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Re: Abbreviations / Acronyms - do they hinder a knowledge sharing environment? #communications

Stephen Bounds
 

Hi Lee,

Based on my involvement in supporting a number of jargon-heavy groups over the years (to the point of using terms like "Section 130Z cases") I would observe that language observes the trade-off:

Unambiguous, Concise, Wide audience -- pick two.

If the intents of your groups are to facilitate "in-discussion" then jargon is fine. If the point is to service outsiders, or to break down silos, then you've got to either got to establish rules of etiquette or have facilitators/moderators who do the boundary-spanning.

Sometimes establishing two groups, ie "x" and "x-support" can make it clearer when jargon is acceptable or not.

Cheers,
-- Stephen.

====================================
Stephen Bounds
Director & Principal Consultant
knowquestion Pty Ltd
E: sb@knowquestion.com.au
M: 0401 829 096
====================================

On 30/09/2014 6:53 AM, Lee Romero pekadad@gmail.com [sikmleaders] wrote:
Hi all - Here's a question for the community of knowledge management
professionals here - does the use (or perhaps over-use) of abbreviations
and/or acronyms in an organization encourage information silos and
discourage knowledge sharing?

I have the good fortune of working with our community leader here - Stan
Garfield - and one thing that Stan provides on a regular basis to our
knowledge management community is a report of new discussion groups in
our enterprise social networking tool. Very frequently, when I look
over the list of new groups, I see a LOT of groups using a LOT of
abbreviations in their names. To the point where I (as a relatively
seasoned employee at Deloitte) don't know what they mean.

Placing myself in the position of a new hire, my reaction was that it
could be very discouraging to someone trying to find the "right" group
they might want to join or in which they want to pose a question.

Similarly, in my own position, I spend a good amount of time reviewing
search query logs and I can see a lot of use of abbreviations there.

Also, I know in meetings when people start using acronyms it can (and
often does) immediately create a challenging discussion. The vibe is
something like, "I'll use an abbreviation that most people don't know so
I sound smart", while on the other side of the conversation there is
hesitance to ask what it means because the person who says, "What does
XYZ mean?" can easily feel like they are exposing their ignorance (which
no one wants to do). I've come out of meetings where I can be sure
someone didn't follow the discussion because they didn't know what an
abbreviation meant but they didn't want to ask.


*My question* - do you have a sense that heavy reliance on the use of
acronyms presents a challenging environment in which to really encourage
knowledge sharing? Does it seem like it encourages silos?


On the positive side of things, I know that this kind of community lingo
can encourage a feeling of connectedness - which can increase engagement
with the community. Is that more valuable?


Are there mitigating approaches you've used to improve this?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Regards
Lee Romero
Abbreviations / Acronyms - do they hinder a knowledge sharing environment? #communications

Lee Romero
 

Hi all - Here's a question for the community of knowledge management professionals here - does the use (or perhaps over-use) of abbreviations and/or acronyms in an organization encourage information silos and discourage knowledge sharing?

I have the good fortune of working with our community leader here - Stan Garfield - and one thing that Stan provides on a regular basis to our knowledge management community is a report of new discussion groups in our enterprise social networking tool.  Very frequently, when I look over the list of new groups, I see a LOT of groups using a LOT of abbreviations in their names.  To the point where I (as a relatively seasoned employee at Deloitte) don't know what they mean.

Placing myself in the position of a new hire, my reaction was that it could be very discouraging to someone trying to find the "right" group they might want to join or in which they want to pose a question.  

Similarly, in my own position, I spend a good amount of time reviewing search query logs and I can see a lot of use of abbreviations there.

Also, I know in meetings when people start using acronyms it can (and often does) immediately create a challenging discussion.  The vibe is something like, "I'll use an abbreviation that most people don't know so I sound smart", while on the other side of the conversation there is hesitance to ask what it means because the person who says, "What does XYZ mean?" can easily feel like they are exposing their ignorance (which no one wants to do). I've come out of meetings where I can be sure someone didn't follow the discussion because they didn't know what an abbreviation meant but they didn't want to ask.


