KM Society Forum

6th Asia Pacific Knowledge Management Conference

The Hong Kong Knowledge Management Society

Knowledge-based economy, information society, post-industrial economy – all these are terms used to describe modernity and complexity of highly developed nations, that base their wealth and competitive advantage on the exploitation of innovation, science, technology, information, and skilled workforce, and other intangible assets.

The global “knowledge system” and its stakeholders include international bodies (e.g. Asean, World Bank), national innovation and science policy bodies, higher education institutions, think tanks, private commercial organizations, universities and research institutes, professional bodies and last but not least civil society and individuals.

How are stakeholders, organizations, cities, regions, countries in the Asia Pacific responding to the complexity and challenges of the knowledge age?

The HK Knowledge Management Society (www.hkkms.org) is organizing its 6th Asia Pacific KM conference on 18/19 November 2004 in Hong Kong to discuss this topic.

KMAP 2004

KMAP 2004

About Conference on Knowledge Management in Asia Pacific 2004 (KMAP 2004)
Knowledge has been described as a critical competitive asset of organizations. In the era of the knowledge economy, it is the possession of scarce, valuable, inimitable knowledge resources that support long-term superior organizational performance. There has been a shift of focus from the historically dominant theme of value appropriation to one of value creation. Knowledge, as intellectual capital of organizations, is the most valuable resource in the knowledge economy. The most important strategy in business is converting knowledge into intellectual capital and leveraging it for competitive advantage.

KM research has mostly focused on knowledge and knowledge management within organizational boundaries. However, several related trends, including globalization, immigration, political and economic unification, and technological connectivity, suggest that a broader, more global perspective in KM research and practice is needed. An understanding of contextual factors, such as national KM policies, national culture, and industry characteristics and relationships are essential for the successful implementation of KM at the fractal levels of organization, industry, nation, and world. The aim of this conference is to bring a diverse range of scholars, policy makers and managers together to bring such these factors into closer focus to stimulate new directions in knowledge management and policy research and practice. This conference calls for papers that offer provocative, insightful, and novel ways of viewing KM from a wide variety of perspectives.

The countries in the Asia-Pacific area have specific national cultures, economic characteristics, and knowledge management policies, which are quite different from other countries in this world. It is important to understand how these differences affect knowledge management processes. Meanwhile, the countries in this area are highly inter-dependent with each other for various business activities. This high degree of inter-dependency makes cross-culture studies of knowledge management even more critical.

Therefore, the first international conference of KMAP is being initiated by the National Taiwan University to provide a communication platform for issues of knowledge management relevant to the Asian Pacific area. To assure this conference will become a regular event, an Association of Asian Pacific Knowledge Management will be created consisting of members who are researchers and practitioners of knowledge management from countries in this area. KMAP 2005 will be held in New Zealand, 2005.

LONDON KNOWLEDGE NETWORK EVENT A HIGHLIGHT OF KM-UK

MANAGING SOCIAL AND VALUE NETWORKS
IN COMPLEX ORGANISATIONS

Over 50 participants attended this special LKN Event, held in association with Ark Group as part of the inaugural KM-UK event, a practical, audience focused and interactive session providing delegates with the opportunity for informal debate and networking. The format of this session provided delegates with the opportunity to put questions directly to some of the leaders within the KM field, spearheading the advancement of KM : Dave Snowden, Steve Denning and Verna Allee joined Dr Bruce Cronin on University of Greenwich Business School to engage with delegates in a wide-ranging discussion about organisational complexity, social network analysis and value networks.

“Too much management theory and practice works on the basis of defining an ideal form of behaviour - and then enticing staff into it - a lot of emphasis on Vision and Values, which is characteristic of the Learning Organisation, illustrates this. But conformance is not the same as commitment.” Dave Snowden, IBM, Cynefin

“Today’s business relationships encompass much more than the tangible flows of products, services, and revenue that we have focused on in the past. As we come to depend moreand more on exchanges of knowledge and other intangibles with our customers and business partners, success depends on building a rich web of value creating relationships. New approaches and methods are needed to understand the reality of value creation.” Verna Allee

Martyn Laycock, Programme Manager, of London Knowledge Network welcomed delegates and expressed how pleased LKN were to be working with Ark group as part of the launch of the very first KM-UK event. He detailed the 14 members of LKN that had joined since the network launch on 15th December 2003 and explained how this was a not-for-profit organisation designed for organisations undertaking or considering knowledge-focused strategies; it is a member’s organisations operated for the benefit of members; he detailed a wide range of forthcoming events and activities (See PowerPoint Presentation). He then introduced :

Dave Snowden, Director of IBM Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity, with whom LKN work closely; Dave spoke about Managing Social and Value networks in Complex organisations using his well-known 12th Birthday Party example, using Method A (the classic methodical business approach) and Method B (the more pragmatic, open style of running such an event) to highlight some of the challenges to running complex adaptive organisations in the 21st century

Dr Bruce Cronin, Director of Undergraduate Studies, University of Greenwich Business School provided insights into the use and application of Social Network Analysis via a mini Case-Study (see PowerPoint for details). He also showed the relevance of this and Value network analysis in relation to the original Michael Porter “Value Chain” approach.

