzkt #KM

Rutrell Yasin on knowledge management, #SocialMedia, cloud computing in government agencies http://bit.ly/awDQbD http://bit.ly/bTeXx1 #KM

Amber Corrin on strategies for workplace knowledge management through social information sharing http://bit.ly/dD2yn7 #KM

Ilya Bogorad’s introductory overview of Knowledge Management practices http://bit.ly/cabSu5 #KM

Knowledge Management Department at Dubai Municipality hosts seminar on best practices, innovation http://bit.ly/b9Jv7z #KM

RT @nickknoco: What knowledge management tools are people looking for? http://bit.ly/9ad8o9 #KM

RT @ComplexitySol: Book on Complexity and Knowledge Management http://bit.ly/ayaNgB #KM

RT @habo99 @DavidGurteen: Knowledge management: The next big job in Africa http://bit.ly/ddzTA3 #km

RT @WestPeter: Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World http://is.gd/bXja1

Business leaders should take a Hippocratic Oath the way doctors do http://bit.ly/awt0je http://bit.ly/bNhbRI Nitin Nohria, HBS Dean, ex-IIT

Indian NGO uses cloud computing http://bit.ly/bmFL7D Social Education &Development Society www.sedsngo.org www.wolfframeworks.com

New knowledge management blogposts/resources from the Asian Development Bank: http://knowledgesolutions.blogspot.com #KM

Innovation - profile of Steve Jobs in Success magazine http://bit.ly/b5cEcn Social Networks and Knowledge Management in the Enterprise:

3M’s Innovation Process http://bit.ly/drqnZc (Network World) #KM

USAID to launch Knowledge-Driven International Development Portal for knowledge sharing in emerging economies http://bit.ly/deObHd #KM

Knowledge management event held for municipal employees in Abu Dhabi http://bit.ly/dehIfn #KM

Knowledge management author Carl Frappaolo on Enterprise 2.0 and #KM deployments http://bit.ly/c4aImM

April 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

Admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:44:37 +0000

April 2010 Tweets: Knowledge Management, innovation, collaboration

by Madanmohan Rao

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

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Coverage of NASSCOM #EmergeOut in The Hindu newspaper

http://bit.ly/bAjSbE More SEZ space for SMEs

Lakshmi Narayanan, Cognizant Tech: Investment in R&D does not

necessarily lead to innovation&profits. Need networking, not silos #EmergeOut

Me: “One person’s frivolity is another person’s funda!” #EmergeOut

Challenge in innovation jams - how to keep out frivolous ideas. But

then who decides what is frivolous? #EmergeOut

RT @NASSCOM_Emerge: 95% of logistics in agriculture in India

are unorganised #emergeout

InnovationJam: if your idea is bad, audience throws yellow rubber

balls at you. Great way to end a conference! (or after lunch) #EmergeOut

InnovationJam ideas 3: Solar power unit in each home in India so

extra power can be supplied back to grid #EmergeOut

InnovationJam ideas 2: gizmo to charge mobile phone when you

are walking; employees who screw up must plant trees #EmergeOut

InnovationJam ideas: mobile app to calculate autorickshaw fares,

app for cops at traffic lights to know when ambulance is coming #EmergeOut

@Kiruba readies the room for his Innovation Jam session — check

out his new book on Unconferences for tips! #EmergeOut

Sharma: We have signed MoUs with eight Indian states so far for

UID #EmergeOut

Sharma: UID will be the mother of all e-government projects

#EmergeOut

Sharma: UID will create huge opportunities for hardware, software,

mobile in India #EmergeOut

Sharma: The thumb is the best identification mechanism - you can

forget your id cards, but you can never forget your thumb! #EmergeOut

RT @Liveadda: Sharma: There are poor people who are not in

these databases. Undeserving people reap their benefits #UID #emergeout

Ram Sevak Sharma, DG, Unique Identification Authority of India

http://uidai.gov.in speaks at #EmergeOut “World’s largest biometric database”

Lunchtime chatter: Good to meet @Kiruba again; get in touch to

launch your Unconferences book! http://km.techsparks.com/?p=108 #EmergeOut

Lunchtime chatter: PaaS is the key to paisa for Indian IT

companies: Sunny Ghosh, www.wolfframeworks.com #EmergeOut

Lunchtime chatter: CIOs of large companies tend to prefer IT

solutions from MNCs, not SMEs - need to change that mindset #EmergeOut

Accenture COO on Indian #innovation going global http://bit.ly/ARqLBF

Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan on Systemic Innovation in India http://bit.ly/cxIaTN

Dhir: We look to IT companies not just to solve our problems but

look at new opportunities #EmergeOut

RT @Liveadda: Sundarrajan: The Crow is Black everywhere!