My question - do you have a sense that heavy reliance on the use of acronyms presents a challenging environment in which to really encourage knowledge sharing?  Does it seem like it encourages silos?


On the positive side of things, I know that this kind of community lingo can encourage a feeling of connectedness - which can increase engagement with the community.  Is that more valuable?


Are there mitigating approaches you've used to improve this?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Regards
Lee Romero
Cisco Job Opening: Knowledge Manager, Business Transformation #jobs

Stan Garfield
 

Knowledge Manager, Business Transformation




Location: Anywhere in the US

Job Category: Sales

Level of Experience: Experienced - Manager

Requisition #: R967915

http://jobs.cisco.com/job/Chicago-Knowledge-Manager%2C-Business-Transformation-IL-60290/78213200/
Re: 6th Annual SIKM Dinner at KMWorld 2014 #KMWorld

Maria Brindlmayer
 

Hi,

Thank you for organizing this again, Sue, and thanks for sharing this invitation, Stan.

I am very disappointed that I won't be able to attend this year. I will be in Dubai and Qatar during that week. 
Enjoy the dinner - I hope to catch up another time!

Best,
Maria

On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 1:14 PM, stangarfield@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
 

Thanks to our intrepid dinner organizer, Sue Hanley, we will once again have the opportunity to meet for dinner during KMWorld 2014 in Washington, DC.  Here are the details.


Date: November 6, 2014

Place: Capitol City Brewing Company, 1100 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005 (on the opposite corner of the street from the Hyatt)

Time: 6:15 pm

Price: $32.00/person CASH for dinner with optional cash bar

Details: To follow, but if you want to RSVP early, let Sue Hanley know at sue@...





--
---------------------------------------------------
Maria Brindlmayer
cell: 202-365-2440
6th Annual SIKM Dinner at KMWorld 2014 #KMWorld

Stan Garfield
 

Thanks to our intrepid dinner organizer, Sue Hanley, we will once again have the opportunity to meet for dinner during KMWorld 2014 in Washington, DC.  Here are the details.


Date: November 6, 2014

Place: Capitol City Brewing Company, 1100 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005 (on the opposite corner of the street from the Hyatt)

Time: 6:15 pm

Price: $32.00/person CASH for dinner with optional cash bar

Details: To follow, but if you want to RSVP early, let Sue Hanley know at sue@...
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

cmacomber@...
 

Hello Matt,
First, thanks for all the great feedback. We do have paying F500 and mid-market customers, and we're working with them to get their testimonials up.  Actually, you'll see some posts in a week or two.

We actually avoid extensive integration costs because we pickup the content and behavioral signals straight through the browser via a plugin.  This provides a more comprehensive view of the work-related activity without all the enterprise integration hassle.  Also, our lexicon contains over 6 million terms which we can enhance with your company's vocabulary if desired.  

I'd love to understand some of the other competitors out there and if you see any leaders in the space.  Right now, there appear to be many of the incumbents like Microsoft and Jive that claim they do expertise discovery but they're limited to their silos.  Otherwise, there are a few more potential startups like us.

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback!

Cheers,
Chris
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

cmacomber@...
 

Hello James,
We've decided to not and try to replace existing platforms like SharePoint, Jive, CornerStone, etc.  Instead, we just leverage the tools already in place.  We can seamlessly pickup signals from any web-based tool, and we can embed our discovered expertise into any existing employee profile (e.g. SharePoint MySite) via our embeddable profile or API.  Essentially, we don't want users to have to learn yet another tool, we just want to super-charge the ones you use today.

Cheers,
Chris
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

cmacomber@...
 

