From the keyboard of Stuart Henshall, one of the most advanced thinkers about the “flows” of information combined with usability and innovation.

Stuart helped out with the blogging at the just-ended KMWorld and also gave a presentation on the last day about how people are beginning to use Twitter to connect, stimulate, catalyze and coordinate flows of information.

I thought he did a great job of outlining interesting possibilities .. but it seems he made some people nervous and some people stretch their minds.  That may be because he has been immersed in the world of constant micro-flows of information and mobility for the last half-year while many of those at KMWorld are just now beginning to come to terms with blogging, using wikis and social computing.  There may be one of those classic mismatches, the kind that lead to phrases like “You can always recognize the pioneers, they’re the ones walking around with arrows sticking out of their backs“.

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Accelerating Innovation, Knowledge Innovation

Social Media or KM / KM or Social Media

 

I sat in earlier on a session on the Future of KM. There are three very different people on the panel. I’ve been listening with half an ear. This means what I write may have nothing to do with the context of the session. However, part of the reason we come to events like this is to spark other thoughts and tangents.

So far today I’ve not heard the word “flows”, I don’t hear “lifestreaming” I still feel what I am hearing is that knowledge is to be managed, moved, manipulated. Plus I just heard Dave Pollard say that SARS, 9/11, Katrina etc were all failures of classic knowledge management. I can’t quite put my finger on why KM isn’t learning and moving forward more quickly. It suggests to me that there remains a bigger problem.

Individuals are increasingly using personal tools, blogs, wikis, social networks, mobile phone, etc. As they move into this realm publicly they create more information about themselves. I’m increasingly seeing these tools being put to use by marketing / PR. KM seems to be missing these social media implications. Thus adoption of these tools is not being driven by the need to manage knowledge. Rather it’s driven by responding faster, being more adaptive, building on what others do, opening up systems so they can find that they need just in time. It’s a learning centric approach. I see it when I go to blogging sessions and talk to people there. The difference is they are believers.

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I’m thinking more and more that the social media experts are likely to usurp or overturn many KM practices in time. The fact that SAP, Oracle and IBM are today all working with Twitter like updates is at least encouraging.

Maybe they can still sell a knowledge platform?

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At this very same conference one year ago Stuart wrote a post with which I agree 100% … while people in companies and business everywhere are looking for business case or ROI justification for using social media tools (while understanding semi-consciously that of course useful knowledge gets built in social interaction) they have to work (and experiment) at overcoming a lifetime of working in environments that divide and separate problems, responsibilities and challenges into discrete and divided bundles of tasks that are supposed to fit together like an orderly paint-by-numbers-like template (by which I mean an organizational chart).

To understand how using social media to increase effectiveness, responsiveness and innovation in an environment characterized by constant flows of information, you have to Use the Tools First; Then Talk To Me.

Read the whole post on a possible future for KM here .. 

I’m sitting in on a session on the Future of KM. There are three very different people on the panel. I’ve been listening with half an ear. This means what I write may have nothing to do with the context of the session. However, part of the reason we come to events like this is to spark other thoughts and tangents.

So far today I’ve not heard the word “flows”, I don’t hear “lifestreaming” I still feel what I am hearing is that knowledge is to be managed, moved, manipulated. Plus I just heard Dave Pollard say that SARS, 9/11, Katrina etc were all failures of classic knowledge management. I can’t quite put my finger on why KM isn’t learning and moving forward more quickly. It suggests to me that there remains a bigger problem.

Individuals are increasingly using personal tools, blogs, wikis, social networks, mobile phone, etc. As they move into this realm publicly they create more information about themselves. I’m increasingly seeing these tools being put to use by marketing / PR. KM seems to be missing these social media implications. Thus adoption of these tools is not being driven by the need to manage knowledge. Rather it’s driven by responding faster, being more adaptive, building on what others do, opening up systems so they can find what they need just in time. It’s a learning centric approach. I see it when I go to blogging sessions and talk to people there. The difference is they are believers.

