denotes premium content | Nov 18 2008 Inside Knowledge Magazine /Knowledge Management Magazine Archive
Volume 8 Issue 4
As you can see, things have changed a little since you last visited these pages. After 12 months working to build the reports side of Ark Group’s publishing business, which is now ticking along nicely, I am delighted to be back at the helm of the magazine. I will be working with a talented team of freelancers, an expanded in-house staff that now includes
Oh, and we’ve changed the magazine’s name, too. After more than seven years as Knowledge Management, the magazine is now Inside Knowledge. Our intention was not to find a term to replace ‘knowledge management’, rather to lift the magazine beyond the interminable and, frankly, somewhat tiresome debate on the validity of the term that has surrounded it almost since its inception. ‘Inside Knowledge’ as a title refers, as most of you will no doubt have already worked out, to the case-study element of the magazine, which will continue to be a core part of the magazine’s content. In addition, however, it reflects our sustained commitment to the knowledge and information-management community, to exploring and reporting on developments inside the knowledge field that will help you to do your job better. Just like you, we remain committed to the principle that knowledge is something that needs to be nurtured, shared, valued and protected.
So is ‘knowledge management’ dead? Actually, no. The term has always had its detractors, but we believe it continues to serve as an important focal point for modern, knowledge-aware organisations. For all its limitations, no other term so effectively encompasses such a broad collection of disciplines, processes and technologies in the minds of so many. We will therefore continue to refer quite freely to knowledge management within these pages, for it is the ideas the term has come to represent that matter most. Given that KM has come to mean so many things to so many people, however, we will also talk more specifically about innovation, knowledge sharing, communities of practice, information management and the like. In short, the sort of things you talk about everyday and that collectively contribute to the creation of a truly knowledge-enabled business.
I hope you enjoy reading the first issue of Inside Knowledge. Naturally, you will continue to be able to access the magazine’s extensive library of archived material online, but you may want to update your favourites to include our new URL: www.ikmagazine.com. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please contact me directly at slelic@ark-group.com. I look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, and on behalf of everyone here at Inside Knowledge, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year.
Simon Lelic, editor
Features
CASE STUDY: Unilever
Building organisational value through communities of practice that help to generate efficiency, increase innovation and improve risk management. By Anita Pos, Klazien Linse and Manfred Aben
CASE STUDY: Hewlett-Packard
Developing and applying effective search strategies in a multilingual environment. By Daniel Amor
CASE STUDY: BBC
Encouraging community participation by tapping into, and building on, people’s passion and sense of identity.
The Lisbon agenda
<img src="i/barroso.jpg" class="ILImage" align="left" />Since European leaders first articulated the goal of making Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010 in Lisbon four years ago, progress has been painfully slow. A recent European Commission report called for action to ensure the vision of a European ‘knowledge society’ did not fall by the wayside, but questions remain as to whether Europe has either the capacity or the economic and political will to make this central aspect of the Lisbon agenda a reality.
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Regulars
TREND TRACKER: Chris Harris-Jones
Chris Harris-Jones on blogging.
KM TOOLKIT: Search and Retrieval
As enterprise-search tools start to become commoditised, established vendors will have to continue to innovate if they want to compete on functionality rather than price.
Zen and the art of taxonomy maintenance
Part one of a masterclass series covering the creation, implementation and maintenance of taxonomies. By Jan Wyllie
PROFILE: Chris Collison
As one of the faces behind BP’s success with knowledge management, Chris Collison revealed the team’s secrets in 2001 in his book Learning to Fly, co-authored with Geoff Parcell. Now leading change and KM at Centrica and having just completed a second edition of the book, he talks about his career and the importance of his family life, and hints at plans he will hatch in the future. By Sandra Higgison
THOUGHT LEADER: Verna Allee
Although SNA has been around since the 1930s, knowledge strategists are now discovering it helps to map connections – to see who exchanges information with whom, identify opinion leaders, locate hubs of influence and trace the flow of ideas.