Douglas,
We took a lot of inspiration from Tacit as they were one of the pioneers in the space.  We've been able to take the advances in machine learning to make our discovery engine more accurate than our predecessors.  Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,
Chris
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

Matt Moore <innotecture@...>
 

Chris,

I've had a quick look at the web site (so I may have missed stuff but that's what most people will do sadly) and here are the things that go through my head (warning: unfiltered):
- Your product looks interesting.
- The website states 160 enterprises are using WhoKnows. How many of those are paying customers? How many paying customer seats have you sold? There's a video from a guy at Citrix on the site but if Citrix are a user can you mention them up front?
- Do you have any examples of companies actually using the product to deliver identifiable (preferably quantifiable with $) business results? If so, please make those front and centre. Because at the moment, I do not see that.
- If your product is pulling info from a lot of disparate systems then that implies integration costs and some fiddly data reconciliation. How much of this is required in a typical implementation?
- It seems to have a set vocabulary for expertise. How much of this is customisable to my organisation's own expertise descriptors?
- How much is this going to cost me, approximately? What's the pricing structure?
- As you correctly identify, there are a lot of platforms out there with profile functionality. Can you crisply show me how your product compares with your competitors?

"Wouldn't it be nice if employees cared as much about their internal profiles as much as their LinkedIn profiles?" - in my experience people keep their LinkedIn profiles up to date because either they are looking for a job or they are concerned about their public image with customers, suppliers, etc. Having a nice UI is better than having a rubbish UI but it's not enough to get people to do this.

Like I say, the product looks interesting but right now the business case being presented to me is not compelling enough for me to take this further - it looks somewhat theoretical at the moment. But that's just my response. Others will be different.

Regards,

Matt
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

James Robertson
 

Hi Chris,

As others have said, this is a useful ideas that's been around for a
while.

How do you see it fitting in the enterprise landscape of a typical
(large?) organisation?

Does it integrate with SharePoint, IBM Connections, etc?

Cheers,
James

First, I want you to know that I'm a CEO of a startup called WhoKnows
that sells to KM leadership like yourselves. Given that disclaimer, I'd
love to get your thoughts and advice on what we're doing. Let me tell
you a little bit about my company.


WhoKnows helps organizations understand "who knows what" inside your
company to better facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration. Most
employee profiles are empty or out-of-date, so it's difficult to find
someone to help you when you need it. Think of us a private LinkedIn
powered by a machine learning platform.


WhoKnows automatically discovers dozens to hundreds of skills and
professional interests about employees based on their work online, so
they can review and decide what to publish to their corporate profile.
Then, we use these super-charged profiles to recommend in context the
best colleague to help you whenever you search in any web app or search
engine including Google, SharePoint, etc. Essentially, we're trying to
broker more organic introductions and collaboration between fellow
employees based on their expertise.


Wouldn't it be nice if employees cared as much about their internal
profiles as much as their LinkedIn profiles? We believe we can get
employees excited about their employee profiles because we'll make them
look good, do the grunt work for them, and protect their privacy at the
same time. At the same time, we'll provide the executives unprecedented
insight into their company's expertise.


I'd love to learn more about whether this would be compelling to KM
leaders.

* Are KM leaders looking to foster more cross-departmental
collaboration and micro-mentoring?
* Does not understanding the true breadth and depth of your companies
employees' expertise keep you up at night?
* Is this a must have or a nice to have?
* Or is this better suited for IT or HR leaders?


I'd love any thoughts you have on our offering as I'd love to learn more
from this group.


Cheers,

Chris Macomber


CEO, WhoKnows

chris@whoknows.com

http://www.whoknows.com



--
-------------------------
James Robertson, Managing Director
Step Two Designs

Email: jamesr@steptwo.com.au
Web: www.steptwo.com.au
Phone: +61 2 9319 7901
Re: Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

Douglas Weidner
 

Dear Chris,

Expert locators have always been essential, since 'Tacit Software' focused on it in the late 1990s.

There are many such products, but I always favored ones that were self-populating.

