Communities ...

Here is an interesting post about communities ... about how to run communities ... Rob Howard has written a rather interesting piece about this. There are a few points here which i wanted to write about ...



Firstly, there is the point about generating value. This is an interesting part. Actually, this is the chicken-and-egg situation which i have written about before. With communities, people wont adopt till they find value, and communities wont generate value till people adopt. And it is this cycle which needs to be addressed by organizational intervention. Of course, different ways would be used in different scenarios, but one way could be to identify community evangelists, or managers, if you will, who can spread the word ... generate awareness about communities, and the value these communities can generate for people who join in. Of course, this would need to be supplemented by some sort of rewards program which the organization would need to bring in.



Of course, this idea of value also brings to the point that when people join a community, they are, more often than not, looking at getting, rather than giving ... and hence, the organization may need to invest expertise into building some content, some expertise sharing, to attract people to sort of follow the experts. This could be one way of getting out of the cycle. Of course, this still doesnt address the basic problem. If the only reason people join the community is to read the comments of these experts, the community would stagnate over a period of time ... how lang can one or two experts sustain a community? Not long enough, one would think. Which means, that over a period of time, there would need to be some means of inviting more and more people to write, to share, and give, rather than passive receivers. Some form of value for contributors to the community must be developed. Here again, different things work for different people, which means that a rewards mechanism which reaches out to a maximum number of folks would be helpful. Recognition, perhaps? Or, maybe, brownie points? Or, maybe this kind of mechanism for advertising the contributions of people?



The most important point Rob raises is about the value of the community. Since the community is going to oeprate in a articular context, it is a little easier to identify where the community should have reached, or what the community should have delivered after a period of time, and this should be more than simply number of posts, number of replies, etc. (which, by the way, is the way a lot of organizations i have interacted with measure ...). Having said this, there must be some form of balance between the achievement of the community, and the contribution of individuals. The temptation to hide individuals beneath the umbrella of the community is high, but it must not be given in to. Otherwise, over a period of time, you end up driving away people from the community.

Airports ...

I am sure you know this by now ... but, just to state the obvious ... India is in the grip of modernization of airports. Which is a very nice thing. If you go by the new airports which have come up (ok, so i think Hyderabad is the best, by far ...), you will find that airports have a personality of their own, have quirks which they can call their own, distinct identity. And, if you go there often enough, you would definitely find them.

Beginning at Delhi ... the airport believes that you should spend as much time there as possible. Especially if you are landing at Delhi, by a late night flight ... with a serpentine queue at the taxi counter ... one wonders why they cant have more counters, or, rather, do away with the counters, and simply have the Hyderabad/Bangalore way of hiring a taxi.

Onward to Mumbai, they are still renovating one of the terminals. Which is nice ... if the already renovated terminal is anything to go by, this one should be very nice. In the meantime, though ... they are playing a game of hide and seek. Should you have the urgent, insane urge to commune with nature, while waiting for one of your oft-delayed flights, you need to play the guessing game ... where is the washroom. You would seem to know where it is, instinctively, but not quite find it. And find it, just in time, if you are lucky.

On to Bangalore ... should you be one of the smoking kinds, or should you reach the airport too early for your flight (which is quite probable, given that if you leave from M. G. Road at 4, you would reach by 5, but should you leave by 5, you would, in all probability, miss your flight!), and think that one nice way of waiting, is to have a beer, or to light up, and burn your lungs with a cancer stick, cheer up ... they have decided that no one should be doing either, at Bangalore airoport.

Moving to Kolkata ... here again, the idea seems to be similar to that at Delhi. You must spend as much time as possible ... how else do you expect to reach the pre-paid taxi counter, which can seem to be a daunting task, once you set eyes on the queue.

A Wednesday ...

A Wednesday ... This is a movie which is quite a different take on terrorism ... this is not only a different way of telling the story of terrorism, this is also one of the few films which also look at the issue of terrorism, and our reaction to terrorism, as a society, from a refreshingly comman-man kind of attitude.

No, i am not going to spill the beans ... rather you went and watched the movie ... i watched the movie ... on a Sunday ... which was a day after the serial blasts in Delhi (at Karol Bagh, Connaught Place, and Greater Kailash). And, the blasts being fresh in the mind, the impact of the movie is altogether different. What was chillingly true ... the way they have narrated the reaction of people to bomb blasts ... we go through the news channels, see what each of the channles is saying, make a few phone calls, to make sure our friends and relatives are ok, and then, heave a sigh of relief and move on ... and this pattern gets repeated every time there is a blast.

