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Knowledge mangement - how it was and how it really is - slide show

Knowledge management, to me, has always been a weird title for an activity that a lot of people are doing within organisations. I think it's now suffering from 'consultant burn' out - try and mention it to anyone and the eyes glaze and the shutters come down.

And fair enough. Managing knowledge isn't something that one can actually do and most definitely not with a "system". You can create environments for knowledge to flow, you can encourage people to share, you can even use these new computer fangdangles to assist with both ... but you cannot manage knowledge. Imagine calling a pencil a "Bestseller creation system" ...

However, having said that I still see my ultimate goal with an organisation as assisting them around 'knowledge' in order for them to be successful at what they do. It's knowledge that people use day in and day out to make the decisions they make.

My focus is in using "Enterprise 2.0" which I totally believe is a phrase destined to go the way of "knowledge management". Enterprise 2.0 is taking the openness, feel, and functionality of the consumer world "Web 20" and introduce it into the workplace. This is not new for me, it just has a title/space (argh) for me to work within - corporate shorthand.

Just as "Web 2.0" is never/rarely about technology per se it's what the people want to do with them (YouTube is not about technology, it's about people sharing videos in that particular manner). Using the technology though an organisation can give concrete examples to their willingness/drive to be 'open' and 'shareable, both key components in "Enterprise 2.0".

Anyway - KM 1.0 and KM 2.0 - maybe this slide show might give some in the KM space some hope that all their work isn't going to waste

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