Douglas Weidner,
Chairman, KM Institute

On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 6:40 PM, cmacomber@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
 

Hello all,

First, I want you to know that I'm a CEO of a startup called WhoKnows that sells to KM leadership like yourselves.  Given that disclaimer, I'd love to get your thoughts and advice on what we're doing.  Let me tell you a little bit about my company.


WhoKnows helps organizations understand "who knows what" inside your company to better facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration.  Most employee profiles are empty or out-of-date, so it's difficult to find someone to help you when you need it.  Think of us a private LinkedIn powered by a machine learning platform.


WhoKnows automatically discovers dozens to hundreds of skills and professional interests about employees based on their work online, so they can review and decide what to publish to their corporate profile.  Then, we use these super-charged profiles to recommend in context the best colleague to help you whenever you search in any web app or search engine including Google, SharePoint, etc.  Essentially, we're trying to broker more organic introductions and collaboration between fellow employees based on their expertise.  


Wouldn't it be nice if employees cared as much about their internal profiles as much as their LinkedIn profiles?  We believe we can get employees excited about their employee profiles because we'll make them look good, do the grunt work for them, and protect their privacy at the same time.  At the same time, we'll provide the executives unprecedented insight into their company's expertise.  


I'd love to learn more about whether this would be compelling to KM leaders.  

  • Are KM leaders looking to foster more cross-departmental collaboration and micro-mentoring?  
  • Does not understanding the true breadth and depth of your companies employees' expertise keep you up at night?  
  • Is this a must have or a nice to have?
  • Or is this better suited for IT or HR leaders?


I'd love any thoughts you have on our offering as I'd love to learn more from this group.


Cheers,

Chris Macomber


CEO, WhoKnows

chris@...

http://www.whoknows.com
Advice for a KM startup #expertise-location

cmacomber@...
 

Hello all,

First, I want you to know that I'm a CEO of a startup called WhoKnows that sells to KM leadership like yourselves.  Given that disclaimer, I'd love to get your thoughts and advice on what we're doing.  Let me tell you a little bit about my company.


WhoKnows helps organizations understand "who knows what" inside your company to better facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration.  Most employee profiles are empty or out-of-date, so it's difficult to find someone to help you when you need it.  Think of us a private LinkedIn powered by a machine learning platform.


WhoKnows automatically discovers dozens to hundreds of skills and professional interests about employees based on their work online, so they can review and decide what to publish to their corporate profile.  Then, we use these super-charged profiles to recommend in context the best colleague to help you whenever you search in any web app or search engine including Google, SharePoint, etc.  Essentially, we're trying to broker more organic introductions and collaboration between fellow employees based on their expertise.  


Wouldn't it be nice if employees cared as much about their internal profiles as much as their LinkedIn profiles?  We believe we can get employees excited about their employee profiles because we'll make them look good, do the grunt work for them, and protect their privacy at the same time.  At the same time, we'll provide the executives unprecedented insight into their company's expertise.  


I'd love to learn more about whether this would be compelling to KM leaders.  

  • Are KM leaders looking to foster more cross-departmental collaboration and micro-mentoring?  
  • Does not understanding the true breadth and depth of your companies employees' expertise keep you up at night?  
  • Is this a must have or a nice to have?
  • Or is this better suited for IT or HR leaders?


I'd love any thoughts you have on our offering as I'd love to learn more from this group.


Cheers,

Chris Macomber


CEO, WhoKnows

chris@...

http://www.whoknows.com
Re: Knowledge Bucket needs a new home #wikis

Murray Jennex
 

Cory,
 
I'm a professor at san diego state university and editor in chief of the international journal of knowledge management, if they will let me host if for free I'm happy to do so and let you continue to run it :)
 

In a message dated 9/23/2014 2:15:31 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, sikmleaders@... writes:


I have also used Google sites on different occasions and it's really intuitive, easy to use and either free or almost free (about $50/year).
Good luck,
Maria

On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Cory Banks cory.banks@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
 

The Bucket needs your help!


