Week 1 Article Summary

Since this is my first blog about the weekly articles, I’ll briefly explain the method to my madness. I will read the articles and blog while reading. I might read sections or the whole article then start blogging my thoughts.

Per the first class, I am reading the Steve Jobs graduation article first. It sounds interesting and I’ve not read it before. From there, I’ll see if I can pick the most generic articles on KM. I’ll bold the article titles to show the breaks in the articles.

Stay Hungry – Steve Jobs Commencement Address

“Connecting the Dots”

I really enjoyed reading the first story about connecting the dots. Steve Jobs is one of the people that admire the most. I did not realize how Steve had basically just popped into classes and took a calligraphy class that basically set the tone for the Mac. Since Macs are much more of a creative system than PCs, it is very interesting to see how they got started.

The morale of the story is about how you cannot connect the dots looking forward, only back. I find that very inspiring, but at the same time not always accurate. You can definitely connect the dots looking backwards, but should always be looking forward. That would be like saying that after completing my graduate degree, I would only look back to see what I did. I think that by taking certain actions, you can set how your future will turn out and “connect the dots” something happens.

“Love and Loss”

It is very ironic that Jobs got fired from Apple and started two other companies that got bought out by Apple and he got his job back. I don’t think this would happen to most people, but his message about sticking with something you love and not giving up will lead to good things for those inspired. If you really do love something, you should never give it up, even if certain doors are closed. You have to learn from your mistakes and give it another shot.

“Death”

“Death is very likely the single greatest invention of Life”….Wow. How true, but again, how ironic. I agree with Jobs, but also think that you cannot live your life in fear of death. Making changes if things are going how you would like them to is very difficult for most people. I have tried to better myself when I get in a rut…but sometime it seems that you have to just stick certain things out to get to how you want some things to end.

Jobs is very inspiring (I think that is the 3rd time using that word about him). I really enjoyed this speech and will be looking for more words of wisdom from him.

Harris – One More Time: What is Knowledge Management

I thought this would be a good article to read second. Professor Burns said that it really was not that well of a written article, but had it looked like a good foundation.

The in week 1 lecture intellectual property was discussed. The article states that organizational capital is most commonly captured in KM. I would describe that best as the artifacts produced in the course of business.

Much definition was put around KM, but one of the most interesting facts I found about the article was that when KM is intertwined with other systems, it is most effective. When applications are built upon one another, they can be very powerful, but also very expensive to maintain. I believe that one of the main reasons that KM is limited is the expense. Realizing the benefits to centralizing knowledge is the key to making a case for KM.

I know that I am simplifying KM and the article goes on to state that KM can extend to all aspects of business. It also says that KM may not be a good term. However, I do believe as the article suggests that the ROI of KM is the ultimate reason to implement such sytems.

Bowman – Building Knowledge Management Systems

I really liked the one definition of KM systems on the second page of the article: “enable employees to retrieve information needed to perform their work tasks”. While simplest, it is the essence of what a KM system must do. It can make the tasks easier or do a variety of other things, but ultimately workers need information to do their jobs.

This article also talks about tactic knowledge, as did the first article, and acknowledges that this is the most difficult information to capture. I’m not sure the answer to how to do this, but clearly this looks to be one of the major challenges without a good answer. How would you capture something that is in someone’s head???

Technologies discussed in the article look dated and in fact, the date of the article is summer 2002. Most of the underlying principals look to still be used such as queries and search engines, but KM tools such as SharePoint are way ahead of the article.

Casonato – Glossary of Terms

This is a good reference article defining terms used in KM. The foreword of the article is interesting stating the three reasons terms have changed. Again, intellectual capital is mentioned. Virtual workplaces are also changing dynamics. I have noticed in my workplace that we are increasingly using remote labor, whether on-shore or off-shore.

The terms are fairly common and I’ve seen most. One that I had not heard before was “microcontent”. I buy microcontent all the time, mainly songs on iTunes, but had never heard the term. I am interested to see how it relates to KM.

Knova – Whitepaper – Ten Principals for Knowledge Management

The word whitepaper makes me cringe. To me it means this is just a boring paper so read if you have to have the information, otherwise it is better suited for a shelf. I’m writing this before reading the article to see if my theory holds water.

My first impression of the whitepaper was I noticed many buzz words to describe KM: practice, discipline, cultural buy-in, champion, etc. However, the one thing that I learned from the article was that KM can not only benefit a company, but its clients and customers. I guess I knew that, but it took me out of my box and expanded my thoughts to the benefits extending beyond an organization. In my work, we rarely use SharePoint to benefit our end-users. Contractors use it, but that’s the extent of using it beyond our walls.

Most of the rest of the article was informative, but I did not have any revelations. Change management was discussed in the first class and again in this article. Obviously any new application/methodology/etc. will need have change managed. I also liked the concept of starting small and expanding. This is commonly how things get done from my experience. Create a pilot to see if something makes sense and then tweak it before rolling it out to the masses.

Barton - Performance Management

Well, this was the largest file in the zip file for this week; however, it is really a presentation with many pictures and diagrams but little text compared to the file size. I immediately got a bad taste when I found it was talking about financial management. I then read on to find that it is really talking about automation which I can relate to. It is really a sales tool that targets companies using spreadsheets and ad hoc reporting.

Slide 13 talks about the big 3, People, Process, and Technology. These are the basic building blocks of how business work today. Some have more of one than the other. The trend is pushing to using technology with process and away from people.

I know that our company spends time and effort collecting and analyzing data. We are constantly trying to automate these tasks, but the constant changes to software and processes makes the integration of all systems very, very difficult. The sales pitch claims to be able to help integrate data at a lower price than an ERP, which I’m sure it can but may lack architecture of an ERP. Changing systems and people will likely prove it to be a headache in my opinion.

Pollard – The Future of Knowledge

Being new to KM, I had never thought of the creators of KM as right-brained or creative as the beginning of the article elaborates. It makes sense, but from an IT background, I think or maybe I should say thought of KM as more technology based. The article states that many are HR or marketing based but as they evolve, they are better suited in the IT department. It challenges that this is not the best practice and that IT workers are not the most creative minds (which I believe to be true with many IT persons).

The article states that ROI on KM systems is either “unmeasurable” or “unsatisfactory”. It states that the most successful qualities are innate or as the couple of articles in this blog refers to as tactic. The other concept that has reared it head it cultural change or change management. These two factors look to be the largest stumbling blocks in KM.

Several options are given to help improve KM in organizations. It is really ingraining the KM into the organization and overcoming the two obsolesces of capturing tactic knowledge and successfully implementing cultural change.