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| | The Innovation Network Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Smart People Magazine | Views: 672 | | Apr 06, 2009 9:32 am | | Smart People Magazine | # | 
John Stephen Veitch | | Hello Everyone
Knowledge Management has been in the doldrums for a few years now. We seem to keep going round and round without making much progress. I've been a member of ACTKM for about eight years now and the conversations remain almost the same although the names of the experts may have changed a little.
Jerry Ash, the publisher of Smart People Magazine, tells us in the first edition of the magazine that 30 years of effort have not been in vain. (I have a pre-release PDF copy.)
Knowledge Management fails because "knowledge" refuses to be managed. Knowledge insists on being free and changing, and our attempts to put it in a box with a lock on it were always doomed.
Smart People Magazine is to be released on 15 April. It is a 40 page professionally written and produced magazine with a difference. It's the product of the Knowledge Community, which we are currently trying to pull together.
All of you who are members of LinkedIn, can join a LinkedIn Smart People Group. Use this URL. http://tinyurl.com/cg7365
There are Smart People networks on Xing, Facebook, Ning, Twitter, LinkedIn and by now probably several other places. The idea is to make a continuous feedback loop, The magazine to readers to topics to, online discussion to identifying people with knowledge who should be article authors, to new articles, to discussion with the authors, and so on. To take advantage of the network you have to find a place where YOU can be a member.
Hopefully this network might be one of those spaces.
The LinkedIn Smart People Group is another. http://tinyurl.com/cg7365
Many of us will become subscribers to the Magazine.
I hope you will find the magazine an essential tool in your consultancy work, and that it will be a product you can sell to your clients as part of the service package you offer them.
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 08, 2009 10:05 pm | | re: Smart People Magazine | # | 
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~----~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
JohnV - "Knowledge Management fails because "knowledge" refuses to be managed." - JohnV
This pretty much says that IS, IS.
JohnV - "Knowledge insists on being free and changing, and our attempts to put it in a box with a lock on it were always doomed." - JohnV
This pretty much says that IS, IS NOT.
Which position does Smart People Magazine take?
04/08/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/T Private Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 09, 2009 2:10 am | | re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | Hello Joseph
This forum is alive after all.
Actually I don't know the answer to that, you need to talk to Jerry Ash.
I think the accepted view is that there are two styles of knowledge management, BIG KM and small km.
BIG KM is about creating data bases and trying to capture all the relevant knowledge and putting it into a box, from whence it might be distributed on a "need to know basis".
If I interpret the winds of change correctly, this sort of KM has been hugely expensive and fails to deliver on the promises made.
On the other hand small km, recognises that with a moderate amount of sensible record keeping and good communication between people, cost can often be reduced and objectives more easily achieved.
For me KM is a sideline interest. I'm sure there is better expertise here, in the woodwork somewhere. Can I invite you to comment?
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 10, 2009 12:04 am | | re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~~~~----~~~~~~~~~~~Wow!
Managing Knowledge.
I am pretty sure that all Knowledge exists only between the ears of human beings on this planet.
Nothing else on our planet is wired to contain knowledge.
Data bases can be filled with information but not with knowledge.
Only human beings on this planet have the ability to know.
And most of what we know is actually not even true.
And that is a good thing.
I suppose it is an indication that God has a sense of humor.
And that is a good thing.
I have noticed that some people rely on their memory to solve problems and some rely on their other mental skills to solve problems.
I have also noticed that most problems are solved by individuals and few by groups.
And that is a good thing.
Have a good IDea today,
04/09/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 10, 2009 12:43 am | | re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | I should have added Joseph that small km focuses a lot on helping people understand what's in the stuff between the left ear and the right ear. Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 14, 2009 6:06 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~------~~~~~~~~~~~!
I am still thinking about the concept of Knowledge Management.
I have identified a few people who have had some success at that.
I have identified Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and probably Chesterton so far.
It seems that what these folks were able to accomplish would be difficult to top.
I need a little more time even to begin to wrap my mind around the concept.
This is probably an important work and doing it badly cannot be an option.
Have a good IDea today,
04/14/08 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 15, 2009 12:44 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~~--------~~~~~~~~~
I wonder what Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and probably Chesterton may have had in common that gave them the ability to manage knowledge so well.
If we could find that common factor or factors that would be something worth finding.
Have a good IDea today,
04/14/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/T
Private Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 17, 2009 2:40 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~----~~~~
It seems that whatever these knowledge managing folks had in common it was likely something that is/was not very common.
Maybe it was something similar to the very elusive factor we now call common sense.
04/17/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 17, 2009 3:50 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # | 
Alan Walsh | | I've always thought knowledge management is a function of knowledge use. Knowledge not used quickly fades away. Exceptional people retain more because they apply more. Private Reply to Alan Walsh | | Apr 17, 2009 9:08 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | This is a comment I made in the Smart People Magazine forum. The topic is "‘Me smart? You’re kidding!’ - You are what you think". In my experience, we are usually pretty ignorant about what we think, until we try to explain something to someone. When we do that we are often a little surprised about what we say.
