Gurteen Knowledge-Log

Blog Post: Tagging and face-to-face events

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:37:30 +0000

By David Gurteen

I am still surprised how few conference organisers have really caught on to social media and have learnt how to use it effectively. So much can be done with social media to help market an event but one of the simplest things is to agree and communicate a conference tag as early as possible.

At KM India recently tweeters had to guess the tag which resulted in two tags being used #KMIndia and #KMSummit which resulted in a lot of confusion.

This great post on Tagging and face-to-face events by John David Smith makes the case for conference tags and gives some solid tips.

Blog Post: Burn all podiums!

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:48:22 +0000

By David Gurteen

Why oh why do we still use podiums at conferences? I was at a conference recently and there was no lapel mike available and no hand mike - just a fixed mike on the podium which meant I had to stand behind the damn thing, not walk around and not move my head too much. How can you relax and interact with your audience tied to the spot like that!

And then in South Africa, at a recent conference - again only a fixed mike on the podium but the podium was a large wooden one, at least four feet high maybe higher. Two of the African women who spoke were not much taller than the podium!

Take a look at the photo - yes there really is a speaker behind that podium! Crazy!

Burn all podiums! That's what I say :-)

Blog Post: 2010 Annual Letter from Bill Gates

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:20:32 +0000

By David Gurteen

Bill Gates 2010 Annual Letter is now live at the�Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website.

In this year’s letter Bill talk's about the importance of innovation for solving some of the world’s biggest problems and how he and Melinda see innovation as the factor that will make the difference between having a bleak future and a bright one. The letter explains how they decide which ideas to fund and talk about the benefits, time frame, and risks of each one.

If Bill and Melinda only achieve a fraction of their vision they will make a real difference in the world.

Also take a look at Bill's new website Gates Notes if you want to track what he is up to. He has also just started a twitter account and already has over 300,000 followers.

Makes my 4000 followers seem tiny in comparison LOL

Blog Post: Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:50:59 +0000

By David Gurteen

I have long admired Lilia Efimova's work on blogging. If you are interested in what it means to blog within an organisation then I suggest you read this recent article by her on Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas.

Here is a little taster:

Blogging is primarily known as an instrument for personal publishing, reaching a broad and often unknown audience without pushing content on them. While blogging is personal, most of its advantages are the result being part of an ecosystem, where weblogs are connected not only by links, but also by relations between bloggers. Those relations do not appear automatically: it takes time and effort before one can enjoy social effects of blogging. To sustain blogging before those effects appear it is important to find a personally meaningful way to use a weblog.

Credit: Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas - Lilia Efimova

This is something that many non-bloggers still do not understand - a blog is much more than a personal publishing tool!

If you would like to elarn more then take a look at her PhD dissertation Passion at work: blogging practices of knowledge workers.

Blog Post: KM for Business: Managing successful KM projects to achieve business results

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:17:02 +0000

By David Gurteen

I will be visiting Jakarta once again in March where I will be leading a two day KM workshop with KM Plus - Learning Lead on March 10 - 11. This will be the third such workshop over the last few years and I will be sending out more information to those of you in the region in the next week or so.

I have yet to finalise my itinerary, so if you would like to invite me to work with you in any way or if you would like to meet with me informally for coffee, lunch or dinner please get in touch.

Detail of the workshop is as follows:

Topic: KM for Business: Managing Successful KM Projects to Achieve Business Results
Venue: The Boardroom, Four Seasons hotel, Jakarta
Date: March 10 - 11, 2010

Target audience: Directors, Managers, Business Profesional, and KM practitioners.

This workshop is a series of KM-Plus annual International KM events, which was started with Knowledge Cafe (March 2007), Social KM (July 2008), and now KM for Business (March 2010).

For more information please contact KMPlus.

Blog Post: Alfie Kohn, children, rewards, motivation and KM

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:22:36 +0000

By David Gurteen

I have a huge respect for Alfie Kohn and have been blogging about him since 2002! But I have only just thought to look on YouTube for some video clips of him speaking. Well, I got lucky and found several clips from which I have created a YouTube playlist of clips from some of his talks.

Video Playlist: Alfie Kohn

This is a playlist of short video clips of Alfie Kohn speaking at conferences. Alfie writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting.

Media Information:

Alfie demonstrates time and time again how our thinking is screwed up when it comes to the education and raising of children. This is bad enough. But the same habits and practices get carried over into the work place. We still try to punish and reward employees to "make them" to do what we want - even when there is no evidence that it works and plenty of research to show that it does not!

Daniel Pink has also been talking on the surprising science of motivation at TED.

Video: Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think.

Media Information:

Blog Post: The end of mass universities

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:59:55 +0000

By David Gurteen

I have long been saying that Universities are in for trouble - as why would a student get out of bed early in the morning to attend a boring lecture when he or she could watch one of the world's best professors on the subject deliver the lecture at any time of the day and night that they chose - maybe with a friend or two and a few beers.

This report that you can watch 120 hours of lectures on Physics by Lenny Susskind, for free on YouTube only confirms the idea.

Blog Post: Knowledge Management video competition.

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:51:53 +0000

By David Gurteen

So all you KMers who enjoy shooing and editing video - Patrick Lambe of Green Chameleon has announced a Make a Video about KM Competition. Go for it - it should be fun!