Guest Speaker – Dave Simmons
I enjoyed Dave Simmons presentation. His rules of thumb segment was particularly interesting. Some of the rules I will probably use in my life are as follows:
1. write once – use many times,
2. connect knowledge management to you daily life/work
3. Rollouts are over rated.
4. Build lexicons, taxonomies, and definitions
It makes only makes since if you want to be productive that you create something that can be used again and again with time instead of having to recreate the wheel each time. As our professor states again and again every problem can be a KM problem if you want it to be. Therefore, why not connect knowledge management to your daily life and work. Finally, working quite a bit with websites and portals I have spent a considerable amount time working on taxonomies and definitions. I expect that my future will hold a lot more of that.
Last thing I did want to make not of was Dave’s last comment about the importance of knowing how to persuade others to do things that normally they don’t want to do. You can't always expect the easy sell, most of the time you will have to work for it.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Week 6 – Discussion and Articles
Few key points I took away from lecture six were 1. Use stories as a way of transferring knowledge and 2. The knowledge solicitation process. I guess I am very fortunate because I feel that I am a very good story teller the only issue there is that according to the professor my stories should be true. This may through a little kink in some of my knowledge transfer sessions.
In regards to the knowledge solicitation process in its most basic form, you will have a source (Al Burns), you will have a channel on which information flows through, and then there will be a recipient (Ben Casillas). Then there is this whole concept of laminar verses turbulent data flow where laminar has one expert and one recipient in turbulent flow everybody is a so called expert.
Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning
After reading this article and viewing figure 1 (the KM cycle model) you start to realize that a lot of terms and idea’s are kind of reiterated by the different authors. Of course there are variations but quite a few similarities. Within this KM article, I feel that learning really occurs within the Utilization step of the KM cycle model. This is the step where you actually do something useful with the information you acquired. Yes you can say that you learn as you are going through the creation and acquisition phase but if you think about it, at this point you are just gathering data not necessarily knowing what you have yet.
Huber 1991
Looking at the 4 branches of the diagram in figure 1, I would have to say that media richness would mostly be found within under the Information Interpretation step as stated by the diagram. This branch is meant for deciding on how to pass on information and how you want the information that is passed on to be interpreted. We all know that the same piece of information can mean a million different things to a million different people. This is why this branch is important in making sure that the correct media is selected in the dissemination of the information.
According to the Author of the article, unlearning is the step that must take place before a new interpretation could take place. This too falls under the Information interpretation branch. Basically, that is saying that if you have a certain belief instilled in you, it may be difficult to accept another version of the truth even if presented to you with facts.
In regards to the knowledge solicitation process in its most basic form, you will have a source (Al Burns), you will have a channel on which information flows through, and then there will be a recipient (Ben Casillas). Then there is this whole concept of laminar verses turbulent data flow where laminar has one expert and one recipient in turbulent flow everybody is a so called expert.
Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning
After reading this article and viewing figure 1 (the KM cycle model) you start to realize that a lot of terms and idea’s are kind of reiterated by the different authors. Of course there are variations but quite a few similarities. Within this KM article, I feel that learning really occurs within the Utilization step of the KM cycle model. This is the step where you actually do something useful with the information you acquired. Yes you can say that you learn as you are going through the creation and acquisition phase but if you think about it, at this point you are just gathering data not necessarily knowing what you have yet.
Huber 1991
Looking at the 4 branches of the diagram in figure 1, I would have to say that media richness would mostly be found within under the Information Interpretation step as stated by the diagram. This branch is meant for deciding on how to pass on information and how you want the information that is passed on to be interpreted. We all know that the same piece of information can mean a million different things to a million different people. This is why this branch is important in making sure that the correct media is selected in the dissemination of the information.
