Dear K-Loggers,

A K-Log network is at its most powerful when each K-Log is attached to an
individual.  That way, all the benefits (recognition, feedback, identification
as an expert, etc.) of a well maintained K-Log accrue to that individual and the
content reflects a single mind's thinking process (continuity for the reader).

Occasionally, it is beneficial to build multi-author or ad-hoc K-Logs that
reflect the thinking and work product of multiple contributors (for a project,
team, topic, etc.).   There are more than a few ways to do this.  Here is an
overview of the top solutions:

1) Mail.  K-Logs can be configured to capture e-mail messages with a
confidential keyword in the subject line.  This is great for a group that works
primarily through e-mail, and those that are on the road and only have a
Blackberry (or equivalent e-mail equipped PDA or phone) to contribute.   I
recently got an e-mail from a project manager that used Radio to capture e-mails
from a decentralized group.  By publishing the group's e-mails to a K-Log
(participants merely cc:ed the e-mail account Radio was watching and place the
designated keyword in the subject line to publish their contributed e-mails),
everyone now had a easy to read repository of contact info and content to refer
to in the future.  New members could quickly get up to speed without having to
get all the group's e-mails sent to them.  For more on this, check out Radio's
mail-to-weblog feature (with Radio running, click this link):

http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/prefs?page=2.9

It takes only a dedicated e-mail account and a couple seconds setting
preferences to get going.  If you don't have Radio on your desktop, you can get
a 30-day free trial here:  http://radio.userland.com

2) A dedicated server-based K-Log tool.  There are lots of tools in this space. 
Each contributor would be assigned as an editor.  This is great for a large
ongoing project that needs/demands a full K-Log.  Unfortunately, this approach
doesn't leverage personal K-Logs and leads to a duplication of effort in many
cases.

3) RSS newsfeeds.  A new feature for Radio allows users to set up a weblog based
on the RSS feeds from multiple contributors.  This is an elegant solution.  This
allows contributors to continue to publish content they are producing to their
personal K-Log (where the benefits accrue to them), while also contributing to a
group resource.  Here is the feature page for this in Radio:

http://127.0.0.1:5335/multiAuthorWeblog/

Here is the extended instructions:

http://radio.userland.com/multiAuthorWeblogTool

Now, the straightforward way to do this would be to take the RSS feed from the
main K-Logs of each of the participants in a group and combine them into a
single K-Log(RSS is a syndication format for a K-Log that readers can subscribe
to.  The new posts on subscribed K-Logs show up on a news page in the
subscriber's newsaggregator.  Radio includes this functionality).  This group
K-Log would act as a portal for all of the groups members.  However, it is
possible to really leverage the content management underpinnings of the K-Log
tool to narrow the contributions to specific topics rather than everything a
group member may contribute to their K-Log by using categories.

Contributors can create granular RSS feeds for their contributions using
category publishing (Categories allow authors to direct a post to multiple
K-Logs based on topic/audience, just by clicking on the buttons for those
categories.  Authors can post to one, a few, or all of the categories in a
single effort.  Categories are very easy to create.  Note that these category
specific K-Logs are full sites with their own RSS feeds).  So, I can build a
category specific K-Log for a project on "Healthcare K-Logs" I am working on. 
Whenever I have a post I want to send to the group, all I need to do is click on
the "Healthcare K-Logs" category below my editing box to direct it there.  The
contribution will show up as a post to the category K-Log and update my
category-specific RSS newsfeed.

The project's manager, who is running his/her own K-Log, can now create a new
category for the group called "Healthcare K-Logs" that uses the RSS feeds from
the category specific feeds of the contributors to populate it.  Very simple
once you see it in action.

a) Here is the place to create a new category in Radio (with Radio running):

http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/editCategory?referer=http%3A%2F%2F127.0.0.1%3\
A5335%2Fsystem%2Fpages%2Fcategories

b) Once you have a category set-up, it will show up on this list (with Radio
running):

http://127.0.0.1:5335/system/pages/categories

c) Readers can find your categories on the Intranet or the Web at this location:

sitename/categories/name of category/

Here is the Shifted Librarian's KM category (as an example):

http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/categories/knowledgeManagement/


I hope you enjoyed all the detail I provided on this.  Lots of people have asked
me how to set this up in Radio, so here is a practical guide to doing it.  Group
or ad-hoc K-Logs are fantastic for specific situations, the key is to leverage
the tool so people don't have to duplicate their publishing efforts or deprive
themselves of the benefit of a personal K-Log that contains all of their
content.

Sincerely,

John Robb

http://jrobb.userland.com









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