Gotta love incubators!

My partner and I are preparing a presentation for this year’s KPM (Knowledge and Project Management) Conference at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa campus in August. We’ve been assigned to the business innovators and incubators presenters group. According to my professors I’m a “serial” entrepreneur. Better that than serial something else! However, I wish KMRM was further “incubated.” Birthing is ALWAYS difficult, although rewarding. Coming up with your own angle is challenging, especially if you are tenacious to the point that you tell yourself you MUST figure it out AND succeed. Thanks, Dad… sometimes

Because of my heightened interest in the power of wikis as an innovative knowledge management tool, I continue to follow Wasabi Ventures (PB Works), who also brings us SiteBattles, Song Journals, and a list of other hit and hip internet toys. And, again… this new genre of social networking “networking” is, well, innovative! Example: I linked the Song Journals to my Facebook account where my fellow high school graduates are planning our 30th class reunion. This new “concert venue” will probably be great fun for those of us who shared junior or high school or even college together, as that is when the songs and what they said made a BIG difference in our lives.

Knowledge Management IS Risk Management

KMRM (Knowledge Management • Risk Management) Consulting, LLC takes seriously the notion of RISK as it relates to knowledge management and the likelihood that a company’s intellectual assets have not been captured and may be lost. This could occur for any number of reasons: retirement, layoffs, knowledge hoarding, lack of value awareness, and the like.

According to The McKinsey Quartlery: “Risk doesn’t mean danger—it just means not knowing what the future holds. That insight resides at the core of risk management for companies, whether in managing the potential downside of an investment or putting a value on the option of waiting when making irreversible decisions. In this video Peter L. Bernstein also explains why in the real world the most sophisticated mathematical models can sometimes fail.”

Mr. Bernstein, the celebrated author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, died June 5, 2009, at the age of 90.

Managing knowledge (and communication) for the family reunion…

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Little did I know that my KM skills would prove useful for planning a family reunion. But alas… I have been working on bringing people, processes and technology together… getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

One such resource has been Smilebox. (See my creation above.) It’s a great little program for sharing information by way of photos and text. Likewise, my mother and I honed our humorous writing skills by composing a tongue-in-cheek communique for the “family.”

Trying to figure out the logistics (processes) for getting everyone where they need to be when they are supposed to be there… and feeding/entertaining them all… has been a lesson in the organization of information.

Stay tuned… And live vicariously. I guarantee you some good laughs!

Visiting the Family Cabin in Traverse City

Great place to manage my own knowledge! Check out the new Blogroll link I’ve added for Traverse City Up North. You, too, can visit vicariously, then.

KMRM.com is born!

My consulting business is growing up! KMRM.com is being birthed by Steven Shelton, former graphic designer and fellow MLIS classmate and now librarian at K-state. 

First step: Get your domain name. We used godaddy and found that KMRM.com was owned by someone in Paris. Through the contact information on the list we were able to make an offer to buy it. The gentleman made a counter-offer, and because we didn’t accept his offer, the domain name was entered in a Sedo auction. Chewed nails and a week later, we won! (Lucky for my gambling partner!)

On my facebook wall I saw an advertisment for logotournament.com. We created a contest and got a NEW logo. Designers from around the world compete by submitting logo ideas. I had participants from the UK, Turkey, India, Singapore, Australia, USA and more!!! It was a tough decision!

For months we’ve been doing some competitive intelligence (thanks Doc Martens) on what “like” consulting firms are doing. We also checked out winning websites, noting navigation, white space, information, and colors.

We’ve reviewed Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Now onto creating! And writing! And editing! And feedback from people like YOU!

To be continued…

Congratulations PBworks!

If you haven’t tried a “pb”wiki, it’s definitely time you tried the new “PB”works. This fast-growing, collaborative web platform company provides enterprises and educators… small and large… a wonderful way to do all those important knowledge management things with what they know:
Create it
Capture it
Secure it
Combine it
Pool it
Edit it
Connect it
Share it
Transfer it
Distribute it
Network it
Web 2.0 it
Manage it
Workflow it
Search it
Filter it
Locate it
Store it
Use it
Reuse it
Experience it

It’s the PERFECT knowledge management tool! Take a bite out of your workload with the new PBworks!

