Notes from Enterprise 2.0 and knowledge management talk at Schulich

| enterprise2.0, talk

Thanks to Michael Woloszynowicz for typing up these notes from my talk last night!

  • What is KM?
    • Lots of value if you can share the knowledge in peoples heads with others
    • Finding the person that is best suited for a project
  • Enterprise 2.0
    • Like web 2.0 but geared towards companies
    • Utilizes user technologies e.g. Blogs, Wikis, etc.
  • Why care about enterprise 2.0
    • Differentiate yourself, give you an advantage
    • Broaden your network
    • Number of knowledge issues that companies are struggling with
      • Companies don’t know what to do
    • You will be in the position to make a difference
      • Companies will turn to younger generations to help
  • Enterprise KM is not about the tools
    • Tools change
    • It’s the changes they bring that is important
  • Knowledge is power, 10 areas of questions
    • What is knowledge (document? person? interaction?)
      • Can take a document centric view
      • But you can’t write down everything
        • This  is where people come in, find the right person
        • Not what you know but who you know
      • Sometimes you need the combination of the people and the situation
      • When looking at a paper, you need to know what view the author is taking
    • What do you do with knowledge? Hoard? Share?
      • Knowledge is power
      • Knowledge is something to be kept secret or controlled
        • You can charge lots of money for it
      • Another view is that you can share it, and that is power too
        • Why only limit your knowledge to a few people
        • By sharing it you become an expert
        • People come to you looking for advice, this gives you job security
        • People will also come to you with ideas
      • Differences between hoarding and sharing mindset is important
        • The success of your web 2.0 initiative depends on it
        • Some people do not want to share
      • What’s in it for you?
        • In the short term it can help you to find the information you need and help you practices communication skills
        • You get scale, people know about you
    • Formal vs. Informal
      • Sometimes input involves filling out set fields
      • Things such as Wikipedia are much more informal
      • Newer technologies are much more informal then older ones
        • Get the information out quickly and refine over time
        • There are advantages and disadvantages to this
          • Some people like structure
          • Others like the freedom and not be constrained
          • Constraints may stymie information sharing
            • Informality is quick
      • Informality has a lot of value
        • You can refer back to your old information
        • You can pass it to others
        • People can find it through searches
      • By making it easier to contribute knowledge, you get more of it
    • Relating to formal vs. informal is who has the information? Experts? Novices?
      • Sometimes experts are not the best resource
        • Experts can leave out steps because it is second nature to them
      • Really what you may need is someone that knows more than you
        • Novices can teach you the pitfalls and issues in language you understand
      • Enterprise 2.0 is about everyone contributing what they learn along the way
      • People often don’t contribute because they feel they are not an expert
        • But by learning, others can learn from you
        • For example, have a new hire record their learning
          • Expert can check it to make sure they are on the right path
          • Other can then learn from it
      • Experts and novices can get into conflict
        • Novices that share information become go to people and eventually become experts themselves
        • Mentoring can help to prevent this
    • One tool vs. many tools
      • Some people wait to try things only when others are using them while others want to be early adopters
      • Late adopters and early adopters are sometimes in conflict
        • Email vs. Blogs
      • Too many tools lead to integration issues
      • What happens if a tool goes down?
      • In enterprise 2.0 it pays to introduce one thing at a time and choose the tools carefully
        • Start with your business needs and find the best tool to solve the problem you are working on
    • Managing or facilitating?
      • One of the key things about enterprise 2.0 is collaboration
        • It’s not about submitting a document and closing the process
        • Capture what people are doing and learning along the way
        • Facilitation of collaboration
    • Inside or outside?
      • Companies used to feel that they are the experts in what they do
      • Hire other experts and give them tools to collaborate
      • Now people outside an organization are collaborating
        • Opens up lots of opportunities for companies
        • Can pose problems to the general public for a reward
        • When you can tap the knowledge of those outside the organization you can get more variety and better results
        • E.g. ideastorm
      • Enterprise 2.0 blurs the boundaries between inside and outside
        • Co-creation
    • Adoption is not always easy
      • Culture has a lot to do with it
        • Social, generation, etc.
      • How do you deal with these problems?
        • You have to tell people what the personal benefit is
        • If there are no benefits, people won’t participate
        • Monetary incentive is not the greatest approach
          • Can lead to gaming
        • Appeal to other aspects
          • External recognition? Self fulfilment?
        • Make it part of the way people work
          • Otherwise there is no time to input information after the fact
        • Innovators and early adopters are not a great example, find people in the middle to serve as ambassadors
    • Metrics and ROI
      • How do you quantify these initiatives? What do you measure?
        • Do you measure time savings?
          • Maybe time saved isn’t used to the companies gain
        • A lot of the value is intangible
        • Measure savings on travel or other costs
        • Gather metrics on search results
        • Before and after studies
        • What is the percentage of people using it
      • Metrics you choose will influence user behaviour towards the things you want to gain
    • What next?
      • A lot of value is gained by trying it out
      • This can be outside of work, things that you are passionate about
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