According to the Author of the article, unlearning is the step that must take place before a new interpretation could take place. This too falls under the Information interpretation branch. Basically, that is saying that if you have a certain belief instilled in you, it may be difficult to accept another version of the truth even if presented to you with facts.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Week 5 – Discussion
This week we covered decision making and problem solving. I have to say that one thing I did take away from this week’s lecture is that there is no such thing as a bad decision. There is on the other hand, an irrational decision. Every decision ever made, even if at the time made absolutely no sense to you, had to have some sort of rational by the decision maker. Even then, it is impossible to make a perfect decision because you never have all the information you need to make the most rational decision. Mind boggling isn’t it?
I did want to make a quick note about the effect Multimedia has on decision making. I’ve been playing the Metallica song over and over on my Xbox (Guitar Heroes III) and never really thought about the lyrics or what the song was really about. Reading the lyrics, hearing the song, and finally watching the video was an excellent way of proving how multimedia can string you along and make you see/think what they want you to. Create Bias.
Action Learning
The six steps of the “problem solving process” are, in my mind anyway, fairly straight forward and can apply to any problem. By following each individual step you are assuring yourself not only that you are finding the proper solution to a problem but that you are focusing on a real problem that needs solving. Each of the six steps: 1. presenting the problem 2. Reframe the problem. 3. Determine causes of the problem 4. Develop alternative solutions 5. Evaluate alternatives and select actions and 6. Implement the solution, play a crucial piece in the solution as a whole. In my opinion though I would have to put a little more weight on step number two, Reframe the problem. The reason being is that by taking this step you are making sure you are dealing with a real problem. You are forcing yourself to look at the issue as a whole and make sure that the problem you think you have is not really just a subset of a much bigger problem. By taking all this into consideration you actually start the process of answering questions to the remaining steps. That being said, this is just a piece of the whole process and relies entirely on the other five steps to come to some resolution to some problem.
Understanding and Supporting Decision Making
An Interview with Gary Klein
This article covers a different perspective on Decision making. Instead of following the more traditional decision making model, Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) basically deals more with real life decision making in a person’s natural environment. I understood NDM to be a framework that will study how a person would do at any given moment, with current surroundings, pressures, etc. NDM also takes into consideration the quality of decision making based on a person’s experience on a particular subject.
What Data Mining Can and Can't Do
According to Professor Peter Fader, more data is in not necessarily a good thing. I have to say that I agree and speaking from experience, I can see where he is coming from. It is always better to go for quality versus quantity when it comes to data. If you start collecting all the data available to you without really doing any filtering you will end up with bad data which will skew your information.
I did want to make a quick note about the effect Multimedia has on decision making. I’ve been playing the Metallica song over and over on my Xbox (Guitar Heroes III) and never really thought about the lyrics or what the song was really about. Reading the lyrics, hearing the song, and finally watching the video was an excellent way of proving how multimedia can string you along and make you see/think what they want you to. Create Bias.
Action Learning
The six steps of the “problem solving process” are, in my mind anyway, fairly straight forward and can apply to any problem. By following each individual step you are assuring yourself not only that you are finding the proper solution to a problem but that you are focusing on a real problem that needs solving. Each of the six steps: 1. presenting the problem 2. Reframe the problem. 3. Determine causes of the problem 4. Develop alternative solutions 5. Evaluate alternatives and select actions and 6. Implement the solution, play a crucial piece in the solution as a whole. In my opinion though I would have to put a little more weight on step number two, Reframe the problem. The reason being is that by taking this step you are making sure you are dealing with a real problem. You are forcing yourself to look at the issue as a whole and make sure that the problem you think you have is not really just a subset of a much bigger problem. By taking all this into consideration you actually start the process of answering questions to the remaining steps. That being said, this is just a piece of the whole process and relies entirely on the other five steps to come to some resolution to some problem.
Understanding and Supporting Decision Making
An Interview with Gary Klein
This article covers a different perspective on Decision making. Instead of following the more traditional decision making model, Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) basically deals more with real life decision making in a person’s natural environment. I understood NDM to be a framework that will study how a person would do at any given moment, with current surroundings, pressures, etc. NDM also takes into consideration the quality of decision making based on a person’s experience on a particular subject.