Martyn Laycock and Bruce Cronin then provided some Insights into Complexity Theory and Practice before introducing the Butterfly Stamping exercise which delegates, working in teams of 5-8 people, seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they explored in a very practical way some of the underpinning theory of the Cynefin approach to managing complexity

A ROUND TABLE SESSION with Dave Snowden, Dr. Bruce Cronin, Steve Denning, and Special Guest Verna Allee then got underway without the round table – after the complexity exercise it was realised that informal networking works best! – this an in depth Q & A session lasting some 35 minutes before delegates descended upon the Hotel Bar to continue their networking, some into the wee small hours apparently - over a few drinks and nibbles.

“The old ways are dissolving and the new has not yet shown itself. If this is true then we must engage with one another differently, as explorers and discoverers.”
MEG WHEATLEY, Leadership and the New Science, Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 1999

KM AUSTRALIA

Hideo Yamazaki will participate in KMAUSTRALIA as an international guest speaker.

http://www.kmaustralia.com/

Dr Hideo Yamazaki, MD Knowledge Management Society of Japan, Japan
16:00 – 17:00 Tuesday, 24th August 2004

East meets west in knowledge communities in Japan

In the past, Japanese companies have relied on physical proximity, trust and consensus – the so-called “high context” communities of practice (CoPs). In the last three years, there has been an explosion of online “knowledge communities” that have things in common with western-style CoPs. It seems that Japanese companies are moving towards building “dual-context” communities of practice.

What will it cover?

Diversity of knowledge communities
New collectivism on intranet
Sharing feelings vs. knowledge sharing
Effectiveness of multiple-identities
Two types of tacit knowledge - technical and cognitive
Organisational complexity theory and dual context community building

Biography
Hideo Yamazaki is currently the Managing Director of the Knowledge Management Society of Japan. The Knowledge Management Society of Japan (KMSJ) was established in 1998 and has the support of major Japanese corporations in addition to prominent think tanks and academic circles dedicated to advancing in KM. Hideo is also the Head of Knowledge Management research with the Nomura Research Institute. In 2000, Hideo launched a study group of existing Communities of Practice in Japan and is also a Professor at the Patent University of America, Knowledge Management School in Tokyo.

APKM2004

Hideo Yamazaki, member of international committee of APKF2004, is posting this messsage on behalf of APKM2004.

Dear colleague, on behalf of the conference program,
I would like to thank you for serving on the organizing and program
committees of
the Asia Pacific Conference on Knowledge Management, 2004.
I have attached in this email the preliminary version of the cfp,
which we will soon distribute over the Internet.
There is also a web site for the conference:
http://www.im.ntu.edu.tw/apkm2004/
Although it is still under construction, most of the content should be
available there. Please visit the web site to obtain
more information of the conference.

I would like to thank Prof. Eric T.G. Wang for willing to chair
the program committee, and Prof. Ling Ling Wu and David Pauleen
for willing to co-chair the committee.

We have established the following email alias for the committees:
apkm2004@jane.im.ntu.edu.tw

You can simply use this email alias if you want to send a message
to all the committee members.

Finally, please email me any comments about the cfp and
the web site before we officially distribute them.

Once again, thank you for serving on the committees.

Best wishes,

Yuh-Jzer Joung, Professor and Chair
Dept. of Information Management
National Taiwan University
Taiwan

Call for papers
Asia-Pacific Conference on Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management in the Global Environment: the Roles of Culture, Government and Industry
in Fostering a Knowledge Society

National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
December 7-8, 2004

The KM Asia-Pacific 2004 conference program committee invites submissions of completed research papers or extended abstracts.

Knowledge, as intellectual capital in organizations, is one of the most valuable resources in the global economy. KM research has mostly focused on knowledge and knowledge management within organizational boundaries. However, several related trends, including globalization, immigration, political and economic unification, and technological connectivity, suggest that a broader, more global perspective in KM
research and practice is needed.

Given that organizations are open systems that constantly interact with the wider environment, knowledge management must also study factors outside of traditional organizational boundaries, including industrial social networks, public policy, cultural change, international pressures, etc. Furthermore, it is now well accepted that knowing is a deeply social process and that successful KM takes into account a broader community and environment where people can interact in the discovery, use and synthesis of knowledge.

An understanding of contextual factors, such as national KM policies, national culture, and industry characteristics and relationships are essential for the successful implementation of KM at the fractal levels of organization, industry, nation, and world. The aim of this conference is to bring a diverse range of scholars, policy makers and managers together to bring such these factors into closer focus to stimulate new directions in knowledge management and policy research and practice. This conference calls for papers that offer provocative, insightful, and novel ways of viewing KM from a wide variety of perspectives.

Authors are invited to submit their original, previously unpublished
papers focused on these wider themes of knowledge management. Papers may be based on research, theory, development, or practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Wisdom versus knowledge
Identity and knowledge
Knowledge economy and society
Knowledge and information economics
Creative industries
The cultural economy
Education and industry
Creativity and innovation management
Social epistemology
Philosophy in business
Knowledge and ethics
Global institutions and KM
National policies and KM
KM in multi-lingual contexts
KM and national/ethnic culture
Innovation and entrepreneurship
Cross-cultural KM
Virtual knowledge sharing across boundaries
Government-industry-academic cooperation
The role of industry in KM
The role of academia in KM
Electronic government
Knowledge management technology
Data mining

Important deadlines:
Deadline for Submitting Papers or Extended Abstracts: August 15th, 2004
Notification of Acceptance: October 1st, 2004
Final Papers: November 1st, 2004
Registration: November 1st, 2004