Much has been written about ‘Lean‘, and what a ‘lean’ organisation looks like. ‘Lean’ quite simply means creating more value with fewer resources. A popular misconception is that ‘lean’ only applies to manufacturing industries, but in fact it can be applied to any business process, including within service industries. Clearly it it is a concept that should be concentrating the minds of Government and Local Government in these austere times, though whether an intelligent and disciplined approach is being made to the cost cutting we’re now seeing, or whether its more of a ‘slash and burn’ approach I’m not too sure. Perhaps this will become clearer when the spending review is completed this Autumn.
While we wait for this, and for anyone still confused as to what ‘Lean’ actually means, I can recommend this presentation from Claudio Perrone. The best I’ve seen in explaining a simple concept in simple terms.
I will be addressing the Network for Information and Knowledge Exchange (NetIKX) members at their meeting on Wednesday 29th September about the challenges and opportunities facing information professionals in today’s information rich, time poor environment. To some extent this is going back to my roots, having been more closely involved in the dark arts of knowledge management (and specifically on-line communities) these past few years. However, information management and knowledge management are two sides of the same coin, and I’ve always made the connections between them when talking about either.
I quite like simple definitions, so for anyone confused by the terms “information management” and “knowledge management”, here’s a useful pointer:
Information Management is about organising stuff..
..Knowledge Management isn’t!
So, having cleared up any confusion there, I’ll just mention that my presentation to NetIKX will be about organising yourself to become more knowledge aware. The full synopsis (an oxymoron?) of the presentation is as follows:
The volume of information continues to grow at an exponential rate; new tools, products and web services appear almost daily. The recession has hit hard but nothing seems to stem the tide of innovation. If anything, the economic climate has fuelled even greater innovation and allowed companies to be even more radical in the way they use the information tools and platforms now available. These are challenging times for the information professional. We all need to be able to work smarter, acquiring and developing the skills to become more effective knowledge and information workers. The talk/presentation will pinpoint the tools and behaviours that can help us develop and sharpen our skills and embrace the opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing now available. Specifically:
- how to develop the filters and lenses to overcome ‘information overload’
- understanding the barriers to engagement and collaboration and how to overcome them
- how we can break down the information/knowledge silos that exist in the organisation
- how ‘Web 2.0′ and ‘Social Media’ tools can support personalized learning and self development
I will make the slides available on slideshare subsequent to the meeting, but don’t want to spoil any surprises (and there are some) by posting prematurely. Suffice to say I’ve identified five key steps to help information professionals make the most of the information-rich environment we now live in, and how to tap into and connect with the ‘networks of knowledge’ that are fast becoming the fundamental DNA of the social web. On a slightly more provocative note, I will also challenge the perception that we are indeed information rich and time poor; trends over the past several hundred years have given us increasingly more leisure time – it comes down to how we as individuals use this time. Much food for thought!
If any of this stirs your interest or curiosity, come along to the session on 29th September.
A note from the organisers:
If you are a NetIKX Member there is no charge. Non Members are welcome to attend at a charge of £50. If you have not attended a NetIKX meeting before we are offering a reduced fee of £25, refundable if you join, so that anyone interested in joining NetIKX can come along and try us out. join NetIKX now
This is a presentation I did for the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO-UK) for their conference on 14th September 2010 on the topic “The Future of Knowledge Organization on the Web”.
The presentation covers the issues faced by users who need to connect and join-up online conversations and information from multiple networks and websites in order to gain domain specific insight and knowledge. Conversations are becoming increasingly disaggregated; useful data is disconnected and lacks context. The Knowledge Hub connects and semantically links multiple information sources to deliver a personalised user experience for supporting improvement and innovation in UK public services.
The Knowledge Hub is a LG Improvement and Development project that will be launched in February 2011. If you are interested in knowing more, or participating in some way in the delivery of this ground-breaking initiative, you may want consider joining the Knowledge Hub Community of Practice.
These are my links for September 11th through September 16th:
- Google to unveil social networking feature – latimes.com – Probably not news to many people, but clearly Google ramping up the expectations for their much-heralded new social network venture. No doubt some pressure to ensure they get this right, given the lack of buzzz with Buzz and the minor ripple that was Wave.
- Seesmic Desktop 2 Brings More than 40 Social Networking Apps to One Window – I’ve recently installed the new version (have been using Seesmic 1 for some time) and can verify the credentials described here. It’s a great way of joining up conversations that are happening in an increasingly dissagreagrated social web environment. In fact, precisely the approach we are taking with the Knowledge Hub project – sometimes referred to as “Communities of Practice 2.0″ (http://www.local.gov.uk/lgv2/core/page.do?pageId=174022). Seems like we’re all suffering from the same problems and coming to similar solutions.
- Improving visualisation – Gallery – Examples of data visualistion for the Public Sector
- mySociety cache of Ordnance Survey OpenData and more – This is the mySociety cache of OS OpenData, released 1st April 2010, and other related similarly-licensed data, as allowed under the licences.