As anyone out there hosting a wiki on wikispaces would know, they are no longer providing free hosting to non-education based wikis. 

This means that in 30 days knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com will be closed.

Therefore this resource that is a culmination of over one hundred KM practitioners contributions from around the world since 2008 needs a new home.

I am open to suggestions for free wiki hosting options or other alternatives.

Let me know what you think?

Thanks

Cory Banks

Bucket Head

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wikispaces <do-not-reply@...>
Date: Monday, 22 September 2014
Subject: Change required for knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com
To: cory.banks@...

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com

Today we announced on our blog that Wikispaces is no longer offering a free wiki option for non-education wikis.

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com is currently not categorized as an education wiki and it is on our free plan. In order for it to remain active, it must be categorized as an education wiki or upgraded.

We are notifying you, as you are an organizer of this wiki.

If you no longer use this wiki, you may ignore this email.

Otherwise you may categorize this wiki as an education wiki, pay for this wiki, or export the contents of this wiki for use offline or on another service. To make your choice please visit the following link:

http://knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com/space/convert

If you take no action this wiki will be deleted in no fewer than 30 days.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Thanks,
The Wikispaces Team

Sent by Wikispaces.com - 165 10th St. Suite 50, San Francisco CA 94103




--
Thanks

Cory Banks




--
---------------------------------------------------
Maria Brindlmayer
cell: 202-365-2440
Re: Knowledge Bucket needs a new home #wikis

Maria Brindlmayer
 

I have also used Google sites on different occasions and it's really intuitive, easy to use and either free or almost free (about $50/year).
Good luck,
Maria

On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Cory Banks cory.banks@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
 

The Bucket needs your help!


As anyone out there hosting a wiki on wikispaces would know, they are no longer providing free hosting to non-education based wikis. 

This means that in 30 days knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com will be closed.

Therefore this resource that is a culmination of over one hundred KM practitioners contributions from around the world since 2008 needs a new home.

I am open to suggestions for free wiki hosting options or other alternatives.

Let me know what you think?

Thanks

Cory Banks

Bucket Head

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wikispaces <do-not-reply@...>
Date: Monday, 22 September 2014
Subject: Change required for knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com
To: cory.banks@...

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com

Today we announced on our blog that Wikispaces is no longer offering a free wiki option for non-education wikis.

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com is currently not categorized as an education wiki and it is on our free plan. In order for it to remain active, it must be categorized as an education wiki or upgraded.

We are notifying you, as you are an organizer of this wiki.

If you no longer use this wiki, you may ignore this email.

Otherwise you may categorize this wiki as an education wiki, pay for this wiki, or export the contents of this wiki for use offline or on another service. To make your choice please visit the following link:

http://knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com/space/convert

If you take no action this wiki will be deleted in no fewer than 30 days.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Thanks,
The Wikispaces Team

Sent by Wikispaces.com - 165 10th St. Suite 50, San Francisco CA 94103



--
Thanks

Cory Banks




--
---------------------------------------------------
Maria Brindlmayer
cell: 202-365-2440
Re: Knowledge Bucket needs a new home #wikis

Stan Garfield
 

Cory,

I use Google Sites for my KM site. https://sites.google.com/site/stangarfield/

 


 
Job Opening at BCG: Communities Enablement Manager #jobs

Stan Garfield
 

Communities Enablement Manager (Req ID 274BR)

Search on "communities" at https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGWebHost/home.aspx?partnerid=25811&siteid=5185


The  Communities Enablement Manager will be part of the core Knowledge Management team at BCG, and will be responsible for driving the activities needed to make our communities vibrant and successful. This will involve developing a deep understanding of how our professionals engage virtually, the needs of our end users and their client service challenges, as well as a clear understanding and vision toward addressing the unique challenges of deploying social collaboration in a professional services environment.

