Inmagic Inc.

It is a good post - however, Barack Obama was a &#...

2011-03-28T02:32:21.428-04:00

It is a good post - however, Barack Obama was a 'community organizer' more than 10 years ago which I think is about the same as 'community manager'. Some of these E2.0 jobs have been around longer than we think.

It's always a pleasure to reminded of a past a...

2011-03-25T13:08:22.370-04:00

It's always a pleasure to reminded of a past accomplishment that received little publicity at the time of its inception. Your posting of the newsletter reminds me that the menu system that I designed (and coded) for IMC back in 1985/86 qualifies today as a "federated" search engine. It provided a unified query form that searched an Inmagic textbase and a Boeing DBMS simultaneously on different DEC VAX superminis in a VaxCluster, returning a single results set that provided direct links to relevant records. I later took the 10,000 lines of code with me (with permission) when the IMC group disintegrated and revised it for use at Owens-Corning's research library. Some things never change....I was also involved as a customer of Pacific Knowledge Systems (later WebFeat) with custom extensions of that product's code.
--George Curran
gcurran@rhcc.com

I love this.

2011-03-18T17:50:44.028-04:00

I love this.

Thanks, Douglas. I hope you enjoy the other two bo...

2011-03-11T10:36:14.322-05:00

Thanks, Douglas. I hope you enjoy the other two books also. If not, you know where to find me :)

- David W.
self@evident.com

Please put me in the draw for the 3 David Weinberg...

2011-03-02T20:22:23.599-05:00

Please put me in the draw for the 3 David Weinberger books, I'd love to read his thoughts on the new "unorganized" digital world.
@vivvyN
vbennett@lic.co.nz

I heart PEZ. Thanks Carolyn!

2011-02-26T21:39:01.102-05:00

I heart PEZ. Thanks Carolyn!

Thanks for the comment, David. But to be sure, our...

2011-02-08T10:01:44.868-05:00

Thanks for the comment, David. But to be sure, our post wasn’t intended to be about Societal KM. It sounds like Societal KM, based on the link provided, has more to do with applying knowledge for the public good (policymakers, cities, governments, etc.), whereas our concept of social knowledge management is focused on extracting and leveraging an organization’s explicit and tacit knowledge to meet business needs.

However, you do quote that, “In general, [Societal Knowledge Management] does share the same foundation as the private sector KM. Hence, SKM uses approaches developed and perfected in the private sector. Most management, organizational, and operational principles are similar.” (Wiig 2007)

Similar, sure, but not necessarily the same idea. As it happens, we were just talking about a similar topic in our Social business vs. Enterprise 2.0 debate blog post. Social Business, E2.0, Societal Knowledge Management, social knowledge management, or whatever terms are used to describe it, are all still subjective in nature, and probably always will be -- which is good, because we can have fun hashing it out. :)

The bottom line from our perspective is still that it's not what we call it, but what we do with it that counts.

I love a good debate, and I appreciate a new perspective. But I’ll leave it to the people in the trenches -– information professionals who use a unique combination of technology, people, and processes to gain knowledge and insight -– to choose which theoretical ideal might fit their style of work best.

Thanks, Lindsey. We appreciate your input, and the...

2011-02-07T13:43:25.150-05:00

Thanks, Lindsey. We appreciate your input, and the cross link!

Sorry to say, but this is not Societal KM. Societ...

2011-02-04T15:49:46.128-05:00

Sorry to say, but this is not Societal KM. Societal KM as a concept was defined by the work of Wiig - http://bit.ly/hU2Uht.

One of the problems with KM is that we fill spaces with "technobabble" - there are established meanings for concepts such as SKM and there is no point in polluting an already confused field with conflicting theoretical ideals.

Articles like this make for interesting reading, but, ultimately, they are flawed in their inception.

Cheers for the read,

DG

Great post Carol. I really like your analysis of t...

2011-02-04T13:33:44.663-05:00

Great post Carol. I really like your analysis of the importance of how we use data, versus how much data we have. We have a community for IM professionals (www.openmethodology.org) and have bookmarked this post for our users. Look forward to reading your work in the future.

Thanks, Greg. I appreciate the comment! The indust...

2011-01-31T11:06:32.630-05:00

Thanks, Greg. I appreciate the comment! The industry certainly needs the "do-ers" like you to keep doing. Maybe the "talkers" need to debate for cathartic value, or maybe discussion will (eventually) help us all put context around what are still subjective processes, because I agree that right now what’s actually happening within the walls of organizations and what’s being debated in cyberspace sometimes seems like light years away.

I think you have a valid point, and you even call ...

2011-01-31T06:42:53.636-05:00

I think you have a valid point, and you even call it out as "collaboration". I think we ALL agree that this term is too vague. I have now decided to leave the debate behind and just continue to do what I do (which is change the way that my company does business), and leave the debate to the ones who think that having a label is a good use of energy and or financially gain from it.

Phil you wrote: "Hey's version of the DI...

2011-01-12T01:36:02.898-05:00

Phil you wrote:

"Hey's version of the DIKW hierarchy goes so far as to describe knowledge or wisdom as "generally personal, subjective and inherently local -- it is found '[within] the heads of employees.'" I'm not sure I agree with this."

Why do you note agree with it?

Knoweldge is the stuff that is inside people's heads. Information is knowledge that has been made explicit through some means, e.g. text, writing, etc.

Luke

Awesome. I know what we'll be reading for a be...

2010-12-23T09:27:55.644-05:00

Awesome. I know what we'll be reading for a bedtime story tomorrow night. :)

Thanks for the opportunity to spout. But, just to...

