Jenny Levine: Knowledge Management

As I continue investigating portal/CMS/KM software for SLS, I'm intrigued by Conversant, but it appears that I can't put it on my own server, which takes it out of the running. Darn.

Assigning Metatags to Chat Logs "Another late-night idea: assigning metatags to online conversations, more specific - to chat logs. How many valuable information will be lost, when people chatting online. A good tip for travelling, a valuable URL, anything. Yep, there are client-side solutions to this - a IM logs, URL collectors etc. But I was thinking to do it server-side." [drop.org - community plumbing]

Now there's someone that's thinking ahead. I use AIM to ask Rich quick questions about Oracle and PL/SQL (I'm sure he doesn't think they're "quick"), and I end up just saving the logs as "rich1," rich2," "rich3," etc. I think there was one time when the conversation was contained to one topic so I could name it "portal dynamic pages" or some such thing. But as John Robb has noted, IM sessions need to be integrated into a KM system, and meta tags would certainly help with retrieval from that system.

PeterMe asks What Software Do You Think In? It's an interesting question that is continuously changing for me. It used to be whatever email program I was using (I am continually mocked for the amount of space my email takes up on the server). Then it became the bookmark program I use (which I have apparently maxxed out). Then it morphed into an information manager for my Palm (so far, so good). Now it's blogging in Radio. This is my trail of knowledge management, another essay I'll be writing one of these days.

Blogging is really the first chance I've had to share my virtual knowledge container with other people. I did it a little bit with the Librarians' Site du Jour, but with that I tried to be objective and offer guidance more than anything else. I wasn't trying to capture all of my thoughts, so much as be a virtual pointer to other sites.

Sidebar one: the comments for the above post pointed me to Snood, Junkbot, and Vexed, all games I know Kate will appreciate while she's home this week.

Sidebar two: when I think, I type. Or maybe that should be "I think, therefore I type." Ever since I learned to type in high school (on a typewriter, mind you), my fingers will involuntarily start typing in mid-air whatever I am thinking. If my hands are just resting on my legs, my fingers will still type. Sometimes, it's how I stay awake in meetings - I start air typing what the person is saying so that I will focus on it. I have no explanation for this.

The I in K-Logs "Collaboration tools should provide content (raw fodder) that I can use in my K-Log. Right now, it's possible to forward e-mails to my desktop K-Log tool. A developer is working right now on sucking in IM conversations.... [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

That would be fantastic if I could save my IM chats with Rich in my k-log! Then Kate could have access to our chats about Oracle and PL/SQL, too.

K-Logs in action. Looks like Paolo is building feed directories and key word aggregators for his employees at eVectors who are using Radio. Nice. Notice the use of category-based publishing with Radio that enables users to create project or customer specific knowledge streams. Also note the "lighter side feed" for employees to have a little fun. As a new employee it would take all of a couple of hours to find, read, and subscribe to the category specific K-Logs that related to the projects I would be working on. No time spent casting about looking for information, points of view, documents, e-mails, etc on those projects. Wow! Real ROI out of the box. I should probably do some calculations on this. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

This is exactly what I want to do at SLS and then broaden to the other 11 Illinois Library Systems and the Illinois State Library. Dave, how much is a Radio site license for the State of Illinois? :-)

Snowdeal.org is exploring John Robb's ideas about k-logging (knowledge management blogging) and personal brands. In my organization, most people don't care about branding themselves or being leaders, but I think blogging librarians are good evidence of this trend in our field. We know how to niche and despite the refusal of others to recognize it, we use humor and some good names to shape the thoughts we express and the information we share. Examples: The Rogue Librarian, The Laughing Librarian, Librarian.net, New Breed Librarian. All have been successful at infusing their blogs with their personalities, thus becoming a brand online, even if that wasn't their intent. [original link via John Robb]

An interesting knowledge management (km) blog: Steven's KM Weblog. I'm trying very hard to implement k-logging at SLS.