On the face of it, the idea of providing free access to scientific information seems eminently sensible, if we are committed to the idea of progress for all.  The Public Library of Science  (PLoS) was one of the first concerted attempts at providing such a service, launching in 2003 and providing free access to a range of peer-reviewed articles.  The “open-access” approach has created controversy, though: in particular, some open-access journal publishers charge authors very high fees to publish their articles and there has been criticism over the quality of the peer-reviewing system.  One contention is that the movement has encouraged the publication of more “junk science” or papers about trivial matters, almost devoid of novelty.  Others argue that the effect of open-access publishing may eventually tip the balance against conventional publishers, as libraries and other subscribers discontinue subscriptions in favour of “free” sources.

Most of us have tried a “vanity” search — putting one’s name into the Google search box and seeing what is found.  There is often a surprisingly large amount of personal information that has found its way into the Google indexes: would you like to be informed when a site sends such information to Google?  If so, and you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser and Windows XP, Windows 7 or Vista as your operating system, then Google Alarm could be just the application for you.  It is a Firefox extension that will sound an alarm when it detects that you are using a site that sends information about yourself to Google.  It is possible to download a “silent” version that provides a visual warning or the more dramatic “siren” version — but, be warned, the sound of the latter is quite disturbing!

 Today the Internet is a great potential source of information and a tool for collaboration, but unless you have the navigational skills to search it effectively, many high-quality information resources will stay buried beneath the glut of garbage that makes up the bulk of its content. There is a variety of search tools that will allow you to find the information you are looking for faster and more efficiently.

Searching is simple. It starts with a question. It ends with an answer. Everything between is searching. Much of it has to do with the tools you use.

- David Novak

For more course information visit: http://knowlead.co.za/courses/kl-irrw/

Download the course brochure in printable form (pdf): KL-IRRW

Date and Venue

Gauteng

 17 – 19 August 2010

Bytes Technologies, Bytes Business Park

 3^rd Road

Midrand

For detailed directions click  the link below:

http://www.saipa.co.za/documents/Midrand%20-%20Bytes%20Technology%20Conf%20%20Centre%20_3_.pdf 

Course Fees

3 day course

 

We are noticing a trend especially in public sector organisations here in South Africa to institutionalise knowledge championship roles as part of knowledge management implementation initiatives. Part-time or full time KM champions are appointed at divisional level to create awareness and interest in KM; assess and communicate knowledge needs; match and connect knowledge requirements with sources; build or augment repositories: and act as links between divisional and institutional KM activities. Several government institutions have already trained KM champions and have completed full blown KM strategies. Leaders in the field include the City of Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape Provincial government. In both cases formal Innovation and KM groups have been established at the institutional level to provide leadership, training and support. Having been involved in providing some of the training we would be interested to learn about other instances of and approaches to formalised public sector KM not only in Africa but elsewhere as well.

While reviewing some the excellent recent contributions to the literature of knowledge management, it struck me again how prescient some of the older generation KM gurus were (still are?) in reading the emerging trends – even before or at the time of the dot.com crash. While the influential contributions of Peter Drucker stand out, I would like to remind knowledge managers of the excellent and very readable book of David Skyrme, Knowledge networking (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999). A decade after its publication it is still one of my favourites and a resource that I turn to from time to time. In the book he describes the advent of the collaborative “inter-prise” characterised by network relationships and linkages between an organisation and other players in its value chain to the extent that the boundaries of individual organisations tend to blend into networks. This is what we are seeing in practice today, enabled by Web 2.0 technologies. The book offers a wealth of insights and frameworks that are as valid today as at the time of publication. His website www.skyrme.com is worth a visit.

Although the world financial crisis has abated and the global economy is recovering, this recovery remains brittle and volatile. Sub-Saharan Africa, although initially not as hard hit has not escaped the effects – particularly countries like South Africa, where our financial markets are extensively integrated into global financial markets. What can Governments in Africa do to speed up this recovery? The Knowlead Team suggests that, other than the financial amelioration that is already being instituted, Governments in Africa can fruitfully engage with Knowledge Management practices to not only bring about a more rapid economic turnaround, but also to confront the many patent inefficiencies in government.

It is heartening to note that some positive signals, such as provided by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi^1, have been sent out from the public sector in Africa:

The 21st Century African public service has to be a learning organisation, a learning organisation in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about, where the organisation encourages new ways of thinking, where the collective vision of creating the best is liberated, and where everybody continuously learns how to learn together.

Developing countries are thus not necessarily reluctant to embark on implementing KM in the public sector, but as the World Bank has stated, wary of the challenge and their lack of experience and knowledge to do so. This provides a clear signal to encourage African Governments to proactively engage with KM training. We should further strategise innovatively and, as Sinclair (2006) puts it, adopt “stealth KM” by alerting African Governments of the many KM success stories from other parts of the world and the benefit of leveraging a country’s embedded knowledge.

¹Address in 2007 as South Africa’s Minister of Public Service and Administration to the African Management Development Institutes Network Conference

Course Links

http://knowlead.co.za/courses

USB-ED Website

http://www.usb-ed.com/course/knowledge-management