Let's not skip over that question
> because it's central. John's starting to get at that here.
> Forget any payoffs to my employers; why should I bother to do
> anything to contribute to KM?

Great question.

My experience in the document management "industry" (hah!) taught me
that behavior that only benefits an abstract entity like a corporation
inevitably feels like red tape. If people took the 15 seconds to fill in
the document summary sheet provided by Word or a doc mgt system, the
organization would gain incredible efficiencies in finding, sharing and
reusing info. But people simply won't. (Yes, a huge generalization ...
but it's also generally true.) The true importance of web-based doc mgt
wasn't that it provided a ubiquitous client but that it changed the
metaphor from locking documents away in a relational data vault
(bringing organizational value) to publishing documents to one's
co-workers (bringing personal satisfaction). The technology in both
cases was identical, but with web-based doc mgt, it feels like you're
publishing your stuff, not putting it behind 6 inches of rolled steel.

This, IMO, is perhaps the key reason why a KM system that incorporates
weblogs can succeed. We write weblogs not simply to do good for the
organization but because we are social creatures who like being listened
to. We like being in public. We like being appreciated. We like being
famous. People (in general!) will only write weblogs if they get
personal satisfaction from training a small spotlight on themselves. And
that, btw, is why KM weblogs will only work if they are allowed to
wander off topic, make jokes, get sassy, publish personal ideas and
opinions, and occasionally curse out dumbass managers.


-- David W.
-----------------------------------------------------------
David Weinberger* 'zine: www.hyperorg.com
self@... blog: www.hyperorg.com/blogger
cluetrain: www.cluetrain.com
new book: www.smallpieces.com
speaking: www.hyperorg.com/speaker

*Elevator statement on file with building supervisor

> -----Original Message-----
> From: klogs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:klogs@yahoogroups.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 7:58 AM
> To: klogs@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [K-Logs] Digest Number 63
>
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> --------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> There is 1 message in this issue.
>
> Topics in this digest:
>
> 1. RE: Knowledge Workers and K-Logs
> From: "Jim McGee" <jim@...>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> __________
> ______________________________________________________________
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> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 10:57:16 -0600
> From: "Jim McGee" <jim@...>
> Subject: RE: Knowledge Workers and K-Logs
>
> I also posted this on my weblog
> (http://www.kellogg.nwu.edu/faculty/mcgee/htm/blog/2002/01/28.
> html), but thought it might bear on the discussion here
>
> There's a charateristic of almost all of the discussion about
> KM that bothers me and I've finally figured out why. KM has
> become one of those things that everyone knows you ought to
> do -- it's on a par with getting more exercise or flossing
> your teeth. Worse than that, KM has become the organizational
> busybody, talking about what everyone else ought to be doing
> for their own good. Few of the people taling about KM seem to
> have any KM problems of their own, just ideas about what
> somebody else ought to do. There's an ugly control streak
> buried just beneath the surface of most of what I've seen
> recently about KM.
>
> That's what makes John's notion of knowledge logs (k-logs) so
> refreshing. But we've skipped past that part too quickly into
> a discussion of k-logs at the organizational level. How do we
> encourage people to contribute, how do we get past issues of
> people hoarding knowledge, and on and on.
>
> WIIFM, what's in it for me? Let's not skip over that question
> because it's central. John's starting to get at that here.
> Forget any payoffs to my employers; why should I bother to do
> anything to contribute to KM? Because a k-log makes my life
> easier. Maybe the others who've been talking about this are
> already compulsively organized and can already locate
> anything they've worked on in the last two years with
> unerring accuracy.
>
> Me? I've been disorganized since the second grade (1960).
> I've been a piler not a filer most of my life. The thing I
> didn't figure out until it was nearly too late was that piles
> of bits on your hard drive are very hard to see. I think you
> have to work harder to be organized with PCs because
> everything is invisible. There aren't any physical clues to
> help aid your memory. A k-log in a tool as simple as Radio
> finally begins to help. It doesn't do the work for you, but
> it sure does make the work that has to be done a lot easier.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
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