#emergeout

Coming soon: Marico Innovation Foundation awards

www.maricoinnovationfoundation.org Product, Process, Business Model

#Mobile innovations using #SMS: interview with John McDonough,

Shorthand Mobile www.shorthandmobile.in http://bit.ly/cdotON (The Hindu)

Daya Prakash, LG Electronics India: We used product from Indian

IT firm Kautilya (dashboard, alerts) #EmergeOut

Bravo! L Sundarrajan, Holcim urging Indian IT companies to

become even more creative, inventive, innovative #EmergeOut

Creativity: thinking what no one else has thought. Invention:

transform thoughts to tangible ideas. Innovation: introducing ideas to users

Mittal: Each job in the Indian IT sector creates 4 new jobs

downstream #EmergeOut

Good read: How should China engage with a rising India? http://bit.ly/biLHDZ (The Hindu)

Ajay Dhir, Jindal Steel used open source technology to transform a

critical part of their procurement chain #EmergeOut

NASSCOM: Indian IT industry should be on track to touch $225

billion by 2020 http://bit.ly/axzWoi

RT @evansdave: They will also be 3G ready. RT @MadanRao:

Pandit: In 2050, India will have 45 times the no. of cars it has today #EmergeOut

IT=Innovation+Transformation: Sangeeta Patni, Extensic Software

chairs panel on transforming CIO to Chief Innovation Officer #EmergeOut

Pandit: 90% of the innovation in cars today comes from electronics

and software #EmergeOut

Pandit: In 2050, India will have 45 times the number of cars that it

has today #EmergeOut

Ravi Pandit, KPIT: In 2050, China will have as many cars as the

whole world does today. Huge opportunity for automobile IT #EmergeOut

Paul: Indian product companies under-invest in marketing

#EmergeOut

Mittal: NASSCOM eGov Reach initiative helps vendors in one state

find govt customers in other states #EmergeOut

Mittal: We have identified 43 other cities in India as potential growth

areas for IT industry. But we need integrated townships #EmergeOut

Som Mittal, NASSCOM president, at media briefing: 95% of IT work

in India is done in 6 cities #EmergeOut

Useful marketing session as usual by Jesse Paul

www.jessiepaul.com www.nomoneymarketing.org #EmergeOut

Goenka: Mistakes are a part of life, but it is a mistake not to learn

from mistakes #EmergeOut

Goenka on piracy in India: How many people in this room know

where to get a legal copy of Microsoft Office? (Laughter&applause!) #EmergeOut

Goenka: There is no domestic demand constraint in Indian market.

Challenge is reaching out to customers and delivering products #EmeregOut

Bharat Goenka CMD, Tally solutions: We are expanding to

MiddleEast and Africa, and have launched ERP solution #emergeout

Logging in now from Chennai, at NASSCOM EmergeOut http://bit.ly/cNMVc7 #EmergeOut

ICT markets/innovations http://bit.ly/cNMVc7 Mobiles, automotive, Netbooks, etc

Knowledge Management Research Centre, HongKong: “good

combination of research and practice” http://kmrc.ise.polyu.edu.hk #KM

The m-Billionth Award South Asia 2010: Nominations for best

mobile apps in 9 categories closes on May 15! http://mbillionth.in/

Open Innovation’s Challenge: Letting Go Is Hard To Do http://bit.ly/bXgvIx (Business Week)

World Entrepreneurship Day: “The future is mobile” http://bit.ly/aIHWMv

World Entrepreneurship Day: “I would love to be a 30-year-old in

India or Brazil right now” Beth Comstock, VP, GE http://bit.ly/aIHWMv

Superb read: A venture capitalist’s European mission http://bit.ly/9v9HS3 (Financial Times)

