From Harvard Business Review Blog

Do your Knowledge Workers have a Bitsmith?

This post presents a wonderful concept that points out the need for specialized tools for the knowledge era.  That of a “Bitsmith”.   Bitsmiths, according to the post ” are people who have deep knowledge of both the work content and the tools used to support the work. In other words, they are almost as expert in derivatives or computer design as they are in computer-programming languages. Because they understand both the domain and the tools, bitsmiths can take an idea from concept to implementation quickly .”

The article makes the case that high performance teams need to have a “bitsmith” just as many towns in the “old west”  had blacksmiths to create the tolls they needed.

What do you think of this concept?

From OPEN Small Business

10 Small Business Social Media Resources

The link above has comments and links to some really great (IMHO) ideas for small business’ use of Social Media.

As for adding Social Media to the marketing mix, fantastic!

What do you think?

From an Article in Chief Learning Officer

Agile Learning: Thriving in the New Normal

From the article

“Organizational learning agility is an enterprise capability that requires deliberate and systematic design, including essential cultural, structural, process and technology-support elements. Based on studies from TRClark, a research, consulting and training company, there are five primary factors that interact to promote or hinder learning agility within organizations:

1. Intelligence function: The capacity of an organization to survey and interpret its entire business ecosystem, including both internal and external competitive environments. The intelligence function interprets information for the strategy function, which feeds the learning function.

2. Learning mindset: The prevailing assumptions, beliefs and dispositions relating to the way people learn.

3. Leadership behavior: The dominant patterns of leadership within an organization.

4. Organizational support: The processes, systems, structures and other forms of support that organizations provide to help employees in their formal and informal learning and execution activities.

5. Learning technology: The forms of technology employed to enable learning at both individual and organizational levels.”

This article presents a number of important ideas about what organizations need to do to compete.

The article goes on to explain each of the five factors.

What do you think?

Thanks Hugh

Here is another data visualization example.    Be sure to try out the controls.

Crime Spotting

Cool eh?    How could you use this for something other than crime spotting?

Thanks Hugh

We are always looking at ways to get our point across related to data, graphs, dashboards, charts, graphics, animation.

Check out this visualization technique   Growth of Walmart with Flowing Data through 2006 anyway.

What do you think?  How could you use this?

I am a huge fan of workflow and “digitizing” (using information technology to transform “paper-based” processes).  An article in Industrial Distribution Magazine  (Justifying Going Electronic” ) states  ”automating just one business transaction can make a big difference in your bottom line”.  The article goes on to talk about the cultural changes that occur and then go through the economics of digitizing the invoicing process.  The article also points out that the process of automating processes is not just for “big” business.  ”When asked why they still use manual processes, a popular answer for many companies is “we are not large enough to justify the costs or reap the benefits of electronic processes.”

“Going electronic”, digitizing, or automating processes does not require installing SAP or some other monster ERP package, it can also mean using popular “office” software suites and some simple information technology tools.   I see some HUGE possibilities in collaborative technologies and in particular open source workflow tools as well as GOOGLE’s new WAVE especially for knowledge-based processes.

What do you think?  What are some examples of process digitization you have participated in?  What are some proejcts you can forsee?

An article in FORTUNE Magazine entitled “How Facebook is Taking Over our Lives”  discusses the profound impact that Facebook is having on all of our lives.  As a technology, it is fascinating.   The online article has some great data that presents some amazing facts about the growth of Facebook users, daily users, time of use per day etc..   As a technology, it took only 5 years for it to reach 150 million users.  The telephone took 89 years, TV took 38 years.   Usefulness aside, it is a huge phenomenon.  Microsoft has taken a stake in Facebook, has been collaborating on some projects while competing in some respects. Why?

What do you think about Facebook?

Where will it go?

What is the role of Facebook in the “corporate world”?

According to an article in Strategy and Business  there are over 6,000 IBMers in virtual worlds.  According to the article, ” An estimated 300 million people worldwide have registered for participation in some form of this activity, according to Kzero, a virtual world marketing and development company. In 2008, according to trade group Virtual Worlds Management, venture capitalists and other investors bet nearly US$600 million on more than 60 software producers involved in the fledgling technology.”    Wow.  Just a fad? 

Further, the article states, ” IBM estimates that, with an investment of roughly $80,000, it saved more than $250,000 in travel and venue costs for a recent corporate Academy of Technology event and enjoyed more than $150,000 in additional productivity gains, because these virtual participants were at their computers and able to dive back into work immediately at the conclusion of the meeting.”   Wow, a payback too?

What do you think?  Ready to go virtual for business?

An article appeared in Chief Learning Office Online Magazine with the title “The Future of Knowledge Management“  (Note this link takes you to an online magazine reader)

The article stresses human interaction and relationships.  It offers four steps 1. Understand who the Knowledge Sources are  2. Measuring Where and How the Knowledge Flows 3. Getting Knowledge to Flow more Rapidly and freely 4. Reinforcing Knowledge and Supportive Relationships. 

As you may recall, this has been the thrust of my paper on Knowledge Management esopecially with an emphasis on expertise location. 

The article brings intp play “social networking” and by association, Web 2.0 Technologies.  It also suggests that we must have a “collaborative knowledge sharing platform”.

What do you think about this article?   What are the Lessons to be Learned?

Thank you to Dave at MSOE for this recommendation of a “snipette”.

Wired Magazine has posted an article and  Podcast (Video) that discusses the work that had been done regarding nuclear weapons research and how it is being channeled and “transferred” into energy research. 

The video “Lasers, Nuclear Weapons and Fusion Power“  seems to present a great case study in how that great knowledge transfer can benefit research.  Besides, it is also a really cool video and technology.

How important is knowledge transfer to research and development?