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Joel Clawson 1. what did you find 1.1. interesting about the article? I found the example of the communities of practice at Schlumberger interesting. It was interesting to see the different parts of the communitity and how they worked together with each tool to accomplish their tasks. 1.2. not interesting about the article? 2. what do you consider the main message of the article? The main message of the article seems to be that companies should invest their time and money to create knowledge systems. 3. what are 3.1. the strengths / successes and The strengths/successes of knowledge management are that information is stored in a single area where anyone can go to find an answer. It is constantly being updated with the newest information so everyone sees the most recent changes. 3.2. the weaknesses /failures of knowledge management? The weaknesses/failures of knowledge management is getting enough good information to seed the system so it is useful when starting the system. It is also difficult to get the members of the group who will use the system to start using it if they have never used something like it before. 4. what are you personal experiences with 4.1. knowledge management and 4.2. knowledge management systems? Where I work there is a weak form of a knowledge management system. There is a directory of "Best Software" that is suppose to be the most recent versions of scripts and other programs that are used. There is also a number of web pages with information about the different projects and others that provide general information. It is not a great system, a number of the general information pages are out of date and people often forget to update the "Best Software" area, but it is something and is better than not having anything at all. 5. How would you differentiate between "pull" and "push" approaches in knowledge management? What are the trade-offs between the two approaches? In which situations would you use one or the other approach? I would say that the "push" approach is more of a guide for a person to knowledge management. It would be sending someone to the system when they ask a question instead of answering it right away. This would lead them to use the system first. The "pull" approach is more of a force the issue approach. A supervisor would lead someone around they system and tell them how to use it. The trade-offs are the responses of the person who is using the system. If they are guided to the system without any other help, they may become frustrated when they cannot find the answer or angry that they asked someone and they refused to help. The person who was forced to use the system, but shown the way, may feel that their is not much flexibility but will know how to find the solution they are seeking. If the system is difficult to use or there is an overwhelming amount of information, the "pull" method would probably be better because it allows the user some background on the system and will not waste as much time search areas where there is not information they are seeking. 6. please discuss why and how the two following quotes are (or are not) relevant for knowledge management: 6.1. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana) Knowledge management will allow the community to see the results of situations (provided that the other members update for the situation when it occurred). With the information, the members will not repeat mistakes preventing the repeat of history. 6.2. "Innovation is everywhere; the difficulty is learning from it" (John Seeley Brown) A knowledge management system, if the innovation is updated in it, will allow the learning from it to become easier since it is located in a central location. |