In teacher training we were told this story. In a class of 5yr olds, Mary is constantly talking and the teacher asked her to stop talking so much.
"If I stop talking", Mary replied, "How will I know what I'm thinking?"
Not only true of 5yr olds, true of adults and in these forums too. When you write here, you discover what you think. Here is my comment.
* * * * * * * * * *
The problem with our education system is the lack of emphasis on finding and recording information in your own life, so that you can use it later. This is where thinking begins. First of all, in finding something interesting. Second, in looking, observing, trying to understand so that you have mentally processed the experience. Third, in making a permanent written record, supported by other things if you like, but put the experience into words.
If you do those simple things once a day for 10 years, just recording a single incident each day, you will change who you are and greatly increase your potential to make meaningful contributions by the leading life you live.
The most significant thing you will learn is that all your memories, the recall that you think is so clear, isn’t a memory at all. Your memory lies to you and tells you how “good” it is. Your written record even if you try very hard, may not be the truth, exactly, but it will be good enough to prove to you how unreliable your memory really is. That’s the beginning of being a whole lot smarter. So where are you keeping that record of real experiences that you so badly need?
I’ve kept a journal in hard covered exercise books for over 30 years. This simple writing task is much more valuable than a university education, is very inexpensive, and can be done by anyone.
Participation in discussions like this one. have a very similar benefit. You focus on a topic, you decide what you really think about it, and you share that with others. There is an incentive to get what you say right. Others will comment. In the process of reading the views of others your own view is quietly moderated, or informed. The entire discussion is available to keep as a written record, and might remain online for many years. For most people that’s easier than keeping a journal, and it seems a more natural thing to do. Like having a conversation. But it’s a conversation that’s changing who you are.
My favorite educationalist is the late Professor Graham Nuthall, of University of Canterbury, NZ. He said that learning was confined to what people DO. So, yes you are what you think, but what you think is dominated by the things you have DONE. Participation here is doing something of the right kind.
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 17, 2009 10:02 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | Al wrote: "Exceptional people retain more because they apply more."
Agreed Al, but I want to come back a stage, to where our thinking, our own knowledge comes from.
As children we learn by playing in the real world. We construct our knowledge, but the way we do that is directed by the adults in our community, and by our siblings. So we develop language ability in our native tongue, and we believe in fairies and Father Christmas, and the Easter Bunny.
We go to school and we begin to learn from "experts", particularly from the texts written in books. We are taught to discount our own experience as unreliable. More and more of what we "know" is other people's learning.
The POWER of knowing, comes only when what you KNOW is really part of yourself. Other people's knowledge, is layered over the top of who you are, and is not really yours unless you repeatedly use it and make it your own. You have to graft this external knowledge into your pre-existing knowledge, and this isn't as simple as learning the right answer for an examination. I'd suggest that the grafting process often takes 10 years or more.
This is why having a journal is enormously useful. In your journal, you record what you have found to be important or interesting today. You have structured part of your experience for that day. Given it a shape and place both in your journal and in your brain. That in my view is the root of knowledge ecology, as a practice.
I agree Al, that unless we use our knowledge, we lose it. Using your knowledge includes sharing it with other people. It also includes re-reading old journal notes to reinforce what you were thinking 10 years ago. I continue to be amazed about how often the root of the work I'm doing today can be found 10 to 20 years ago in my journal. It gives you enormous confidence in what you are thinking now, if you can find that you had very similar thoughts (long forgotten) 20 years ago. Moreover, being able to compare and contrast the old and the new often gives you insight into the new which can be interesting.
Each of us is responsible for constructing our own "knowledge" and therefore also responsible for our own blindness to other knowledge that passed our way and was ignored or rejected.
Working in forums like this help you to rediscover your own knowing, and to compare that with the knowing of other people. If you pay attention, you find opportunities to easily learn things that were previously outside of your knowledge.
I write about keeping your own data here:
http://www.ate.co.nz/knowledge/journalsr.html
The ability to learn from life and to adapt to it is lesson here. Another URL.
http://www.ate.co.nz/knowledge/adaptingsr.html
From that page I collect this quote:
"There is a story in Hindu mythology, The Mahabharata which tells the story of birth and growing up, of who we are, and what we believe, of the battles we fought and the principles we live by. An actor on the BBC talking to a youth about The Mahabharata says, "If you listen carefully you will become a different person.""
Which is exactly the point of knowledge ecology.
