Topic:  User Adoption Strategies for Collaboration Technologies

What is the biggest complaint around the introduction of new collaboration technologies into a group or organization? The answer: No one uses them.

New tools are often rejected.  The very people who are supposed to use them don’t do so—they keep going with earlier ways of working.  Sometimes “culture” is blamed for this failure, but our speaker, Michael Sampson believes it is more accurate to point the finger at the lack of intentional effort on user adoption.

This discussion session provides an opportunity to learn about user adoption strategies, how other organizations around the world are tackling user adoption for collaboration technologies, and to share what strategies are working well in your organization.

Participating in this event will enable you to:

• Learn about the current state of play with user adoption strategies
• Develop your thinking about the user adoption strategy for collaboration technologies at your organization.

Agenda:  Monday February 15^th

6:00-6:30      Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15      Michael Sampson – User Adoption Strategies

7:15-8:00      Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 
RMIT Graduate School of Business and Law, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2C (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Michael Sampson is a Collaboration Strategist. He helps end-user organizations in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Europe and other places around the world improve the performance of distributed teams.  Key themes are the effective use of collaboration technology to enhance distributed teams, using SharePoint for collaboration, and encouraging user adoption of collaboration technologies.  Michael has written two books on collaboration strategy, and is about to publish a third.  Michael is running a Masterclass on SharePoint Collaboration and Governance in Melbourne on Tuesday 16^th, for details see:  http://www.sharepointroadmap.com/melbourne.html

Go is the most revered of Asian strategy board games.

But simply calling Go a game is like calling the space shuttle a glider. The game has been used for centuries to discuss and model political, economic and military strategy in China and Japan.

Often Go has been compared to Chess to highlight the differences between Eastern and Western thought, but recently David Snowden of Cognitive Edge commented that Chess and Go can be used to highlight the differences between the “Complicated” and “Complex” domains respectively.

Come along to learn about this fascinating subject. Play a few games then learn about complexity theory and how it applies to business strategy today.

We have a few boards, but if you have a notebook computer, please bring it along as Go software will be supplied for you to take away.

Participating in this event will

• Introduce you to the concepts of complexity theory and David Snowden’s Cynefin framework,
• Give you a grasp of how understanding complexity can help in your business projects,
• And may just begin a life-long fascination with a game of intriguing mystery that will change the way you think about everything.

Agenda:  Wednesday January 27th

6:00-6:30      Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15      Stuart French – Complexity & the game of Go

7:15-8:00      Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Stuart is the IT/KM Projects manager at Daniels Sharpsmart, an Australian based global business in the medical waste technology industry.  An avid KM’er, author of the DeltaKnowledge.net blog and enthusiastic participant in a range of social networking forums, he has a Masters Degree in KM.  His research project investigating the impacts of organisational culture on the use of Wikis has highlighted a number of interesting perspectives in how we can motivate others to become involved in better knowledge interactions.

Link to the  presentation that Nancy decided NOT to deliver, instead facilitating conversations based on the concepts.  Conversations went very well and a great interactive session was enjoyed by all participants.

December reflections

The changing face of Knowledge Management

Wednesday 16 December, 6:00 pm

And so we near the end of a very busy year.  It has certainly been busy for the KMLF, with 13 sessions over the year!  (You can read what Nancy White had to say about our November meeting here.)  

As mentioned, our final session for this year will celebrate our tenth anniversary, and will feature some open discussion on this history, and how the group has emerged over this time.  We will have some of the founding organizers of the KMLF along to share their thoughts, and we particularly welcome any of you that we haven’t seen for a while to come along and share your stories.  This will also be a chance for us to say “thank you” to those that had the vision to put this group together in the first place. 

One question to start with will be to tie down exactly when the KMLF got started – is it actually our tenth anniversary? Other points may include: 

• The motivations behind the formation of the group – are they still relevant today?
• A brief look at the history of the group, how we organized ourselves, and how it worked.
• What the KMLF has meant to us – what insights did we gain, what important relationships did we develop, how did what we learned help us to overcome obstacles in our work?
• Is an awareness of history relevant to KM?
• Finally, we will talk about of where we think we are going (and why).

This will also be a time of celebration of the end of the year, and our usual time of networking with colleagues.

After the session, anyone interested can join us over dinner for further discussions.

