Why Knowledge Management?

Knol Watch

I was hoping to not get caught up in Google's Knol and perhaps come back to it in 6 months for a review of their progress, but thanks to Google Alerts, Knol marches on.

Google Alerts sent me to Ron Young's KM Consulting blog, and his announcement on July 31st, that he had posted a Knol (unit of knowledge) on Knowledge Management (KM). The interesting take that Ron has on Knol is that he views the tool as a space for collaboration. His blog posting indicates that Knol has allowed him to develop the article on line, editing and adding as he goes, and he is currently asking for reviews and feedback. In his words:

"My first article is far far from complete, but because it is a Knol, it can be rapidly developed, continually improved, and I can refine and develop it further over time and experience. What I urgently seek now is comments and even reviews. Any sort of feedback is very much welcomed."

In visiting Young's knol Knowledge Management in the 21st Century, I found a well designed unit of knowledge.

As of today, the know was already up to its 17th revision. At over 2500 words, KM in the 21st Century is quite a sizable unit of knowledge. Mixing some history of KM, with a definition, a description of KM tools, and a scope for KM's future, I thought it was educational and helpful. I would say my only negative comment would be in the length of the Knol, which is not a good judge of value...just an impression. I enjoyed the content, so I think I'll reserve judgment until I read more knols, re-read Ron Young's knol, and then, of course, I will post some comments there and give Ron a choice to take it or leave it!

While I was there, I thought I'd see what else was cooking, so a current search of Knol shows 13 knols on Knowledge Management. As expected, there is a lot of room for growth, but some early adopters have taken advantage to forge the way. Somehow I'm expecting more Google Alerts in the short term.

Launching a Unit of Knowledge

I was tipped off by a colleague this week that Google's knowledge management play, Knol, has recently been launched.

Originally announced via blog in mid-December with a formal press release in January, Knol - short for Unit of Knowledge - is a Wikipedia-type site, with a few major differences. 

The Knol home page clearly states that a Knol is "an authoritative article about a specific topic."

Whereas Wikipedia is a somewhat "open" environment, inviting everyone to contribute to dynamic articles, Knol mandates the creation of an article by a single user, which is unalterable. Users can comment upon the content, ask questions, and rate the value of a Knol, but they cannot edit it.

The other major difference is that Wikipedia's contributors are mostly anonymous (unless you look at the history, but even then it displays login names) and Knol requires the expert be credited and take their bows or lumps.

At Knol, I saw plenty of contributions by medical doctor's about all sorts of medical conditions (which seems to be the majority of the content at this time) and a recipe for excellent pancakes.

Hey, the site is very new and Wikipedia has a 7 year head start - if that even matters. Knol is ripe for all types of content and should be interesting to watch over the next few years.

Information Overload Hits the Big Time

About six months ago, I posted here that Information Overload (IO) was going to become a pertinent topic for discussion this year as study of the problem would intensify. A recent Information Overload Conference (great link for the statistically inclined) in New York City hosted by Basex is evidence of the growing concern and discussion/search for solutions.

Observations started at YKM as early as September 2005 with Knowledgeworker interruptions (from email, text, land/cell calls, visits, et al). Basex is at the forefront of the issue with continual observations and regular reports in their weekly TechWatch newsletter.

The Information Overload link above is chock full of facts from the conference, but the research is showing some generalized results:

• It was reported that most interruptions are non urgent/important, but are treated as such (and we allow the interruption). This, and the time it takes to re-focus, represents 28% of the day.
• 25% of our time is spent productively in content creation (including email).
• We spend 20% of our time in meetings.
• 15% of the day is spent in searching for things.
• Thinking and reflecting (productively?) represents 12%.

Expect more research into IO. I have received some comments, and there are postings, that the $650 billion dollars in waste that Basex has estimated that interruptions cost the US economy is probably on the conservative side.

While Basex continues to dig into interruptions and email mis-use,  research has and should continue to be done on some of these other areas of our day, including the productivity of meetings, search, and reflection.