I have a feeling I wrote something about this last year. I did. I wrote a post on use it first then talk to me. I wrote in that post about Flock and said “the social browser” why isn’t it commented on. This year I’m fairly certain I won’t hear a word about Chrome. I summed up that post with the following.

There is no KM2.0 model today. Perhaps that is the way it should be. Fragmented. Fragments certainly fit with Dave Snowden’s theories. Maybe we should just throw out the concept and go back to me, you, and us? When you use these tools everyday it’s easy to forget that the rest of the world isn’t quite there yet. Sharing and creating the stories of what could be.. I think that is exciting.

I had listed a year ago Facebook API, and tried initiating some Twitter activity. Today Twitter is more visible although most I’ve spoken to want to run a mile from it. Although I’d be pressing forward recommending that the future is now emerging with the social iPhone, and the app environment that it is now creating. That’s where you can accelerate your learning. Note many of the successful iPhone apps were generated off the Facebook learnings which were obvious a year ago. At each phase or evolution of social media learnings are being aggregated. Being successful requires more of the person and their understanding to be successful. This is not just about dollars. Today I look at the iPhone which is now rapidly creating location based opportunities that will redefine business interactions.

I’m thinking more and more that the social media experts are likely to usurp or overturn many KM practices in time. The fact that SAP, Oracle and IBM are today all working with Twitter like updates is at least encouraging. Maybe they can still sell a knowledge platform?

Dave Pollard has been writing a blog even longer than I have. His “How to Save the World” is in my view a classic and still hosted on Salon. His most recent blog post was on Happiness and Dave does seem a lot happier this year. Now I have his slides I can quickly read ahead and then think about points I may want to make. Before reading it I like the shift to Connections.

Key Points
Dave dates KM to 1994 through 2003 and relates it as management information systems. However this is very much a US centric point of view. The Europeans had a much more “people” centric POV. At the time the early conversation was often about Intellectual Capital. This was at time depersonalized by calling these routines Knowledge objects etc. Books I read in those times included Karl Erik Sveiby, Leif Edvinson, Tom Stewart.

I agree with Dave that these repositories didn’t help much and the reality is they created little real value. Quotes Davenport on work that most spend 50% of their time processing information. These workers lacked reserach skills. The paucity of positive results was accredited to the lack of networking. Of course that created other problems like who is talking to who and who doesn’t talk.

In Trying Again with KM2.0 Dave focuses on personal content tools. I think the key thing is write and share for the many rather than the few. Updating a wiki benefits the many. Updating a blog is better than an email it is more transparent and todays tags etc can make sure it is directed at someone. The individual needs to be freed to contribute. More importantly boundaries aren’t fixed anylonger. My experience says organizations are still not opening up. Outside software and small startups few companies can really capture their communities to help and enable them to create value. Think Facebook API, iPhone Apps, Microsoft and many smaller cos which are exposing more and more of their information stucture.

On to Improving Connection. I believe one of the largest challenges facing organzations is how to raise the conversations efficiently and effectively. There’s lots of friction in finding someone and even if you find them they may not be able to talk. Routing the conversations that matter are increasingly less and less likely to take place desktop to desktop. Just like face to face the real value is in the moment. This happens to be a “thing” for me as the co-founder of Phweet that aims rapidly escalate conversations without the need to exchange numbers etc.

JIT canvassing. I’d simply call this Twitter. (Yes their are others Oracle, SAP and IBM all are working on them. Yammer, Presently, and Identi.ca are also example heading into this space). Short messages saying can you help me with… Re Environmental Scanning I’d like to think about this in terms of Mashups! Eg putting data on maps is a most obvious one. However as companies open their information processes new forms of value can be created.

Anyone that know me knows I’m already totally entrenched in these tools. I like Dave’s evangelism of the new tools and finding new practices. Yet I have the same fear I had last year that the audience doesn’t either have much control or isn’t bringing these tools quickly into their organizations. I hope I’m proven wrong as I have more conversations with others here. Makes me fearful of “telling” others buy an iPhone, Tweet, and use some of the location based solutions.

I’m going to say I think Twitter or similar signaling systems are going to have the most impact. If there is one new behavior to go away with it is that. Use Twitter. Experiment.