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Why Have a Portal?

by topsarge

Author Paul Bryan reported in the Intranet Journal* a result of a survey where an oft heard complaint was about low usage of company portals. In his attempt to narrow factors contributing to negative reviews, one of the key challenges he found was “often a result of focusing on technical requirements rather than the real-life context of the system.” Sounds like another example of missing the other two elements of good KM…the People and Processes that support the underlying Technology. Give ’em a portal but don’t show them why they need it, how to use it, or help them change their internal procedures to support it. As Maxwell Smart would say, “ah, The Oldest Trick in the Book!”

Is that a problem in your work area, are there portals at your disposal that are little understood or seldom used? Who needs these portals anyway, I have lived without them for all this time, why do should I use one now? Be it an organizational Sharepoint server, the Army’s Knowledge Online enterprise portal, or one of the communities of practice that have proliferated in the .mil domain, these online internet (or intranet) presences are something you should be paying attention to. I suggest that you may have the technology, but do your people know how to best employ them and have your operating procedures adapted to using them yet?

American Advertsing Federation

by topsarge

If you were at today’s Central Texas’s AAF meeting, I have posted a link to the briefing used for the presentation, feel free to use it for your overview. It is here: Please tell us what you thought of the event! a http://bit.ly/eOxymh

Feast or Famine

by topsarge

“In the digital age, knowledge is our lifeblood. And documents are the DNA of knowledge.”
-–Rick Thoman, CEO, Xerox

In recognizing the way that the operational Army approaches knowledge management one must acknowledge that where you are at in Army Forces Generation (ARFORGEN) will drive your activities and focus at any given time. When you begin a life-cycle, usually at the conclusion of a operation or deployment as of late, knowledge workers are traditionally gathering observations and best practices, archiving and cataloging good ideas and what worked best, and improving on the processes that did not quite work so well. It is then when equipment (and people) are “reset,” new soldiers come while old soldiers go, and new and overhauled equipment is issued.

During the Ready phase is when the knowledge worker is sharpening their axe and helping the unit to prepare. New equipment is integrated and processes are evaluated. Staffs and operators are trained, standard procedures are developed and drills are established. Units begin checking with their deployed counterparts for possible changes and adjustments to their standing procedures while new and emerging doctrine is review and incorporated in to routine activities.

.Read More »Feast or Famine

Digital Revolution

by topsarge

According to the security firm Symantec more new malicious programs were created in 2008 than useful programs, something they predicted would increase in 2009. And according to a recent report that surveyed over 200 corporate and government IT professionals, 50 percent expressed concern that so-called Generation Y employees were a security concern primarily because of their tendency to frequent social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

So my question at hand asks…is the problem the individual and their tendencies to use new mediums to communicate, or is it the technology that allows the security holes to be exploited? That poses a dilemma for organizations grappling with the social-networking phenomenon, or as an expert asked “how do you harness all of the good, but avoid the bad?”

Dirty Dongles Done Dirt Cheap

by topsarge

Paul Bryan reported in the “Intranet Journal” last year a result of a survey where an oft heard complaint was about low usage of company portals. In his attempt to narrow the causative factors contributing to negative reviews one of the key challenges he found was “often a result of focusing on technical requirements rather than the real-life context of the system.” Sounds like another example of missing the other two elements of good KM…the People and Processes that support the underlying Technology. Give ’em a portal but don’t show them why they need it, how to use it, or help them change their internal procedures to support it. As Maxwell Smart would say, “ah, The Oldest Trick in the Book!”

Of Maps and Men

by topsarge

“The best-laid plans of mice and men/often go awry”

How do you go from sharing information to learning new knowledge? Experts describe two types of knowledge, explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is the type that organizations and people exchange by giving instruction and writing steps or details in how-to guides, policies and procedures, or instruction manuals. You can often exchange explicit knowledge regulalrly and it can be done for basic skills, like say maybe map reading. I suggest most good trainers can sit down with a complete novice and after a matter of hours have them reading a military map.

Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge that comes from experience, intuition, and basically a gut feeling. Some of it can be expressed, but other types are difficult for a trainer to actually teach. Consider
explaining to someone how to glance at terrain features and then by using their own experience to be able to convert that 3D view to a spot on 2D map and quickly identify a location. That is probably harder to get across in a simple data exchange.

KM Only, Hold the IT

by topsarge

“So, there we were….” a Most old soldiers knows that all tall tales must start out that way, so this one isn’t any different. So, there we were, another office call, another desk side briefing. One minute into the discussion the SME stops me and asks if I am there to push another computer system, software package or ‘tool’ on him to solve all “his… Read More »KM Only, Hold the IT

Bill Gates, Digital Immigrant

by topsarge

Yep, according to author Marc Prensky, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and the face of the personal computer revolution is a digital immigrant. But so is Steve Jobs, Apple chairman, and Marc Andreessen, a founder of Netscape, the first popular web browser. And, as I was so correctly reminded this week, so am I. Actually, you can pretty much sum up digital immigrants as at… Read More »Bill Gates, Digital Immigrant

Has your Library Card expired?

by topsarge

As I was preparing for what would have been my magnum opus blog entry this week, the firewall on the network provided by the local Directorate of Information Management (DOIM) stopped me dead in my tracks. I was seeking out that one golden nugget to really hammer the nail home on Knowledge Management, but sorry boss, no can do.

Surely you all have been at that exact moment after you click a link when the web address in your browser changes to that familiar filter warning and the big bold letters “WEB ACCESS DENIAL” come at you like a digital smack to your hand? It appears that the site I wanted to see conflicts with the Access Control List and it was going to take a petition to the network gatekeepers before I was ever going to see that now elusive web page. Come to find out, I am never going to see that site from here. And for some unexplained reason I now wanted to see that website more than I have ever wanted to see a website before.

We are gettings a KM What?

by topsarge

“Knowledge management is not a shrink-wrapped thing in a box, it’s a discipline.” –Scott Elliot, Lotus Knowledge Management a 12 former Brigade Commanders with recent operational experience were asked what they wanted most in a Battle Command Officer. The three tasks that came up were “Understand the Tools,” “Leverage the Tools,” and “Teach the Tools.” Of course the tools are the information system that… Read More »We are gettings a KM What?

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