One thing we take for granted in the Weblog community is automatic time-organization. It is perhaps the least understood but most powerful feature of a K-Log and critical for knowledge management.
When you post to a K-Log, it is time-stamped. K-Logs automatically group time-stamped posts by day. These groups of posts form the basis of an archive. Archives can either be simple lists of dates or more complex calendars that link to groupings of daily posts. Dave over at Scripting.com has an browsable archive that dates back to April 1997: http://scriptingnewsarchive.userland.com/1997/04/30 For extensive archives the calendar in combination with search seems to be the only solution. Simple lists breakdown after more than a few days.
Here are a some insights I have developed in my thinking about time-organization:
1) Time organization is a natural organizational method. It doesn't take any special training to understand and implement (particularly if it is automated as it is in a K-Log). We can all agree on the categories (day, month, year, hour, minute, second). It also serves as a method for establishing interop for group projects.
2) New combinations. My time-stamped posts can combine with yours to produce a single document or be routed to more complex databases for inclusion in their tools via standard protocols. In that sense, the K-Log can form the basis of a content router.
3) By grouping posts over time, a narrative can be established. This narrative forms the basis of a story that provides critical contextual information necessary to group understanding of what is going on at an individual or group level.
4) Time organization can also be extended to other documents and file types to increase productivity. Weblogs are increasingly omnivorous. You can post anything to them: e-mails, links, office documents, MP3 files, video files, pictures, and simple written text (the best part is that you can even annotate those files to provide context). Most people group documents and files via topic-based directories. While this has its advantages, it doesn't provide critical information on how you as and individual used those resources, when you used them, and why you used them. This type of contextual time-based understanding is critical to the understanding of co-workers and readers that are trying to synchronize their workflow with yours.
5) A procedural archive. A Weblog can be a powerful tool for process improvement by looking at the archive of the members contributions either on personal K-Logs or on a group K-Log, it is possible to determine what went wrong with a process and how it can be improved.
In my view, all of these items combine to create a one of a kind group organizational tool. A tool that allows me to easily gather all of the digital detritus (stuff) I accumulate on a daily basis and put it into a context that is easily understood by co-workers. My co-workers can do the same for me. That ability to synchronize thinking, is a critical part of knowledge worker productivity.
Sincerely,
John
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