ikms newsletter

A Career in Knowledge Management?

by Kan Siew Ning

The management of information and knowledge is important for every organization whether or not the senior management refers to it explicitly as knowledge management (KM). In every company that takes KM seriously, managers at all levels are expected to facilitate and enhance knowledge flow within his team, and between his team and other teams. Knowledge-centric firms that use knowledge as a competitive weapon would have assigned one or more officers to provide focus to KM work within the company. Depending on the company, these officers have different job titles – ranging from knowledge manager to Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) and sometimes to Chief Learning Officer (CLO).

Are you considering a career in Knowledge Management but don’t know where to start? Have you heard a lot about CKO’s but don’t know what they actually do? This article attempts to answer these questions by providing an overview of KM jobs and their required competencies.

Evening Talk March '06

By Paolina Martin

The evening talk held on 23 March 06 impressed two groundbreaking developments in the KM field, corporate blogging and techniques for knowledge elicitation. There was a turnout of some 30 people who were interested to learn about these new developments and found the evening well invested.

The first talk was by Ms Quek Pek Noi, a Learning Development Officer with the SAFTI Military Institute. He talk was titled Building Capability through Cognitive Apprenticeship: The Singapore Armed Forces Competency-based Learning Project”.
The talk by Professor Peter Keen was an inspirational and enlightening one. The talk entitled “Knowledge Mobilisation: Leveraging and Extending Knowledge Management”, had Professor Keen presenting a new development in the knowledge management arena, particularly corporate blogging.

Overall, the presentations were light and informal and the participants had a lively and interactive discussion on the developments and techniques shared by the presenters.

Naked Conversations

How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.

The book has three main parts; the advent of blogging and the benefits to be achieved, which seemingly outweigh the risks, suggestions for effective blogging including what not to do, and finally, emergent technologies for blogging.

The book begins with reasons for why the advent of blogging should not be disregarded, with indications of its potentially powerful influence on corporate business. The authors share their insider views on personal blogging at Microsoft, and the management sentiments surrounding blogging about Microsoft which had softened with time and increasing adoption.

A good introductory read to blogging, the book offers useful and practical advice about good blogging practices, such as keeping the blog authentic with typo errors and all, as well as how to avoid getting “hammered” in the blogosphere.

A lot of the material on the blogs themselves covers blogs of specific individuals in business and not so much corporate blogs per se. This is probably because it is just starting to permeate the corporate sphere. Still, the book provides an impressive list of blog sites to check out and provides enough inspiration to make you want to start one of your own!

Review by Paolina Martin