Learn from Living

It is interesting that during the course of any given day, there are probably at least 6 - 12 things that a person experiences that can be chalked up to Knowledge Management, or that can be incorporated into one's knowledgebase. 

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of time for surfing the web and looking for the latest news...I let Google Alerts point me in the right direction.

Well I became aware of a blog posting by David Snowden of Cognitive Edge, where he catalogs just such an experience in his day...but in his case, he was not only able to identify KM in use, but was able to isolate the various facets of the knowledge in his post Knowledge In Action. From his one experience, he was able to show knowledge in action in 4 different ways and then weave a story  that shows each's applicability.

Information Overload in the Knowledge Universe

Last week, Basex, conducted a 15 minute Webinar on the subject of Information Overload (I.O.), the video of which is still available for viewing.

Work interruptions and general overload has been a growing problem, which Basex has been following closely for quite some time (I first commented on Basex's Interruptions research back in September 2005) and while they have always garnered some press on the subject, they are starting to get more traction with the media outlets.

The vast sources of knowledge, available on the net, within the business, inside your team and now made more accessible, ensures that we're always buried in one or more of our gadgets designed to keep us in touch with our necessary resources. Then, combine that with the fact that 'knowledge' or at least content is being produced in greater volume than every before, and that managers and knowledgeworkers are not trained in how to handle the onslaught, and you have a big problem. How big?

The costs of information overload, which includes such things as email and cell phone interruptions, poor quality of search in the enterprise, and just pure volume of information are staggering at an estimated 2.1 hours per day  per knowledgeworker and dollarized to be $650 billion in 2007 in the U.S.. The unmeasured cost? Stifled innovation and restrained productivity. 

So for 15 minutes (1 minute to register and 14 minutes for the video of the Webinar), it's time well invested to better understand the problem identified, become aware of some known solutions, and to get connected to Basex who will be studying the I.O. trend and potential solutions more closely over the next year(s).

YouTube for Knowledge Management?

The headline initially startled me too. YouTube for KM? - No way.

And I'm not seriously suggesting YouTube for KM....but...

Seth McGrath's  ITWorld.com article, "Leveraging web technologies to capture and manage knowledge assets," is very insightful.

No, he does not actually suggest that you use YouTube for knowledge capture and distribution, but he does suggest using the technology (video) to capture knowledge dumps that can be prepared and stored for distribution. Face it, a video capture of someone's thoughts and actions delivered with their passion or emotion of the situation is far better (and a lot quicker) than trying to capture the same knowledge in writing.

More specifically, he had several great ideas (though the article is a great setup and delivery - much better than this footnote):

1. Use video to capture knowledge and a YouTube-type repository for storage and distribution.
2. Use Social Network applications on the local intranet.
3. Use Blogs for day-to-day capture of activities and what is being worked on.
4. Use a Wiki for collaborative projects.
5. Use a  del.icio.us-style tagging system for classification.

....and more.

McGrath's suggesting the utilization of today's most popular technologies for knowledge management purposes is strong and useful advice.

Google Expands Knowledge Management Presence

A recent Google Alert from CMSWire released news that Google has begun beta on a new project called Knol. The January 2nd, 2008 Press Release announced Google's intent to move deeper into KM with a  Wikipedia-like site.

Knol is the name of the project, and it is also used to describe a specific page within the project, which is a "unit of knowledge."

A check of the Official Google Blog, found a December 13th announcement from VP Engineering, Udi Manber. The main goal of the project is to create a way for people to easily contribute knowledge. In the beta format, Google is inviting a small circle of authors to contribute pages/articles/knols on subjects in which they are expert.

One difference from Wikipedia is that Knol will acknowledge the author of a unit of knowledge, and let the community contribute, but in the form of comments and supplemental information. Once Knol is open to the public, questions, reviews and ratings can also be added by the community, and Google will be responsible for providing an effective ranking for searches.

Google intends to provide easy-to-use tools for the writing and editing. The hosting and the formatting will all be managed by Google leaving the authors to focus on the units of knowledge, units that will cover subjects from the scientific to pop culture. The content will not be edited by the host, and the host will not bless any articles.