If you’ve been wondering why my provocative posts have been absent from the web, I must admit that I have spent an intense nine months implementing a knowledge management initiative and customer solution-driven PBworks wiki at SCFM. I’m already busy doing the same (and putting another PBworks wiki together) for a soon-to-open non-profit middle and high school serving the Asperger community. For all my friends and business associates and anyone who’ll listen, I’m recommending you try PBworks. It works!

p.s. I promise to start posting again!

Hello SCFM Team Members!

Hi guys!

This is the blog I started while I was at OU studying for my Masters in Knowledge Management. As you can see, I stopped blogging about the time I started consulting for SCFM. There’s only so much time in the day. Perhaps getting you guys up and running on your new pbwiki (pbwiki.com) and creating my own home page as an example for you will inspire me to start posting on my blog again. If you’re interested in setting up a blog, I’m glad to show you how!

Again… art teaches us to just communicate

If music is the universal language, then we owe debt to those who speak to us. And those who make instruments for artists to speak through. I had my piano tuned today, and with that came a renewed pleasure in playing. A few weeks ago I was lucky to see Steinway L1037… both the piano AND the movie. As I watched, I couldn’t help but think how those who are managing Steinway and Sons could inspire organizations to manage and preserve their intellectual capital.

Trend to open access of scholarly research

My final paper on open access and the PKP OJS system will signify the completion of my MSKM degree. Some final research led me to an interesting February 2008 blog post by Michael Carroll , who teaches law at Villanova University School of Law and serves on the Board of Creative Commons.

I was encouraged by his news that Harvard faculty has “increased its competitive edge by adopting a faculty resolution to grant the university a license to make faculty scholarship freely accessible online.” In brief, he cites four reasons for open access archiving:

1. The impact of, and citations to, Harvard scholarship will increase because it is freely accessible.

2. Harvard researchers will be able to use the rich archive of Harvard scholarship to experiment with and for a variety of purposes, including developing new research tools.

3. Harvard librarians will get greater expertise than exists at competing institutions at developing, managing, and adding value to the university’s digital library because they will have a regular flow of new scholarship to manage.

4. Young academics should be attracted to the institution as prospective faculty members, graduate students or other kinds of researchers for the signal that this initiative sends. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at least, seems to get the Web.

Oh where, oh where have the faculty of other institutions gone?

If you’ve read my last post, you are aware of my concerns over “Education 2.0″ at OU and other institutions. Let’s face it, education IS a business, and if we’re not marketing our research, ideas, and image via modes of open access on the web, then we become victims of loss of identity, a barrier to communication and knowledge sharing, and guilty of prohibiting access to information… the VERY things institutions of higher knowledge are asked to monitor in order to expand the knowledge base of our world, decrease the digital divide, and alleviate suffering by providing access to knowledge.

Communicating on the web

Students from the “Design and Implementation of Web-based Services” class summarized the semester’s self-initiated, self-directed group project in a presentation to the OU infrastructure committee this past Friday. I was gravely disappointed as anticipated exuberance was deflated when focus turned away from positive ways to improve our current SLIS site and utilize the web for improved convenience, expanded community, effective marketing, and social networking to misdirected confusion and criticism.

Our KM education has encouraged us to step back, look at the big picture, promote a positive culture, encourage new ideas, and facilitate change.

Now I’m wondering why the disconnect? Why can’t we “Just Communicate?”

It was interesting to see my ICKM paper on Emotional Intelligence come to life before my very eyes, especially in light of the fact that all of us in the room are information professionals and our charge is to be leaders and educators in our field. Throughout the presentation I had flashbacks to articles I’ve referenced on this blog that describe an us vs. them mentality.

We really “should” be able to model what we teach (preach).