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Knowledge-Letter

Gurteen Knowledge-Letter: Issue 98 - August 2008

  




The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a monthly newsletter that is distributed to members of the Gurteen Knowledge Community. You may receive the Knowledge Letter by joining the community. Membership is totally free. You may read back-copies here.


Gurteen Knowledge-Letter: Issue 98 - August 2008

Contents

  1 Introduction
  2 So why do I have threeTwitter identities?
  3 Is KM Dead? Larry Prusak, Dave Snowden, Patrick Lambe
  4 How do you motivate people?
  5 Transforming learning through dialogue and participation
  6 My Upcoming Activities
  7 KM Event Highlights
  8 Subscribing and Unsubscribing
  9 The Gurteen Knowledge Letter


Introduction    (top | next | prev)

Well it may be the holiday season in the northern hemisphere but I am as busy as ever - so a short newsletter this month. I am giving a social tools talk at IFLA in Quebec in a day's time and then in a week or so I will be giving a keynote talk at KM Brasil in Sao Paulo but I get two days in Rio also. Mainly work but I hugely enjoy it - so most days seem like a holiday!

So why do I have threeTwitter identities?    (top | next | prev)

I recently created two Twitter feeds in addition to my regular one and received this email from my friend Lilly Evans.
David,

Just a quick question re Twitter. You have created two other identities. Why? And, have you got any business from being on Twitter? Basically, what is the main benefit for you hanging in there?

Thanks Lilly
This was my reply:
Hi Lily,

Its not so much that I have 3 identities on Twitter more that I have created 3 Twitter feeds in addition to the 20 or so regular RSS Feeds that I support.

1. DavidGurteen is my personal feed that I use to keep people updated with where I am, what I am doing, thinking etc i.e. the traditional use of Twitter.

I embed this "what am I doing..." status on every page of my website so unlike many other twitterers I tend to only twitter once or twice a day and do not use the in-built Twitter messaging feature.

This status is also automatically displayed in FaceBook, Plaxo and other social tools like FriendFeed which is very useful for keeping people updated on what I am about.

2. GurteenQuotes - this starts out as an RSS feed that I generate from my website (where I have over 700 quotations stored) and feed through TwitterFeed to convert it from RSS to Twitter format. People can follow this (subscribe to it in RSS terms) and get a neat little quote from me each day.

A Lotus Notes agent does all the work here - only selecting those quotes in my database that are less than 140 characters and thus fit in the limited space allowed by Twitter.

3. GurteenNews - is similar to GurteenQuotes except that I post newsitems to my site and an agent releases one or two each day to an RSS feed that again gets turned into a Twitter feed via TwitterFeed.

I plan for most of these to be short hot items i.e. "Google releases Knol" along with a direct link to the announcement. When I come across such news items it takes me less than 30 seconds to post to my website and so the overhead is not high. Again a Lotus Notes agent running in the background takes care of all the detailed work.

As for money, I make no direct income from any of this but :

1. the cost and time of doing this is negligible and the feeds provide a valuable service to my community.

2. it helps build my network - people get to know me and visit my website; sign up for my knowledge letter; get to know me even better and this is how I get my work and ultimately my income.

3. also, by following people on Twitter I get to know them better and this helps me develop and build my relationships with them; additionally I get breaking news in near real time and lots of useful little insights to what is going on in the big wide world.

So the bottom line: I find the Twitter ROI high. I couldn't imagine life with out it!

I hope this helps!

Regards David


Is KM Dead? Larry Prusak, Dave Snowden, Patrick Lambe    (top | next | prev)

Patrick Lambe recently interviewed Dave Snowden and Larry Prusak in Kuala Lumpur on the topic "Is Knowledge Management Dead?”. A great conversation and I think a "must watch" for all KMers.

Like Patrick, I believe that KM has not been irredeemably corrupted. To my mind, it is evolving rapidly under the impact of social tools and although it may be implemented differently and at times not even be called KM - it is still fundamentally unchanged as a discipline with similar goals and objectives.

How do you motivate people?    (top | next | prev)

I had a conversation recently when I was in Indonesia - I don't recall whom it was with but the subject turned to motivation and the person I was talking to started to talk about the need for rewards and charismatic leaders and the like but I did not agree and when I got back to my hotel room - I listed some of the things that I think motivate people - they certainly motivate me!
  • listen to them
  • show them respect
  • help them find their voice
  • have conversations with them
  • show genuine interest
  • give them help and support
  • engage with them
  • trust them
  • give them responsibility
  • give them recognition
  • give them opportunities for self fulfilment and personal development
  • don't try to tell them what to do
Now the crunch: you don't deliberately do these things to motivate people - that's not motivation - that's manipulation. You do them because you genuinely care in their development. Its more akin to the love you might show for a son or daughter than anything else.

