Friday lunch with Ross Dawson attracted about 40 people from KMLF and VPSCIN. Ross was in fine form and lead the audience through a persuasive argument for why social media was important today. The crux of the argument went like this:

• information and knowledge is expanding at a rate that for all intents and purposes it’s now an infinite resource
• the renaissance man is a thing of the past and today we are all forced to specialise
• specialists need to collaborate to get things done
• social media is all about how people connect and communicate

I’m relying on Ross to make a comment if I have things totally off base .

Ross then introduce us to a range of social media tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS. There were a couple of examples that grabbed my attention.

Macromedia has developed a blog community consisting of internal and external bloggers.

Netflix has offered a prize of $1 million to anyone who can build a collaborative filtering engine that is 10% better than the one they currently use.

Swiki from Eurekster helps a community by providing a “community powered search engine, tailored to produce only the targeted search results that you and your community want.” “The search results from the swicki you create are much more focused than a general search engine and they will continue to learn and adapt, anonymously and automatically, based on the search behavior of your community.”

Eileen Day, a new KMLF member, would like to hear from anyone interested in assisting with some research:

Hi all, I’m new to KMLF and hope to be able to participate in the community in the future. I’m currently doing a PhD that spans organizational communications, communities of practice and knowledge. My specific research question is: “How do communication practices in technologically advanced workplaces create, sustain and share knowledge in communities of practice (CoPs)?” I’m coming very much from a people/social perspective rather than IT/system.

Unfortunately, I can’t make Ross Dawson’s session today, as I’m interstate for the week. I’m now on the lookout for a couple of organizations with CoPs to participate in the study, and would love to talk with anyone interested in finding out more about what I’m doing.

If you would like to find out more, or if you would like to participate, please email Eileen at eileen -dot- day -at- rmit -dot- edu -dot- au.

 - Keith De La Rue

     

Further to the previous post, here are some additional details.

For this session, we will be joined by our colleagues from the Victorian Public Sector Continuous Improvement Network (VPS CIN).  VPS CIN has also kindly volunteered to sponsor this session, so we will now be serving a light lunch!  This will include gourmet sandwiches, cheese and fruit, with coffee, tea and orange juice.

WHEN: 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm, Friday 24 November 2006.

WHERE: The Oaks on Collins, Level 1, 480 Collins St Melbourne.  (The Oaks is opposite the Rialto building.)

RSVP: Please make sure you reply to the email address on your invitation email – we need to have the correct details for catering purposes.  If you are not on our email list, please refer to our Mailing List page on this site.

As usual, everyone is welcome.  We hope to see you there!

 

- Special Lunchtime Event, Friday 24 November -

WHAT: Ross Dawson will lead a discussion entitled “Knowledge, Networks, and Social Media”. Ross Dawson is a strategy consultant, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of of Living Networks and Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships. He is CEO of consulting firm Advanced Human Technologies, based in Sydney and San Francisco, and Chairman of Future Exploration Network, a global events and consulting firm specializing in the future of business.

Knowledge management has provided a foundation for many of the most exciting developments in business today. Network approaches, including social networking platforms, organisational network analysis and industry network development, are proving to be fundamental business tools. The media landscape is being transformed by social media, including blogs, podcasts, photo and video sharing, user filtering and how user content is being integrated into traditional media.

Enterprise 2.0 is the term being used to describe how enterprise blogs, wikis and other collaborative tools are transforming knowledge sharing and co-creation in the organisation. Those with a deep background in knowledge management are eminently qualified to apply their experience and skills to these transformative domains; they represent massive opportunities for KM practitioners to create value.

For more information on Ross’s current work, please see: http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/.

WHEN: Lunchtime (12pm for a sharp 12:30pm start), Friday 24th November 2006. We will close before 2:00 pm.

WHERE: The Oaks on Collins, Level 1, 480 Collins St Melbourne.

As usual, everyone is welcome.  We hope to see you there!

Please refer to the next post on this site for updated details…