These are my links for September 9th through September 11th:
- Local Spending Data Guidance | data.gov.uk – This guidance has been produced by the Local Public Data Panel, and builds on the draft guidance published in June this year by the panel, on comments made on that guidance, the Treasury guidance to central government departments on releasing their spending data, and experience from publishing the data, and, crucially, using and analysing it.
- Local Council Spending over £500 – Ask every local authority in England to publish all its spending over £500 in an open format and what do you get? A whole load of PDFs. See our list of the best and the worst.
- 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts – Here are 10 tried and tested hints that will help you to get the most out of Chrome (Chrome) by taking advantage of some of its more functional tools and time-saving setups.
- Germany to prohibit employers from using social networking sites – I think this is pretty enlightened thinking from the German government and can only hope that the remainder of the EU community take note. Many Facebook (and other social network) users are bit naive around the issue of personal and private data, and particularly the cohort that Facebook was originally aimed at, i.e. college and university students, where the social life is as important (or some may argue…more important) than their academic life. It's only when these students start to look for employment that their past (e.g. Facebook conversations and photos) start to catch up with them. This proposed law recognises that we need to have some demarcation between 'social life' and 'professional life'. I hope it succeeds.
- Social Network Analysis – Social network analysis [SNA] is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities. The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships. Management consultants use this methodology with their business clients and call it Organizational Network Analysis [ONA].
These are my links for September 5th through September 8th:
- Calendar of the Future – If the 21st century is the age of social media and the social web, then the calendar is still firmly rooted in 20th century technology. The best we seem to have at present is the abilty to synchonise or share calendars. Is this enough? How can I better optimise my time using a calendar injected with some degree of ‘intelligence’ as to what my priorities and routines are?An interesting proposition from Tungle.me. My only surprise is that no-one has thought of it before.
- » Legislation.gov.uk VoxPopuLII – The launch of legislation.gov.uk by The [UK] National Archives marks a step change in public access to a primary source of legal information for citizens in the UK. Legislation.gov.uk is extensive, covering the four jurisdictions that make up the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and over 800 years of history. An excelent summary by John Sheridan,h ead of e-Services and Strategy at The [UK] National Archives, where he leads the team responsible for legislation.gov.uk.
These are my links for September 3rd through September 4th:
- The State of Linked Data in 2010 – A good summary and explanation of open and linked data. A reminder too that not all linked data is open, and not all open data is linked.
- Facebook blocks Apple over Ping – Another example of the ‘closed shop’ mentality at Facebook? I guess we could take this at face value and believe that it really is something to do with loading the Facebook infrastucture with people sync’ing their social graph from other networks. Or is it a case of ‘competitors keep out!’? It will be interesting to see how Google’s much-hyped ‘Facebook killer’ – Google Me – handles links with other networks. Their whole model is based on openness, so I’m guessing they will integrate with Ping, Twitter and any other service in the social web. Well….at least I’m hoping so!
- Insight Web Family > Home > Nottingham Insight – Open and linked data in action. Nottingham Insight, previously known as NOMAD+, is a shared evidence base that provides access to data, information and intelligence about Nottingham and the surrounding area. This partnership system aims to improve decision-making, support partnership working and better prepare us for the future.
- Welcome to East Suxxes in Figures – Another example of open and linked data proving information and analysis about your location.
- Crime mapping for English and Welsh police forces – CrimeMapper – This website provides you with information on crime and antisocial behaviour in your neighbourhood, wherever you live in England or Wales.
It also enables you to access and compare the latest information on a range of crime types with other neighbourhoods.
You will also be able to access the details of your local neighbourhood policing team, policing priorities and information on the policing pledge.
These are my links for August 30th through September 2nd:
- Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes in Ping – Apple takes further strides to integrate iTunes with social networks. I'm wondering where this leaves services such as Last.fm and Blip.fm?
- 10 Tips For Aspiring Community Managers – As the world of dominant brands becomes more fragmented, established companies and startups are hiring community managers to cultivate an engaged community in a digital world where customers’ experiences with the product is amplified through social media, whether good or bad. And it’s not just the experience that users value; the relationships and connections they are able to make with companies and fellow consumers are just as important.
- Drupal Gardens | Get a Free Drupal 7 Site Here – Build community websites simply and easily. Can be hosted by Drupal Gardens of exported to your chosen hosting service.
- 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
- Google buys another social networking site in preparation for GoogleMe – Looks like the rumours about Google gearing up to launch a 'GoogleMe' social networking site to rival Facebook may be true. Why else aquire yet another social networking website and add to its stable of social media/social networking experts? Google has been dabbling around with social networking for some time. It owns the Orkut social network website, which has been active since 2004 and is extremely popular in Brazil and India but less so in the rest of the world. Google Friend Connect was an attempt to allow users to connect friends together on different websites, which again has failed to make much impact. Howevere, these are all lessons learned and I think that Google is determined to get it right with Google Me.