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 17, 2009 10:33 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Alan Walsh | | We think conceptually & pictorially, and we communicate with language. No wonder we sometimes have to pause so we can rip our minds into speech-mode and form the correct language on our tongues; looking like fools in the process. I used to be accused in college of not paying attention. In fact, I was, and I was following five other thought trails at the same time. But when I was asked a question, I often had to pause and refocus my brain into speech mode to frame my response. Of course, pauses are virtually guaranteed to draw a professor's wrath. I've read that Einstein would get so lost in conceptual thought that he would completely lose track of the outward world. Bright children often have difficulties in school because their minds race way ahead of events in a great pink conceptual cloud.
As to memory retention, I actually think the brain is a great librarian; accumulating masses of data, sorting it for recall, and periodically discarding the insignificant; while retaining the critical core knowledge. I don't give a hoot about recalling the details of how I solved a problem 20 years ago. I do care about the critical thinking process that helped me arrive at the solution. In this, my mind has been very faithful; and grows in it's power with the passing of years. Of course, ageing does take it's toll. The brain can't recall it all, which is why we have libraries, but it does a pretty impressive job.
I've tried to keep journals on more than one occasion during my adult life. My mind, and events, race too fast for the exercise to be meaningful. Another problem with journals is that they are not dynamic. They're frozen in the moment; serving as little more than a historical record. Finally, a journal never argues back or questions. Ignorance recorded is still ignorance. A forum such as this is much more relevant and purposeful. It's a living record of dynamic mental processing, and sparring, in a broad-spectrum forum. One of the proofs of it's value is that there is never a "final summarizing thought". There's always another snippet to contribute. All thoughts are subject to scrutiny, yet at the end of the day we walk away friends and hopefully benefit from the experience.
Professor Nuthall is partially correct in his statement that learning is confined to what people do. But, after all, we are "civilized" modern humans - no longer primarily engaged in hunting/gathering - and we can afford a little time to exercise the old noodle on non-critical topics. Although what I DO is "businessman", I'm also an armchair physicist; purely for the pleasure. There are many other "armchair" thinkers out there, and some have actually contributed to the advancement of their respective subjects. So we DO think beyond the mundanity of what we DO after all.
Al WalshPrivate Reply to Alan Walsh | | Apr 19, 2009 6:47 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~---~~~~~~~~~~~~
JSV - My favorite educationalist is the late Professor Graham Nuthall, of University of Canterbury, NZ. He said that learning was confined to what people DO. So, yes you are what you think, but what you think is dominated by the things you have DONE. Participation here is doing something of the right kind. - JSV
"Participation is doing something of the right kind."
The Right Kind of actions?
Is doing the RIGHT KIND of actions really a knowledge thing?
Is it knowledge?
Is it Taste?
Is it Common Sense?
What the Hell is doing something of the right kind?
04/19/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 19, 2009 11:29 pm | | re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | Joseph
Given that the topic is creating knowledge, or living effectively in a knowledge ecology, I said that Graham Nuthall said that we only learn when we DO things.
I added; "Participation here is doing something of the right kind" meaning that engaging in these forums is DOING. You can learn here. Learning creates new knowledge.
I've also found that physical things like dancing, digging the garden or taking a long walk add to knowledge. They engage you with reality. Climbing a hill is hard work.
http://www.ate.co.nz/godleytrack/
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Apr 21, 2009 9:55 pm | | re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~------~~~~~
I expect that physical things like dancing, digging the garden or taking a long walk while plugged into you I-pod minimize your engagement with reality and limit the possibilities for any adding to your knowledge. They disengage you with reality.
I also expect that most folks know what they should be doing but are unwilling to be the one to do any of it.
Have a good IDea today,
04/21/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | Apr 26, 2009 10:29 pm | | re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~___---___````````~~~~~~~~
JSV - Joseph
Given that the topic is creating knowledge, or living effectively in a knowledge ecology, I said that Graham Nuthall said that we only learn when we DO things. - JSV
If we are trying to be as accurate as we can, for understanding and growth, I think we should consider Knowledge as something already created and only waiting for us to discover.
It is likely more accurate that we are or at least should be trying to live in more of a discovery ecology.
Knowledge is after all not something you created but something you discovered either by accident or while sailing out on a sea of ignorance with your senses open.
Have a good IDea today,
04/26/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | May 01, 2009 9:34 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~~~---~~~~~~~~~~~:
JFL - Knowledge is after all not something you created but something you discovered either by accident or while sailing out on a sea of ignorance with your senses open. _ JFL
I suppose that creativity is knowledge you discovered either by accident or while searching inside your own mind with your senses open.
05/01/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | May 11, 2009 6:37 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Smart People Magazine | # |
Joseph Lynders | | ~~~~~~~~-----~~~~~
I was over my brothers house Saturday and he hit me with the statement; "There is no such thing as truth."
I told him that I could not respond to his claim since that statement contradicts itself.
He was not able to understand the contradiction but he modified his statement to; "There is no such thing as the trurh in the world."
I forgot to ask him just where the truth resides.
Bummer.
Have a good IDea today,
05/11/09 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/TPrivate Reply to Joseph Lynders | | |
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