What Data Mining Can and Can't Do
According to Professor Peter Fader, more data is in not necessarily a good thing. I have to say that I agree and speaking from experience, I can see where he is coming from. It is always better to go for quality versus quantity when it comes to data. If you start collecting all the data available to you without really doing any filtering you will end up with bad data which will skew your information.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Week 4 – Discussion and Articles
One of the main items I took away from week 4 is an introduction to some pretty nifty information capturing and storing software. Mindmapper was pretty cool but I have to say I would probably never use that software in my lifetime. Microsoft Office Onenote on the other hand did get my attention. I downloaded the software and installed it on my personal PC and I have to say, it is rather excellent. I’m one of those students that creates a new folder for the current term and within that folder I place sub-folders for each course I am taking. Within each course folder I add folders for weeks, assignments, midterm, and final. I basically follow this same process at work and at home for my media collection. It is my way of keeping organized. Onenote somewhat captures what I do manually into a software package. I found it fairly easy to use with no learning curve and till now fairly useful. I will keep using it till I find that my old way is more affective or till I find something better.
I have to be honest, I never really put too much thought behind the process of capturing Knowledge, Capture, Structure, Store, Codify, Disseminate, Integrate, Use and finally regenerate. In my current company we use a portal mainly for its KM and collaboration functionality. We use what SAP calls collaboration rooms to store company information and make it available to those with authorization. The portal does basically follow most of these processes. It captures information and provides some structure when it stores it. It then disseminates the information to the entire organization, or those that should have access to it anyway. Use these tools have had an enormous impact on the company. One thing worth mentioning though is since most organization always look at the bottom line (how much does it cost) before investing in these software packages, Knowledge Management software I found is not the easiest to sell. It is rather difficult to capture a solid ROI.
Last but not least I would like to mention PKM or Personal Knowledge Management. I guess I indirectly spoke about it earlier when I mentioned how I structure my folders to capture different information. PKM is just another one of those terms that you never really think about but just do. We all use PKM whether we are aware of it or not. After years of trial and error I am pretty much set in my ways on how I go about learning new things and how I retain that knowledge.
7 things you should know about… Wikis
Yes I’ve used Wikis before, in today’s age who hasn’t stumbled across Wikipedia once or twice. I do have to admit though that I never really thought about what a Wiki really consisted of. For those who really don’t know what a wiki is this article is a fast, easy read that does a fairly decent job of describing Wikis.
I have to be honest, I never really put too much thought behind the process of capturing Knowledge, Capture, Structure, Store, Codify, Disseminate, Integrate, Use and finally regenerate. In my current company we use a portal mainly for its KM and collaboration functionality. We use what SAP calls collaboration rooms to store company information and make it available to those with authorization. The portal does basically follow most of these processes. It captures information and provides some structure when it stores it. It then disseminates the information to the entire organization, or those that should have access to it anyway. Use these tools have had an enormous impact on the company. One thing worth mentioning though is since most organization always look at the bottom line (how much does it cost) before investing in these software packages, Knowledge Management software I found is not the easiest to sell. It is rather difficult to capture a solid ROI.
Last but not least I would like to mention PKM or Personal Knowledge Management. I guess I indirectly spoke about it earlier when I mentioned how I structure my folders to capture different information. PKM is just another one of those terms that you never really think about but just do. We all use PKM whether we are aware of it or not. After years of trial and error I am pretty much set in my ways on how I go about learning new things and how I retain that knowledge.
7 things you should know about… Wikis
Yes I’ve used Wikis before, in today’s age who hasn’t stumbled across Wikipedia once or twice. I do have to admit though that I never really thought about what a Wiki really consisted of. For those who really don’t know what a wiki is this article is a fast, easy read that does a fairly decent job of describing Wikis.
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