Transforming learning through dialogue and participation    (top | next | prev)

I recently came across this interview with Peter Taylor, research fellow and leader of the Participation, Power and Social Change Team of the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex). I love his ideas though that is hardly surprising given my own interest in the role of dialogue and participation in the transmission of knowledge. Here are a couple of quotes from the interview.
My reason for wanting to see an integration of citizenship, sustainable development or multiculturalism in the curricula of universities is to enable people to learn in a way that is different from simply being passive recipients of preformed ideas. For me, education is about learning and learning is about change. So where we see the need for social change, for human and social development, which really is rooted in issues of rights, power and voice of people, then I think it is absolutely necessary for higher education to actually build the curricula upon these issues, not just to add them but actually to integrate them and use them as foundations for learning and teaching.
A lot of educative curricula, especially in higher education, are still based on the idea of transmission of knowledge. In fact it is what Paulo Freire called “banking”, and it is still very common that university teachers provide information, that is to say, the idea of transferring knowledge from the expert to the passive recipient. For transformative education to take place there really needs to be a much more experiential form of learning, for people to actually engage in processes of change, to try things out from themselves, to address real world problems, and to realize that not all solutions can be found easily. And it’s when you start to ask the hard questions and grapple with some intractable problems that you begin, perhaps, to open up opportunities to learn in a different way.


My Upcoming Activities    (top | next | prev)

This section of my Knowledge Letter highlights my planned activities over the next six months or so. Its prime purpose is to allow you to know where I will be and to contact me if you would like to meet. I also use Dopplr to allow people to track my travlels more closely and to potentially meet up with me. You can see a list of my immediate activities below or a full list here.

World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council
13 - 17 Aug 2008, Québec, Canada
I will be giving a talk at this event

Brazil Trip
23 Aug - 01 Sep 2008, São Paulo, Brazil
I will be giving a keynote talk at KM Brazil in São Paulo 23 Aug - 1 Sep

Kunnskapstinget 2008
22 - 23 Sep 2008, Oslo, Norway
I will be giving a keynote talk & facilitating a Knowledge Cafe at this event

Australia Trip
06 - 24 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia
I will be visiting Australia & New Zealand about the week of the 6th October for 3 weeks

South Africa Trip
10 - 21 Nov 2008, Cape Town, South Africa
I am planning a two week trip to South Africa, the week of the 10th November

KM Event Highlights    (top | next | prev)

This section highlights some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.

KM Brasil 2008
27 - 29 Aug 2008, Sao Paulo, Brazil
I will be giving a keynote talk at this conference on the topic of "People 2.0".

9th European Conference on Knowledge Management
04 - 05 Sep 2008, Southampton, United Kingdom
I have attended this conference for the last 3 years and will be attending this one.

Implementing a Knowledge Cafe
10 Sep 2008, London, United Kingdom
I am looking forward to facilitating this Masterclass in September.

KMWorld & Intranets 2008
22 - 25 Sep 2008, San Jose, United States
I attended this conference in 2007 and hugely enjoyed it but I will not be attending in 2008 as it clashes with the KM Conference in Oslo at which I am keynoting.

Kunnskapstinget 2008
23 Sep 2008, Oslo, Norway
I will be giving a keynote talk at this conference.

ebic 2008
01 - 03 Oct 2008, Berlin, Germany

Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit
01 - 02 Oct 2008, London, United Kingdom
I am chairing this 2-day Web 2.0 conference for Unicom.

KnowTech 2008
08 - 09 Oct 2008, Frankfurt, Germany

Conversations for Coherence
08 - 10 Oct 2008, Sydney, Australia
I will be part of this!

KM Singapore 2008
09 - 10 Oct 2008, Singapore City, Singapore
This is a great annual KM event but I will not be attending this year as I will be in Australia.

actKM Conference 2008
14 - 15 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia
I will be participating in this conference again this year.

The second annual Education Leaders Forum
22 - 23 Oct 2008, Christchurch, New Zealand
I will be speaking at this event.

ICKM 2008: Fifth International Conference on Knowledge Management
23 - 24 Oct 2008, Colombus, Ohio, United States

KM LatinAmerica 2008
27 - 31 Oct 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Braintrust International 2008
18 - 20 Nov 2008, Orlando, United States

KM Asia 2008
25 - 27 Nov 2008, Singapore City, Singapore
I spoke at this conference and/or ran a workshop in 2003, 2006 and 2007 but will not be attending this year.

Online Information 2008
02 - 04 Dec 2008, London, United Kingdom

Subscribing and Unsubscribing    (top | next | prev)

You may subscribe to this newsletter on my website. Or if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter or if you wish to modify your e-mail address or make other changes to your membership profile then please go to this page on my website.

The Gurteen Knowledge Letter    (top | next | prev)

The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for Knowledge Workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.

It is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England.

You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.

David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge



If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Café or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on Conversational Leadership
David Gurteen


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Membership of the Gurteen Knowledge Community is free.
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