 

We seek a candidate to assist with setting strategies for our social collaboration initiatives, executing critical projects necessary to support the strategy, as well as defining, establishing and managing key communication, training, operational and support processes required to establish an effective communities organization. 

 

This role will involve a high level of interaction with Practice Areas, Consulting Teams, Information Technology,  Learning & Development and other key functions to ensure identification of key requirements, capabilities and priorities, as well as to assess and address key change management challenges.
Knowledge Bucket needs a new home #wikis

Cory Banks
 

The Bucket needs your help!

As anyone out there hosting a wiki on wikispaces would know, they are no longer providing free hosting to non-education based wikis. 

This means that in 30 days knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com will be closed.

Therefore this resource that is a culmination of over one hundred KM practitioners contributions from around the world since 2008 needs a new home.

I am open to suggestions for free wiki hosting options or other alternatives.

Let me know what you think?

Thanks

Cory Banks

Bucket Head

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wikispaces <do-not-reply@...>
Date: Monday, 22 September 2014
Subject: Change required for knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com
To: cory.banks@...

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com

Today we announced on our blog that Wikispaces is no longer offering a free wiki option for non-education wikis.

knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com is currently not categorized as an education wiki and it is on our free plan. In order for it to remain active, it must be categorized as an education wiki or upgraded.

We are notifying you, as you are an organizer of this wiki.

If you no longer use this wiki, you may ignore this email.

Otherwise you may categorize this wiki as an education wiki, pay for this wiki, or export the contents of this wiki for use offline or on another service. To make your choice please visit the following link:

http://knowledgebucket.wikispaces.com/space/convert

If you take no action this wiki will be deleted in no fewer than 30 days.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Thanks,
The Wikispaces Team

Sent by Wikispaces.com - 165 10th St. Suite 50, San Francisco CA 94103



--
Thanks

Cory Banks
Innocentive Challenge: Capturing Institutional Memory and Knowledge #knowledge-retention

Stan Garfield
 

Capturing Institutional Memory and Knowledge 
 
TAGS: 
Business/Entrepreneurship, Engineering/Design, Ideation
AWARD: $10,000 USD  |  DEADLINE: 10/12/14  |  ACTIVE SOLVERS: 103  |  POSTED: 9/12/14

The Seeker desires suggestions and best practices for knowledge management in a corporate setting.  As employees age and retire, valuable knowledge is often lost.  In addition, with the realities of today’s workplace, employee turnover needs to be expected.  How can a company proactively capture institutional memory and knowledge, and make sure that it is not lost?

Source: InnoCentive      Challenge ID: 9933412

https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933412
Re: Case Study #case-studies #strategy

Howie Cohen
 
Edited

I have limited ability to share what I have (frankly, I am not sure what I can or can't share) but over a few moons I have collected a lot of information from one place or another.  I thought of this Chevron case study this morning when I read your post.  Maybe it can help.  
Best, 
Howie

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 3:56 PM, scott_leeb@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
 

 

Could use some help.  I am putting together a workshop on the linkages between KM and strategy. It is an interactive session and I was hoping to do an exercise using a case study to discuss how a company was successfully able to translate tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge.  I wanted to ask if anyone has come across a good case study.  It does not have to be an American company.  Thanks.

 

 
Request for volunteers to record the monthly calls #monthly-call

Stan Garfield
 

Over the nine years that the SIKM Leaders Community has existed, we have been fortunate to have had the services of several members to record most of the calls: Andrew Gent, Martin Cleaver, and Curtis Conley.


I now need to ask if any of you are willing to record the calls, either all of them, or on a shared basis with one or more other members.  If so, please reply to me at stangarfield@... to let me know. If you have questions or need instruction on how to record the calls, Andrew, Martin, or Curtis will be able to help.


Thanks very much.


Regards,

Stan
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