2010-12-15T13:38:20.698-05:00

Thanks for the opportunity to spout.

But, just to be clear, I am not predicting the end of the Internet. In the interview, I express a fear that we could lose the Net if we don't make the right policy choices. At the moment, I'm gloomy about our ability to do so, but that does not rise to the level of a prediction.

I don't know what will happen, because it's up to us to choose what will happen.

Thanks, Ann! Here’s to another 27. :)

2010-08-17T12:56:30.403-04:00

Thanks, Ann! Here’s to another 27. :)

Many of Inmagic's Authorized Partners began us...

2010-08-16T15:25:45.770-04:00

Many of Inmagic's Authorized Partners began using Inmagic software in 1983, read the initial newsletter, and still use, support, sell, and proselytize about Inmagic software to this day! 27 years and counting!

@StanderBy, Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, it’s...

2010-08-16T11:31:53.455-04:00

@StanderBy,
Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, it’s true, only time will tell the extent to which SharePoint impacts the enterprise. We are simply reporting feedback based on our customers’ experiences across many disciplines and industries. This post is not so much a ‘wish’ as a ‘reflection’. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out in reality.

This review appears to be more of a wish than anyt...

2010-08-09T08:08:59.351-04:00

This review appears to be more of a wish than anything based on reality.

SharePoint is and (to a great extent was in the making) an enterprise product.

It is for the world to decide which side of the fence they wish to sit and wait for Microsoft to die.

For all you care, it will outlast all the fence sitters and encroach the ECM space slowly but steadily.

SharePoint 2010 augments / addresses almost all of the gaps that were found in SharePoint 2007 - ECD, DMS, RMS, WCM spaces and has a far cleaner integration with Office clients.

It is not perfect, it will be in another few iterations but life is like that - never too perfect.

About adoption - you are grossly mistaken. Enterprises are doing a lot of testing the ground / implementations around SharePoint 2010 and by 2012 - it will be the Office of the ECM.

Take a bet.

Thank you for all of your insightful comments! In ...

2010-07-08T12:37:52.002-04:00

Thank you for all of your insightful comments! In case you didn't see our post announcing the winner, I wanted to announce here too. The lucky person is Nigel Burke! Nigel, just send our blogger Elena an email with your mailing address so we can send you the book. Her email is elena@gregoryfca.com. Look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers!

@Atle, I think your examples here are correct. Cer...

2010-07-06T17:03:25.314-04:00

@Atle,
I think your examples here are correct. Certain aspects of knowledge in hands-on professions (e.g., mechanic and surgeon) cannot be captured by a knowledge repository, much less by social media. This is because the learning is very much “mind-body.” You must learn by doing.

However, both of these professions are also very much driven by other forms of knowledge that are disseminated in more traditional ways. For example, manuals, journals, and/or continuing education courses for mechanics and doctors.

The point is that social media can speed the capture and dissemination of this type of knowledge. And therefore the lines between information and knowledge begin to blur.

Lastly, I like your final distinction that wisdom incorporates the “why?” This type of knowledge is extremely difficult to capture, but it is what allows humans to understand how and when to use this knowledge across new domains and in very different situations.

In your example, I would say that having a mechani...

2010-07-02T14:05:39.613-04:00

In your example, I would say that having a mechanic with knowledge would mean that he could fix the problem without having to "learn as you go" (reading the information (manuals) while trying to fix it).

In a hands-on profession (mechanic, surgeon etc), you probably can't gain the proper knowledge without practice. You can share the information, and parts of the knowledge, but often you really need to gain the knowledge yourself, on your own.

I believe wisdom is reaching a higher level - understanding the "why". In this case, it could be the understanding that the reason that you car broke down and a certain part needs to be fixed/replaced is because of a different, seemingly unrelated part that has problems due to the local climate or whatnot.

After fixing hundreds of cars, you may gain extra wisdom beyond the common knowledge. This may allow you to say why you think you shouldn't repair the car, as your experience tells you that at this point it is better to buy a new car than to repair a dying car.

I don't believe the DIKW hierarchy is any different for social media, except that it has become easier to share, and therefore more people are experiencing information overload (very seldom "knowledge overload")....

Looking forward to the next posts - my 2 cents on the subject:

- http://www.ppcsoft.com/blog/km-3.asp

I believe Implementing E2.0 comes down to what som...

2010-07-02T13:25:49.728-04:00

I believe Implementing E2.0 comes down to what some others have said here....whatever you are doing....blog, wiki, etc...you need to be solving a business problem. Increasing collaboration is great, but what is the business problem that you are trying to solve. I think that is what gets the attention of senior management, particularly in these trying economic times.

Caution: The DIKW hierarchy in any form is subject...

2010-07-02T11:58:32.960-04:00

Caution: The DIKW hierarchy in any form is subject to a lot of criticism. I have always found it a quick description of the differences in these concepts, but then it starts breaking down when I put more critical thought into the question. The whole idea that one can be drawn from the other becomes difficult when you consider experience, culture, social networks and the rest of human behavior.

That said, it will be interesting to see where you go with the connection to social media...

Having followed Ross since his first book "De...

2010-07-01T08:58:54.244-04:00

Having followed Ross since his first book "Developing knowledge-based client relationships" - which incidentally only mentioned the internet very briefly - it is interesting to see how his thinking has developed and how he manages to tie-back cutting edge technology to basis management principles.

A key element of his first book was how real value creation happens where there is true co-development of ideas and I believe that ultimately this is the promise of Enterprise 2.0 however there are a number of practical obstacles which must be negotiated in reaching this point and hopefully Ross' book will help in this