New blog focuses on incubation, startups in India http://bit.ly/avBhuM (Wall Street Journal)

World Entrepreneurship Day: “Mobile is not just liberating, it’s

empowering” - Esther Dyson http://bit.ly/aIHWMv

Indian government urged to promote #mobile entrepreneurship

http://bit.ly/bC3HsV Sanjay Anandram, JumpStartup

#mHealth Alliance announces winners of Wireless Innovation

Competitions http://bit.ly/9jQX3y 100M Stoves, Frontline #SMS, Sana

The Innovative Giving Foundation Announces #Mobile Giving

Conference http://bit.ly/9d4Kh5 Sep 27-28, California

RT @reemkhouri “Today’s peacock is tomorrow’s feather duster” -

Arif Naqvi. Entrepreneurs must adapt. #esummit

RT @auerswald Case study: Palestinian entrepreneurs @Souktel -

job-matching via #SMS: http://bit.ly/17VUqA #esummit

Review of APQC’s 2009 Knowledge Management conference http://bit.ly/Yb7Uy http://bit.ly/cl3XRc #KM

APQC’s 15th annual Knowledge Management conference this week

http://bit.ly/7Mt7×9 Houston, April 26-30 #KM

RT @mjamme Mauritius, investment bridge between Asia and

Africa http://bit.ly/bDWYC

My blogpost: launch of #MobileMonday in Colombo http://mobile.techsparks.com Industry dynamics, optimism http://mobilemonday.lk

Sri Lanka IT lobby sets up Mobile & Telco Centre of Excellence for

adoption, exports http://bit.ly/9b2M4f www.slasscom.lk

My blogpost: Conversational Flows for Knowledge Sharing http://km.techsparks.com/?p=108 Bangalore K-Community, April 21 #KM

Table of contents of a 2009 knowledge management market report

http://bit.ly/bKPwdT #KM

How to use knowledge management for defense intelligence

gathering http://bit.ly/cLXihp (National Defense Magazine) #KM

eBiz guide to Social Intranets, Part I and Part II http://bit.ly/cP5Qa3

http://bit.ly/a6oGJC

Paul Sloane on “Breaking Down Internal Barriers to Innovation”

http://bit.ly/bn4PYQ

Knowledge management: I will be chairing a panel tomorrow on

knowledge sharing at Bangalore K-Community, April 21 http://bit.ly/dwmGFf #KM

Excellent profiles of 50 emerging IT companies/entrepreneurs in

India (NASSCOM) http://bit.ly/dAuNeD http://bit.ly/dgdkFs

RIP C.K. Prahalad, management guru and one of the best

speakers I have heard http://bit.ly/cifboQ

National Achievers Congress, Singapore+Malaysia, April 2010

http://www.nationalachieverscongress.com/

RT @nimmypal: Indian Mythology and Knowledge Management.

Fascinating article. #km http://bit.ly/ad5SQP (via Sundar Ram)

RT @WeKnowMore: RT @swanwick: #KMers transcript posted:

“Future of KM” moderated by @ridgehead http://bit.ly/cuoWXY #KM

Knowledge management: I will be chairing a panel on knowledge

INSEAD’s Patrick Turner on #innovation challenges in Singapore

http://bit.ly/9rxuae Focus on secure jobs in big companies, not startups

Bangalore’s version of “Who wants to be a millionaire” — for

entrepreneurs! http://bit.ly/dqNxHb

Russian plans to set up its version of a Silicon Valley http://nyti.ms/

bIxXja http://bit.ly/9ZzGKX (New York Times; MIT Tech Review)

Knowledge management: profile of #KM at Salmat http://bit.ly/bZ3sJA (CIO Australia)

Knowledge management and #SocialMedia impacts in accounting

firms http://bit.ly/9aGPpY (Boomer Consulting) #KM

Overview of recent academic research on Indian business, by

Rediff CEO Ajit Balakrishnan http://bit.ly/bPX9wT (IIM Convocation)

In Search of Information Governance in the Enterprise http://bit.ly/crYd7d (Forrester #KM)