Important disclaimer - quality of knols will not be policed, except by the community in their reviews, ratings, comments and questions.

Another striking difference between this collection of knowledge and that contained in Wikipedia, or even About.com, is that authors will be encouraged to put their reputation on the line with their opinions, and that sectors of knowledge may have competitive knols, thus acknowledging different points of views and different trains of thought on a subject.

Last, and certainly most interesting, is that an author can agree to include ads in their unit of knowledge. Google promises, "substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads" to the associated author.

Check out the beta view in this knol.

Business Analytics Software as a Service

Business Analytics (BA) which includes such technologies as query, reporting, analysis, data mining and data warehousing is in the process of being packaged and presented as the latest Software as a Service (SaaS) marketplace.  Software as a Service is a software delivery model where the software developer creates a web-based application and hosts it and the data; customers do not buy the software, but rather pay for the use of it.

In KMWorld's January 2008 edition, the page 1 story provides many business reasons why this may be 2008's lead technology. For instance...from the article:

• Budget constraints and corporate capital expenditure policies faced by many departments make it time-consuming and costly to purchase large software purchases.
• IT department resources are constrained and may not have time to build or evaluate and buy specific solutions for every business problem.
• Mature software functionality built on newer technology platforms is suitable for SaaS delivery  because of years of functionality definition and development have established widely accepted best practices that can be configured, rather than customized.
• Budgetary constraints may prevent large acquisitions of traditional business analytics software.
• Companies will focus on core competencies and rely on service providers for more and more support for on-core operating processes.

The article indicates that the Business Analytics market in general is expected to grow, and so why not BA SaaS given the above arguments?  No good counter-reason, it makes sense. SaaS is a rapidly growing market for many types of applications, and BA apps seem a perfect fit.

Important note: traditional purchase of Business Analytics software is expected to remain the mainstay in the short term.

Information Overload

We've heard a lot of "Information Overload"....In my mind, probably so much that we're sick of hearing about it. But, it's probably just that so little has been done about it that it still has a major impact on productivity. Basex in December honored (?) Information Overload (IO) with their 2008 Problem of the Year award.

As much as I may be getting tired of hearing about IO, it is probably only the beginning.

On December 20th, Steve Lohr had his article, Is Information Overload a $650 Billion Drag on the Economy?  published in the New York Times.  The 650 billion representing the cost of interruptions on Knowledgeworkers.

Basex also quotes Intel engineer, Nathan Zeldes, who studies computer productivity issues, who said, "at Intel, we estimated the impact of information overload on each knowledge worker at up to eight hours a week."

If Intel is studying it and it's as much as 8 hours a week - that's serious. Tired of hearing about it or not, perhaps IO is about to hit critical mass in its effects and the creation of new solutions.

Librarians 2, Geeks 0

I have long held the belief that the realm of Knowledge Management did not lie within the sector of technology, but rather, that Knowledge Management is best handled by Human Resources experts, or Librarians.

I know many would pooh-pooh my espousing HR pros as Knowledge Management experts, but given the right training, they have the skills to work with and manage the knowledgeworkers, positioning them to help manage the organization's intellectual property assets. It's also not a stretch to think that your local Human Resources manager can master such KM tools as brainstorming, social networking, shadowing, after action reviews, valuable exit interviews, and storytelling.

Equally qualified to manage knowledge are the Librarians, or information scientists as they are sometimes called. Dr. Ramon C Barquin recently wrote an article in b*eye (Business Intelligence Network), that Librarians are at the center of Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management.

Barquin's experience comes from training US Army Librarians and studying the requests that come in for them to handle.   In fact, during the training, "the Army librarians made patently clear, the vast majority of their work is serving as knowledge managers and connecting anyone that has the need to know something with the right source for that knowledge."

Just as the HR professional is the key to managing the human element, which is critical in KM, the Librarian is expert in categorizing knowledge, understanding and creating taxonomies, creating systems and finding knowledge in a vast storehouse of information, and of course, they have mastered the Dewey Decimal System - no small fete! All jokes aside, Librarians are armed with the tools to handle the capture, categorizing, indexing and helping to find the knowledge.