 |
|
|
|
Gurteen News Letter
Gurteen Knowledge-Letter: Issue 94 - April 2008
Contents 1 Introduction 2 Luke's Dubai Adventure 3 FriendFeed 4 Thoughts on the human touch 5 Knowledge Cafe Insights 6 Building Trust 7 Media is moving from a source of information to a site of action 8 My Activities 9 KM Event Highlights 10 Subscribing and Unsubscribing 11 The Gurteen Knowledge Letter Introduction  Since
I last wrote, I have been to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Scottsdale/Phoenix
in Arizona. It was only my second time in the Arab world and I hugely enjoyed it and got to learn a little more about the culture and the renowned Arab hospitality. Dubai is a desert city with some of the most amazing modern buildings in the world including the world's tallest building - the Burj Dubai and Ski Dubai - an indoor Ski Resort! Saudi Arabia was quite a contrast. I flew from Dubai to Bahrain and was picked up by my hosts (SABIC) and driven to Jubail - an industrial city about 1 hour's drive north up the Persian Gulf. Wikipedia says this about Jubail: "The industrial city is a complex of petrochemical plants, an iron works and a number of smaller companies, plus a Royal Saudi Naval Base. It holds the Middle East's largest and the world's 11th largest petrochemical company SABIC." At times, the industrial complex stretched across the horizon and although not pretty was quite awe inspiring. There were over 4,000 people at the SABIC conference and exhibition and although not unexpected, it felt strange that there was not ONE woman at the event. And an evening beach party of only men and no alcohol was a first. The experience however provoked a lot of thought on our cultural differences. I wish I had had time to see more of the country as the industrial city of Jubail was hardly representative! You will find photos of my travels on Flickr. In writing this, I knew in the back of my head that I had seen a great quote from Michel de Montaigne on the benefits of travel and so I Googled it. The quote is delightful - far better than my recollection: Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness. Luke's Dubai Adventure  When
I was in Dubai I met up with two Aussies KMers working there -
Luke Naismith and David Rymer whom I met for dinner at the Madinat
Jumeirah - we had a great evening. The
Madinat Jumeirah seemed like Disney World - an amazing place. Much of Dubai has this Disney feel to it at times but Luke is blogging his stay in Dubai and his blog is a great way to get to see a lot more of Dubai and the region that is far from Disney-like! I was also delighted to see this post on Theodre Zeldin and conversation in Luke's Knowledge Futures blog and a quote of Theodore's that I love. The idea of thoughts making love - what a lovely metaphor!! Two thoughts coming together, intermingling their DNA to create new baby thoughts with a unique life of their own. I am getting carried away now! FriendFeed</ title=blocked::http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/friendfeed-post a> Would you like to know almost everything I or friend has been up to of late then take a look at FriendFeed. FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends.I have been using it for a month or so now but I'm not yet convinced of its use as it gives me TOO much information. But the good thing about social tools - what does not work for me might work for you and vice-versa. Thoughts on the human touch  I
recently wrote about
Kiva - an amazing microfinace website and then on the
human touch - the importance of face to face communication in my
Knowledge Cafes and so I was delighted to receive this email from Larry
Gardiner that I have included in full: First an update on your item about Kiva. We asked our family and friends to send Kiva Gift Certificates instead of cards and presents at Christmas after reading about Kiva.org in your newsletter. 15 Kiva certificates have now been redeemed and we receive regular bulletins on our portfolio of micro-finance investments from Cambodia, Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Nigeria and Kenya. Each of our investments is thriving and the most rewarding part of watching their progress is the sense of solidarity which I think is also a feature of the human touch you were talking about. Knowledge Cafe Insights  While
in Scottsdale for the
BSEC 2008 Conference, I took the opportunity to run an open
Knowledge Cafe. Mark Goldstein has captured the essence of the event in
the photos he took and posted on Flickr along with
some of mine. Amazingly Twitter brought us one extra participant Colleen Carmean who blogged a little on the Cafe; said some nice things about me (blush) and had some interesting comments about the format that I had not quite seen before given my closeness. Here are two quotes from her: David uses a specific, distributed, what I would call "emergence" format where 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts' for encouraging knowledge transfer amongst participants. No leaders, no report outs, no death by PowerPoint. Everyone matters, every voice counts. The closing moments of a Knowledge Cafe reminded me of a Quaker meeting. You don't speak unless you're compelled to share an important thought, realization, or theme that emerged from your multiple small group discussions. Some participants violate the framework and just need to be heard, but like the Quakers, everyone listens respectfully and reflects on the thought without the need for comment or debate. Building Trust Whenever I meet new people with whom I would like to work I often say lets find a small project on which we can work together so we can build mutual trust. The process is simple.