Agenda 

6:00-6:30          Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15          December reflections – The changing face of KM
7:15-8:00          Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 
RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).
Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

Realising Our BroadBand Future – This Thursday

The Government is hosting the “Realising Our BroadBand Future” forum on 10 and 11 Dec to map the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia’s high speed broadband future.  

We have an opportunity in Melbourne to contribute to the discussion, at 8:30 to 12:00 this Thursday 10 Dec.  Deloitte are very kindly hosting us at 550 Bourke St.  This is a free session, but you must register.  See the details, and click through to register here: http://bbfmel.civictec.net/. 

We’re talking about our connected future. This isn’t about technology, it’s about how we can all use it – to connect communities, build businesses, improve our education and health systems, create and innovate, improve our quality of life for all.

For those of you wishing to come along, please register as quickly as you can, as there are limited places available!  If you are unable to make it, please pass on the invitation.  It would be great to see some KMLF people there.  If you can’t make it, follow us on Twitter at #bbfmel.

Information continuity

Safeguarding business & community identity

Early notice and call for papers for inForum 2010

 The RMAA are holding their 27th International Convention at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on 5-8 September 2010.   KMLF members are invited to respond to the call for papers for this convention.  Their intention is to broaden the scope of topics and the audience.

 For further information, please refer to http://inforum.net.au/.

Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities

In order to fit in with Nancy’s travelling schedule, this month we will depart from our usual meeting schedule (again), and will meet on
Monday evening, 16 November (at the usual place).

Technology has changed what it means to “be together” for teams, groups and networks. We can now connect and interact across time and space, co-create and share our creations across the globe. This also means we face a dizzying array of tools and platforms which seem to morph and change daily. We all seem to use the tools in different ways, creating gaps and friction in our groups. What’s a person to do? Consider technology stewardship, the practice of scanning for, choosing, implementing and supporting useful practices using technology in a community. Nancy White will share a few frameworks and stories, then we’ll open the conversation.

• What is community technology stewardship?
• What inherent tensions does a steward work with in a community?
• How can we explore a community’s activity orientations as a way of making decisions around technology?

Agenda

6:00-6:30 Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15 Nancy White: Digital Habitats
7:15-8:00 Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).
Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About Nancy White

Founder of Full Circle Associates, Nancy helps organisations connect through online and offline strategies. Nancy is an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed communities of practice, online learning, distributed teams and online communities. She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector. Nancy blogs as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media. She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.

Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addictions. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two grown sons.

But wait, there’s more!

If you would like to spend more time with Nancy learning about online communities and online facilitation, there are two half-day workshops being held on Tuesday 17 at Abbotsford Convent.  These are as follows:

• Introduction to Online Communities (08:45 – 12:00) – Price $250 + GST – Register Now
• Advanced Online Communities (13:00 – 16:00) – Price $250 + GST – Register Now

More information and alternative payment methods are available here.

These workshops are being arranged in partnership with Innotecture (Matt Moore’s company). (Disclaimer: I am assisting  Matt with these sessions.)

CoPs – a Personal Journey

Peter Chomley’s slide pack for last month’s event: “CoPs – a Personal Journey” is now available for download here.

Some of the things that struck me from the presentation, shared on Twitter during the session (see the slide pack for more details):

• How many “communities” have you been a member of over your life? How many things have changed over that time?
• Looking back, you can see times when you made decisions that fundamentally changed your life.
• Information Management is  explicit, individual, and about technology. Organisations do it for efficiency and productivity.
• Knowledge Management is tacit, and is about people in teams and communities. Organisations do it for effectiveness, learning, competency, responsiveness and innovation.

———————————–

Free event – Intranet Innovation Awards

Also, Step Two Designs will be announcing the winners of the annual Intranet Innovation Awards on 5 November in Sydney.  They will then be taking the show on the road with a free event in Melbourne on Tuesday 10 November:

“This year’s winners come from the USA, UK, Denmark, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. One winner has demonstrated $8 million of savings from their intranet project, and others have delivered solutions that have become core to how their organisations work. With ten winners, there are ideas that can be implemented by every intranet team.”

The event will be at the Telstra Theatrette, 242 Exhibition St, at 2:00 to 4:00 pm.  Step Two will share insights, screenshots and ideas from this year’s winners. Note that while this is a free event, registration is required before attending. Get all the info, and book your place promptly here!

