1. Blogging for Knowledge Exchange Darlene Fichter Data Library Coordinator University of Saskatchewan Library Darlene.Fichter@usask.ca KMWorld 2003

2. Overview Blogs What are they? Blog Speak Blogs and KM 10 ways blogs might work for KM

3. What is it? Blog/ Weblog is a web page containing brief entries arranged chronologically Can be a a journal or diary, ‘What’s New’ page or links to other web sites “To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.” Evan Williams (creator of Blogger)

4. Some bloggers at this conference Martin White http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/ Louis Rosenfeld http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/ John Porcaro http://johnporcaro.typepad.com/blog/

5. Blogging demo 1. Login in 2. Create a new entry. 3. “Post and publish”.

6. 1. Login

7. 2. Add a new entry Worker blogs hit the radar screen with “Glove Girl” case study in Harvard Business Review.

8. 3. Post and publish

9. View it

10. Blog Speak Blogger – person who maintains a blog Blogging – the act of creating a blog Blogrolling – moving form blog to blog Blogrolodex – a listing of other blogs Blawgs, Klogs, Trackback, Ping, Permalink, … See discussion of terminology on MetaFilter

11. Why blogging boom? 2000-2003 Hosted blogs – anyone could publish No need to know HTML No need to know FTP Anywhere, anytime Dozens of features – dynamic, quick and to develop Blog Trivia – What South American country has millions of bloggers?

12. Blogs – The Bottom Line Simple web publishing Organic communities KISS

13. From Blogs to K-Logs* Blogs K-Logs Firewall *John Robb, President of Userland is the originator of the concept k-logs.

14. KM Modes of Knowledge Transfer Explicit knowledge is definable and objective; easily documented and transferred

15. KM Modes of Knowledge Transfer Tacit knowledge lives in people’s heads and their practices; used every day but you see it only when it’s used. “Know – how” Most difficult and elusive

16. Solve Real World Problems Explicit Knowledge Information overload Collapse of email

17. 1.Filters and Mining Human powered filters Less is more

18. 2. Support Smart Distribution Methods One blog or many RSS Syndication of one blog, categories to specific groups and individuals automatically Email

19. 3. Teams Blogs Capture the facts Plans Steps in the process Best new web resources Lessons learned Tips Where to look Collaborative content

20. 4. Help you Encourage brain dumps, exploration, think aloud Searchable archives

21. 5. Unlock Tacit Knowledge Stories are a good framework for sharing information, meaning and knowledge (Nichani/Rajamanickam) Blogs encourage story telling Fosters understanding because they usually offer context Good stories resonate, so do good blogs Blogging is a train-of-thought technology. Scott Dinsdale

22. 6. Foster communities The ease of cross-linking and the conversational nature, fosters social networking (track backs) Self – organizing communities emerge

23. 7. Create new relationships Excellent at one-to-many / many-to- many communication Can allow participation and comments Breaks down the silos Create “connected content”

24. 8. Natural expertise locator Who knows what? How can I judge their “credibility”?

25. 9. Overcome Organizational Obstacles KM is great but many KM solutions are complex, mega projects In short, they are overwhelming Blogs are simple and low-cost.

26. 10. Overcome Employee Concerns Employees are reluctant to share My knowledge is makes me valuable. If I share my knowledge, my value diminishes. “What’s in it for me?” Blogs are self-rewarding Often bloggers report they discover their own interests, refine their perspectives … “Peer” recognition

27. Blogging Software Lots of tools Inexpensive Find out about tools: Weblog Compendium www.lights.com/weblogs/ January/February 2003 www.onlineinc.com

28. Guerilla KM? Start small Give a few key knowledge workers blogs

29. Questions?