Knowledge management and succession planning http://bit.ly/cFRWuL (William Rothwell) #KM

My March 2010 tweets compiled: knowledge management,

innovation, collaboration http://km.techsparks.com/?p=104 #KM

Conversational Flows for Knowledge Sharing

Admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:11:49 +0000

Knowledge Cafes, Barcamps and Beyond: Conversational Flows for Knowledge Sharing

by Madanmohan Rao

Editor, The KM Chronicles

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Bangalore; April 21, 2010

If you are ever in Bangalore on the third Wednesday of any month, you must attend the Bangalore K-Community: the monthly gathering of knowledge management professionals! Despite heavy pre-monsoon showers and competition from the IPL cricket matches, the “KM faithful” gathered again this month at the offices of Unisys for a presentation and panel discussion on engagement methods for organisational knowledge sharing (see http://bit.ly/debFA6 for speaker profiles).

Ravishankar Ivaturi, operations manager at the Unisys Global Technology Centre, explained how they have used the WorldCafé system (www.theworldcafe.com) to “create conversations about issues that matter.” This method of rotating discussion groups around small tables and periodically reporting on conversations has helped harness collective intelligence, build better connections between employees, and ensure that there is consistency in shared knowledge.

It is particularly useful across large and distributed project teams. Success factors include finding the optimum themes, number of tables, participants, and iterations. In some Asian organisations, there can be cultural barriers due to hierarchy and seniority. “Employees need an appropriate space to show their emotions. It is important for managers to help employees find the freedom and courage to express themselves irrespective of their position in the organisation. People love to talk and express themselves best in a conducive environment,” explained Ivaturi.

He explained how Unisys used the WorldCafe method to “co-configure, co-design and co-create” appropriate learning and conversation spaces; this helped the organisation get broader inputs for its business plans and thereby more buy-in from the teams across its offices in India, China, US and Australia. It improved the organisation’s employee engagement and created a cultural shift; it also helped come up with better performance metrics.

“The informality of a café environment helps improve buzz. Participants can talk, write, draw or even doodle. This improves their participation in organisational activities, and is much better than just being at a meeting,” said Ivaturi.

This format has been used in half-day and two-day workshops. Tools like MindMaps help visualise the domain space. Participants from remote locations can also join in via phone bridge.

(I have come across other instances where organisations also tweet certain sections of internal café sessions live, and invite followers and participants from around the world to pitch in with their observations and suggestions!)

A range of other formats can also be used successfully, such as quizzes, jam sessions, debates, graffiti walls, speed geeking, Knowledge 10-10, barcamps and knowledge cafes, according to Padma Bhamidipati, Principal, Knowledge Management Group, Infosys Technologies

She explained how knowledge cafes were used in 2009-2010 to involve 10,000+ Infosys employees in strategy formulation. “Attention deficit is on the rise in an always connected world. Well-designed face-to-face interactions help improve involvement of knowledge workers in an organisation, she added.

C.S. Shobha, Senior Director of Quality & Operational Excellence at Dell Services, also explained how competitions, Six Thinking Hats, debates, annual Knowledge Fests and live judging events helped crystallise awareness about best practices. Quizzes are good for bringing in more participation from younger employees, thanks to the buzz factor, excitement and a chance to win prizes.

Both panelists agreed that monetary incentives may work in early stages of launching a KM initiative in an organisation, but as the organisation matures it is peer recognition that matters more for knowledge contributors.

They also cautioned that even with a well-designed forum, great ideas will not always emerge. It is also hard to record everything at such interactive events, but the tacit-to-tacit knowledge exchange is productive.

Other K-Community participants such as Raj Datta, CKO of MindTree, explained how variations and mutations of such formats include realtime emergence of topics and hosts as compared to pre-determined ones. Formats such as barcamps and unconferences are becoming very popular in India, he observed.

In sum, in a world of increasing online interaction and social media, it is becoming more important than ever for managers to devise and design face-to-face and hybrid engagement formats to bring out new perspectives, crystallise knowledge across teams, and help people understand each other better.

See you all in May at our next K-Community gathering; suggestions for topics, sponsors and hosts most welcome!!!