The trust question is a classic confusion of symptoms with cause, just as creativity is a symptom of innovation not its cause, so trust is the symptom of interaction over time. If that interaction is not testing, then the trust is fragile. If the trust is simply the result of few contextual exercises (throwing yourself backwards off a brick wall is the classic) then it is temporary. Focus on the process, rather than trying to preset emergent outcomes and you get a more sustainable solution.And note his point creativity being a symptom of innovation and not its cause!! Dave is so right we often confuse symptoms with cause. Media is moving from a source of information to a site of action Thanks to Nerida Hart in Australia I recently discovered Clay Shirky and this quote from him: When I read this, a light bulb flashed. When working at home, I am a documentary junkie - the UK History Channel and other documentary and news channels are pretty much all I watch. But time and time again I get a angry when I see the program makers turn the problems facing the world into entertainment. Their objective is not even to educate but to entertain. Often I switch off and throw the remote at a distant chair (a soft one I might add as I never get that angry)! What I have long wanted more media companies to do - is to start taking the problems seriously and move from saying "here are the problems - isn't it tragic; isn't it crazy" to "here are the problems and here is what you can do to help solve them. And this is what we are setting up to help support you". But the participatory web is moving us in this direction. In 50 years time I think we will look back at old news clips and documentaries of today in a similar way we look back at the propaganda newsreels of the Second World War and wonder why so many people at the time did not see things for what they were. Here is a video of one of Clays talks. My Activities  This
section of my Knowledge Letter highlights my planned activities over the
next six months or so. Its prime purpose is to allow you to know where I
will be and to contact me if you would like to meet. I also use Dopplr to allow people to track my travlels more closely and to potentially meet up with me. You can see a list of my immediate activities below or a full list here. Henley Knowledge Management Forum 23 Apr 2008, Henley-on-Thames, United Kingdom Talk on KM2.0 at the Henley Knowledge Management Forum Series of Knowledge Cafe Workshops for StatoilHydro 05 - 09 May 2008, Stavanger, Norway I will be running a series of Knowledge Cafe workshops & open Knowledge Cafes Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 15 - 18 Jun 2008, Seattle, United States I will be facilitating a Knowledge Cafe Indonesia Trip 12 - 21 Jul 2008, Jakarta, Indonesia I am planning a trip to Jakarta, the week of the 14th July Brazil Trip 25 - 29 Aug 2008, San Paulo, Brazil I will be talking at the KM Brazil Conference in San Paulo 27-29 Aug Australia Trip 13 - 17 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia I may be visiting Australia, the week of the 13th October South Africa Trip 10 - 21 Nov 2008, Cape Town, South Africa I am planning a two week trip to South Africa, the week of the 10th November KM Event Highlights This section highlights some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events. Library + Information Show 2008 23 - 24 Apr 2008, Birmingham, United Kingdom APQC Knowledge Management Conference 2008 28 Apr - 02 May 2008, Chicago, United States KMICE'08: Knowledge Management International Conference and Exhibition 2008 10 - 12 Jun 2008, Langkawi, Malaysia Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 15 - 18 Jun 2008, Seattle, United States I will be giving a talk on the Knowledge Cafe at this event. KC UK 2008 25 - 26 Jun 2008, London, United Kingdom I chaired the collaborative steam of this event for the last two years but due to other commitments will not be attending this year. KM Australia 2008 21 - 23 Jul 2008, Melbourne, Australia I won't be attending this event in 2008 but I can highly recommend it. KM Brazil 2008 27 - 29 Aug 2008, Sao Paulo, Brazil I will be speaking at this conference. 9th European Conference on Knowledge Management 04 - 05 Sep 2008, Southampton, United Kingdom I have attended this conference for the last 3 years. I will likely attend this one. KMWorld & Intranets 2008 22 - 25 Sep 2008, San Jose, United States I attended this conference in 2007 and hugely enjoyed it. I hope to do so again in 2008 but thats not confirmed yet. actKM Conference 2008 14 - 15 Oct 2008, Canberra, Australia I may be participating in this conference again. ICKM 2008: Fifth International Conference on Knowledge Management 23 - 24 Oct 2008, Colombus, Ohio, United States KM Asia 2008 25 - 27 Nov 2008, Singapore City, Singapore Online Information 2008 02 - 04 Dec 2008, London, United Kingdom Subscribing and Unsubscribing You may subscribe to this newsletter on my website. Or if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter or if you wish to modify your e-mail address or make other changes to your membership profile then please go to this page on my website. The Gurteen Knowledge Letter The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for Knowledge Workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archiv e copies are held on-line where you can regist er to receive the newsletter. It is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of Henley Management College, Oxfordshire, England. You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me. David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge |
|
|
Send Email:
# with questions or comments about
this web site.
|
