Knowledge does its work best when it's flowing.

I would like to share some thoughts on 'knowledge' with you.

Knowledge can't be treated as an object, but should be treated as a form of energy. This is exactly the reason why rigid KM systems often fail. Most of the effort in these systems is put in constructing the correct metadata, finding the right categorisation and training people the hard discipline to actually do what is necessary. 'Fluidity' of the information and the way people behave naturally is highly undervalued.

Wikipedia says: "Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose if appropriate".

Although the 'human-machine interaction' is getting smarter every day, the human-human interaction is still the most effective way to exchange or create knowledge. Human-to-human however, doesn't necessarily equal face-to-face. Social software tools like twitter and yammer are very capable in supporting human-to-human conversations with face-to-face quality. I think this is exactly the reason why these social tools are succesful.

When information is valued or rated by actual people, the acceptance and the level trust is much higher than when a marketing department creates a glossy PDF. Knowledge does its work best when it's flowing. The flowing ignites inspiration. Then leads to action.

I think the new KM systems are the weblogs of people, the wikis of groups and the conversationmechanisms like twitter and yammer. These systems are made by real people, in their time and grow out of interests and passion. Their linking, rating and retweeting causes the collaborative intelligence to excel.

And, if carefully understood by the companies people work for, the companies' goals are integrated and served as well.

Twitter fountain

This widget shows my actual twitterstream.

Building my (digital) reputation

Working on my 'visibility' and 'reputation' both inside and outside the company used to be one of the hardest things to do. "You are only as good as your last presentation", so I was told. 

Up until recent it meant that I had to fight, beg or be smarter than somebody else for a presentation timeslot at management meetings. If I was lucky I was able to present my thoughts once every two or three months. At the same time I had to be very careful not to 'just' give away my creativity to another person who had the opportunity to create more or longer timeslots. 

Also trying to 'please' our journalists 'gods' to write down or at least quote some of the ideas that I thought were useful to publish, was a hell of a job. Either they undervalued it or, more hurtful, they just didn't understand. And what quality of published material do we get when these things get paid a lot of money for?

I realised that building a reputation had more to do with pleasing, begging and paying than with being original and creative.  I'm pleased to say that this painful experience is over. Not only for me, but for everybody who wants to speak up. For everybody who wants to say some-thing. For everybody who wants to be heard.

Yes, I'm still ''only as good as my last presentation", that hasn't changed a bit, but at least I don't have to beg, pay or waste a lot of energy on irrelevant intermediaries. I can write what I want, when I want ... and because I want. Building my digital reputation is something I am responsible for. And what a fine responsibility is that!

Two 2009 focus areas: 'Crowd' and 'Cloud'

In turbulant times sometimes it's hard to focus. I've set my mind for 2009 on two phenomena: The 'crowd' and the 'cloud'. Different as they seem, the closely related they are.

Let me start with 'crowd': People have talents that want to be heard. Up until now those talents had difficulties in reaching the public. TV, radio, books and other traditional media were both an opportunity and a barrier. Opportunity for 'reaching an audience' and 'barriers' in the sense that lots of management, rules and control stand in the way. That's history. People don't need traditional media anymore to be heard. Blogs, Youtube, Twitter and other social media make it possible to reach tens of thousands of people. The crowd will judge. If its a good idea you'll be followed. If it's not, you're unfollowed. The bare essence of talent is valued by the public itself and no single managementlayer or control is in between. The crowds will tear down traditional institutional models. The power of the crowd and it's potential is unimagineable.

Second is the 'cloud'. This phenomena is changing the way we implement and use IT dramatically. Every single information system will eventually move to the cloud for two reasons. First it is ridiculous to pay and take care of systems on a small scale like an 'organization'. There is simply not enough money and not enough resources. Second, ideas need to be spread to be succesfull. People need to connect with other people, inside AND outside the (traditional) organization. Talent needs to find other talent quickly and without any restriction. 'Owning' systems on an organizational level will seem ridiculous in a decade from now. The 'cloud' will take care of most of the functionality in the near future. Ict-companies have to (re)-position themselves in the cloud, or otherwise ....

The unlocking of the crowds' potential is one of the first cloud-achievements. Not only polar-ice is melting, institutions are melting as well. Organizations will turn into organisms that do what needs to be done. Reputation will outstrip the importance of money. Motivation will beat control. Inspiration will be the new powersource and trust the new currency. I'm glad to be part of that revolution.

Found this on january 7th: Demise of Library House shows database are heading to the cloud/crowd

What books will I read for Christmas?

Last week I've received a few new books to read. The one I really like to read first is 'Here comes everybody' from Clay Shirky.
Clay Shirky at PICNIC08: Here Comes Everybody from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo. Clay has inspired me a lot these last couple of months. His view on what is going on is so clear and so well described. 'Grown up digital' from Don Tapscott will be the next for sure. His interviews with thousands of people in different generations are a must read. We really need to understand the generational differences and forces that drives us and the newer generations. Two older books will follow: 'Wikinomics', also from Tapscott and 'The World is Flat' from Thomas Friedman.  I have not had the time yet to read those classics. A colleague also gave me 'The wisdom of crowds' from James Surowiecki to study. I hope the weather is going to be very bad ;).

I will shut down my e-mail in 2009

I never thought that my e-mail would turn into a graveyard so quickly. I've used Twitter for a few months now and when I wake up I start my Twitter first and meet my twitterfriends there.  I follow 237 people all over the world. They all publish, link, advice, feed, discuss and have fun in the field of my interests. 147 people follow me at this moment. By the time it's lunch I startup my e-mail. Simply because I forgot to turn it on.  Following 237 lifestreams in Twitter is full of life. There is not an ounce of life in e-mail. Some people suggested that turning off e-mail is a viable option. I think I'll turn on my auto-reply with: "Your in a dead street follow me at www.twitter.com/arthurkruisman " My life has changed forever. What about yours?

Human-Oriented Architecture, what is it?

So many people talk about 'Information Technology'. Of course it is much easier to talk about systems, developments, Internet, Web 2.0 etc. since these are all entitities we can see. Observe. Touch. Smell. Have an opinion about. We also talk about 'information overload' as if it is something that is happening to us. Something is wrong here. And I think it is because we aren't working inside out. The 'overload' part is not about the information quantity, but is about the undercapacity of our own processing ability. I have tons of emails, documents, videos that help me do my business, but I have very limited time and 'attention' to process it. So it is very essential that we manage this limited 'attention' by design.

I plead for a Human-Oriented architecture that respects my 'attention'-budget. That means this HOA is helping me to learn while I do, to collaborate more joyful and less time-consuming with other talented people, to innovate smarter, to enable quicker discovery and eventually to lead by inspiration. A HOA supports my talents and not my systems. And my talents give me unlimited energy to do what I need to do in this life.

I'm currently working on a Human-Oriented Architecture so that the 'High-Performance Workplace' is not only supporting business economics (what else is High-Performance for?) but at least as important, supports my talents (The workplace is supposed to help me isn't it?) .... 'work-life balance' becomes 'work-life integration' so we'd better be of having a human in the center of our architectures than our technology .... and wow, there is so much technology that helps us in making this HOA work!