Knowledge Management... 2003/10

km & blogging in the news...

Interesting interview with Evan Williams of Blogger about how Google employees are using blogging now that Blogger has gone all Google ...

Quoting CNET Blog on:

Do you think that's a viable area for knowledge management?

It's really interesting for internal communications. The term "knowledge management" has gotten a bad wrap, but some people say that's because systems have gotten too complicated. A Blogger-like system is the lowest common denominator to putting stuff up, which may be its benefit. If you can easily search over that stuff or follow topics of interest, I think it could be interesting, but it's not yet well explored...

Blogging lowers barriers to expression and attention in Corporations

This is the summary of why blogging is important behind the firewall ... McGee is bang on.

Blogging in organizations = lowering the barriers to expression + lowering the barriers to attention.

KM - Wiki as PIM ... who knew?

I continue to examine using wiki technology for mobile workers. So far, I have created a local install of MoinMoin, a Python wiki look a like for personal experimentation with wiki tools.

The weird thing was that without really consciously setting out to do it, I found it was a great way to manage my personal information. It just seemed such a natural way to organize information. I found myself quickly creating links to pages and then quickly adding the content... It was easy to link the information to multiple topics so that it was easy to find my stuff.

For example, I have to keep track of client contact data, status reports, assorted documents and comments while I work at a client site. It was quick to setup a customer list page, create the customer page, add a link to an engagement list, status reports, etc. You can easily create page templates for creating more structured content like status reports etc.

Also, all this stuff was quickly added to my user's home page ... and all full text searchable. It is 100% better than leaving it all buried in MS Word docs in a directory structure... Wiki as a PIM ... who would have thought.

Here is a great piece at Information Today by David Mattison on the same topic. It is also a fantastic summary of the various tools and includes a good comparison of blogs and wikis for the uninitiated.

Here are some links to others doing the same thing:

• WikiAsPim

• SingleUserWiki

Even Palm Wiki:

• PalmWikiWorld

• Palm Wiki Article

Here is a link to a quick standalone super easy to install wiki server. If you want to try this out, this is good way to start.

• Eddie's QuickWiki

Then, there is a WikiWeblogPIM. This site is looking for a combination of a Wiki, Pim and Blog.

Offline Wiki participation a possibility?

In evaluating group collaboration tools over the last little while, I have run into a problem with wiki technology. My main goal has been to look at solutions that will help mobile information workers better collaborate. The point is that we are as a rule almost never in the same place. Worse still is that internet connectivity, while common, is absent in places where we most often work. Like Airplanes, which is where I am as I write this now.

Slowly, wide internet access to wifi, high speed in hotel, etc is helping increase the connectivity options. However, it seems that highly mobile information workers still suffer from frequent drought when it comes to net access.

What got me thinking about this direction was a recent exploration of wiki's, TWiki in particular. This toolset is especially attractive for mobile knowledge workers. More so, I think, than others, we suffer from stale information, or worse missing information. This dearth of even accurate information is partly caused from the great distance that separates us, lack of frequent interaction (watercooler conversations as a rule can't happen), etc.

For those reasons, something like a wiki looks like a fantastic solution. Group editing of web content in a central place would go a long way to solving the problem... but for one thing. It is an "online" only solution. I need to do at least two more things with the "group consensus / knowledge" as a mobile information worker:

1. I need to access it as a consumer, when I most need it. In my case this is inevitably when I am working outside of my own network.

2. More importantly, I need to contribute to it when I have time (now being a good example. I am on a plane with 'nary a net connection for hours ....)

The interesting thing of course, is that I am currently using a technology, PyDS, to make changes to my own work online and I am doing it offline. I do have access to my own work offline and to some degree, via an aggregator, I have access to others work, at least read only access. Before embarking on web logging / personal publishing, I would have underestimated the importance of this. Now, having done the majority of my work while offline, I couldn't live without it.

So, while blogging tools solve the problem for me personally, what I think we as a group really need is some way to group edit content ... but in an offline manner. Sort of a wiki with sync .... or a wiki/blog meld.

UPDATES

This is going to be my research topic for next little while. As I find things, expect to see more information here. My thoughts on this so far:

• For offline reading, it should be possible to "mirror" a wiki, or part of a wiki. Are there any wiki tools that are mirror friendly, and even offer local editing with a push up to a central server 'a la Radio/PyDS?'.

• Don Park has a recent comment about a distributed Wiki. Read the comments as well. There is a pointer to something called Hyki developed in Groove.

Aggregator Webcast from BloggerCon

Doc brings us this gem about RSS Aggregators from BloggerCon:

My fave for RSS conspirators: Jon Udell's Aggregators session. Remember, class: Pay attention. RealPlayer required.

Thanks Doc.

Update:

I had the webcast running in the background as I worked last night, and noticed that one of the ways I use my aggregator wasn't really represented in the discussion.

Essentially, like John Udell, I prefer to see all the news in big chunks... in my case, 300 articles at a time. I can quickly scan what I want. But, very often I need to switch back to a feed list first and then drill down into the feed to read it. That mainly occurs Monday evening as I try to catch up on stuff I haven't had time to deal with on the weekend.

I use PyDS for this blog as well as its builtin aggregator which allows for this presentation switch. It also has a lock feature that will keep an article in the feed even if I purge the view. Very handy.

Excellent TWiki and Knowledge Management Presentation

This is pointer to a presentation in May, 2003 by Peter Theony to the Internet Developer Group.

Writeable webs empower employees to share knowledge and to be more productive

Its a bit old. Nevertheless, its a great summary of the role a wiki can plan in an organization's knowledge management strategy. It certainly speaks to TWiki's maturity as well.

See the webcast here as well.

I am still trying to find out how TWiki implements RSS/RDF/Syndication feeds of changes to the writeable web. I see on their site that they have a WebRss plugin but so far haven't found any info about it. If I find something, I'll update it here.

UPDATES:

Here is the answer for Twiki. Looks like there is extensive support for RSS. I also found a handy list of RSS aware wiki tools..

Yahoo! News Search via RSS

Customized rss feed based on Yahoo News Search. This is a must try!

Interesting Software - Internal Corporate Blogging

Thanks to the Dave Winer at Scripting News for this. Its a pointer to an article at the Guardian Unlimited about some interesting software that I think is going in the right direction when it comes to blogging and business. It is the internal "publishing" angle that I think might motivate people to relinquish their iron grip on knowledge and publish information internally.

The article points to blogging software from Traction. And I quote:

The most interesting thing I saw at the Boston conference was a demo, squeezed in during a coffee break away from the throng, of a blogging package devised by Traction Software, a small US software maker. It was different because Traction exists primarily to share information internally.

The key elements of blogging were present and correct in Traction's package: it was easy to use, information on the web pages it built was presented chronologically, there were lots of hyperlinks to information, and you could quote and comment.

But there were also the kind of features vital for work in a business of any size: the ability to set levels of access for different users, to make something public or to keep it private, to put flags and categorise entries so they relate to different bits of workflow.

It was refreshing to see a package which saw weblogs not just as an online confessional - an extension of the way consumers use the technology - but also as a tool that could make work a little easier and more rewarding.

This I think is where we might profitably focus our "free cycles" when thinking about blogging and corporate culture. Now if I could get my own organization to try something like this ....

I'll post additional links to Traction info as I find them here:

1. Infoworld review

2. Thanks to Adam Gaffin for pointing me to his piece featuring Verizon's use of Traction (and the State of Connecticut's use of Manila).