2009 has been a great year for KMLF (see events summary below).  It is the first year that we have offered events in every month (two in August!).  We collaborated with other networks (KM Roundtable and VPSCIN) to manage a larger activity and hosted three international speakers.  Participants have enjoyed a wide range of topics and formats and we have successfully kept the events interactive and conversation based. This has generated a lot of positive feedback and good participation throughout the year.

The KMLF organisers are very much interested in your feedback and participation (both face to face and on-line).  This December (Wed 9^th) we will be hosting a preview/review conversation about where KMLF is at and where we want to be. We will start with drinks and conversation at the Business School and then walk to a nearby restaurant to continue dialogue over dinner.

Please start the conversations with colleagues and feel free to share your ideas with organisers through any of the means below (starting tonight at the meeting with Peter and again with Nancy White on Mon Nov 16^th).  

You can follow KMLF activities and events in many ways:

Talk with other members at events is always best, but alternatives exist:
Twitter use search tag #KMLF

KMLF Google Calendar see future events (usually 4^th Wed each month):
http://www.google.com/calendar/render?gsessionid=F6HUGXAlSpyYoDAK4TxCbw

KMLF Blog for comments and feedback: http://www.melbournekmlf.org/

KMLF mailing group for all previous announcements: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/KMLF/

KMLF LinkedIn site for sharing comments and access to members blogs
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1981496&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Eanh_1981496

Events Summary 2009

CoPs – a Personal Journey

The concept of Communities of Practice is well understood but that has not always been the case.  Peter’s journey in this area started in the early 1990s and is still progressing.  The role of the CoP in culture change will be discussed and its use to foster KM in organisations.  Starting as a technical project, the need to address culture change and the motivation of members soon became the key drivers.  This session will be conducted as a facilitated conversation, where Peter Chomley will start the conversation then will pose and answer questions to and from the audience.

• What are Communities of Practice?  How did we start then change the project?
• What was their relevance in four projects?
• How did they evolve in practice?
• How do they relate to KM? to culture change? to strategy?
• How have others survived their journeys?

Agenda:  Wednesday October 21st

6:00-6:30      Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15      Peter Chomley – CoPs – a Personal Journey

7:15-8:00      Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne

Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Peter Chomley is an independent consultant, sessional lecturer and PhD candidate at RMIT University.  His consulting activities range from project management training and assessment, cultural change and organizational development.  After 27 years in management and high level consulting, Peter “retired” to sessional  lecturing at University of Melbourne and RMIT.  In 1999, he was asked to join a couple of acquaintances in an internet services company. This resulted in a dot.com venture is business-to-business neutral net-markets wining contracts around the world in USA, UK, Australia and Asia. The company was floated on the ASX in 2000 and is still listed, albeit in a “morphed” form.  His recent consulting is in innovation and cultural change using CoP models, and in business intelligence/healthcare through India, Asia and Malaysia.  His PhD research has focused on elearning and more recently on the “influence of culture on knowledge sharing in innovation processes in a “trans-national organization”. He is passionate about the people side of knowledge management.

Had an excellent session with David on 17 Sep. About 30 or so people there – at least 7 of whom heard about the session on Twitter.

After David delivered his Twitter presentation, we moved into café format, with live tweets displayed on the screen via Twitterfall.

A couple of the highlights from David’s presentation:

Guide to the relationship building process:

1. Find an interesting person. 
2. Establish connection. 
3. Build relationship via social tools
4. Do stuff together
5. Go to 3.

Social Media Principles:

1. Share knowledge.
2. Be transparent & open. 
3. Be found & connectable anywhere!

Lots of other meaningful things were discussed, and shared on Twitter on the #kmlf tag.

We’ll be announcing our speaker for October shortly – stay tuned!

The emergence of Twitter as a powerful tool for conversation and networking

Please note that we now have a change of venue and time for our event on Thursday next week, 17 Sep:

When: Thursday September 17, 6:30 – 8:00pm (note updated start time)
Where: Room 108.8.19, RMIT Business School, 239 Bourke St, Melbourne – (note new venue – near the corner of Swanston St – take lift to Level 8).
RSVP: melbournekmlf@gmail.com

Agenda

6:30-7:00 David Gurteen – The emergence of Twitter, and intro to the Knowledge Café discussion
7:00-7:45 Knowledge Café discussion to share collective knowledge, ideas and insights (over drinks and nibbles).
7:45-8:00 Informal conversation amongst the group to further explore the ideas and concepts

Please refer to the original post (now updated) for all other details.