There is another pattern ... someone had informed someone else about the blasts before they actually happened, the blame-game begins (it doesnt matter who blames whome, in short, over a period of time, we have seen everyone blame everyone and their uncle (read Pakistan) for these blasts), compensation is announced, and we move on.

Do we really care, as a nation, and as a society?

Sabre Social Networking

There is lot being written about the work Sabre is doing around social networking. And, there is a lot from what i am reading. There is a blog about the cubeless platform, and there is this case study in employee social networking ... and it seems quite interesting, what they have developed.

Seems like an application which could be quite a good platform for social networking within the organization. there are two things which quite catch the eye ... Firstly, there is the relevance engine. What they say ...

On Sabre Town, users can post a question to the entire organization, and the site's inference or relevance engine will automatically send the question to the 15 most relevant employees (based on what they've entered in their profile, blog postings and other Q&As that have been previously posted).

This seems to be the part which is quite interesting. What this implies is that the system, by itself, is able to discover what people are doing, based on their activities, and can identify who are the right people for a particular kind of thing. This, of course, would not be as adequate as people can do this, but this can be a reasonably nice starting point to build up some form of discovery in the organization. Having said this, we would also need to make sure this is supplemented with more adoption efforts.

Which is the second point ... the idea that this is designed for adoption. This is something i feel is the most important aspect of social networking, or indeed, for KM, as i have written before. What seems interesting is the kind of incentive it can give to people to adopt the platform. First, the number of questions you have answered, or asked, something they call Karma (i am assuming its something to do with helping other people out when they want some information) ... The important point to understand here is that there has to be some kind of initiative of this nature, whether on or off the platform, which works to encourage people to adopt the platform, and since this is about the platform, maybe this should be linked to the platform itself?

Knowledge Scorecard ...

No, i am not coming up with a new knowledge scorecard. Rather, some of the things i have been reading about ... about measuring knowledge. Rather interesting reading, though i would think they are based on assumptions which we might want to question.

The first assumption of measuring the knowledge inventory of the organization, is that the knowledge, and the person who holds the knowledge are two separate, independant things. Not only does this treat knowledge as a thing, it also makes the assumption that you can have knowledge even if you abstract the knower from the scene. This may not be an assumption that may be quite valid. Of course, when we talk about explicity knowledge, we assume that this assumption is valid, but having said that, once we believe that all knowledge is directly or indirectly tacit, this assumption breaks down. The question that then comes up is how does one measure something which doesnt exist on its own.

Another assumption is that knowledge is a "thing" which can be measured. This assumes that knowledge is an object which can exist by itself, which, as we have seen, is not something which is necessarily correct. Add to this the idea that what you cannot measure, you cannot manage, and the mix becomes heady ... but then, the question to ask here would be ... is the term management apt when it comes to KM?

The answer to this measurement dilemma, though, can be simple ... we can measure something based on its manifestation. What is the manifestation of knowledge? Improvements in the way things are done. Great ... this is a nice, indirect way to measure ... after all, if there is no mechanism to directly measure something, then we use something indirect to measure it ... think dark matter! Only thing is, this indirect measurement must change in different scenarios. In other words, something which is relevant to the context in which we are measuring it, as i have written before!

Lotus And Virtual Worlds ...

There is an interesting news piece about IBM adding virtual worlds support to Lotus Sametime ... although there is not much information available except that IBM is testing this with select customers, this has to be a rather interesting development. This is because this brings a large part of the capabilities of virtual worlds to the enterprise ... something which has not been seen except in a few organizations ... like IBM!

Given the nature of interactions in the virtual space, this has the potential of far enriching the way people can interact with each other on a day to day level. Especially when it comes to demonstrating how to do things, and sharing knowledge which is essentially tacit. Put another way, this has the potential to enable experiential learning ... where people can experience what is being done, rather than simply reading about it.

Of course, as with any of the web 2.0 tools, the key here would be adoption, for if people are not too comfortable using the tool, it would be another one of those enhancements which doesnt get used. Wait and watch, i guess?

Executive Blogs ...

There are quite a few senior executives who are blogging. And, more are joining the bandwagong. I came across an interesting post about executive blogs, and the things you might want to think about before you launch on this.

Interesting reading ... there is, however, the other side of this, which i wanted to write about. First, when you ask your CEO to write a blog, and encourage customers to comment on it, be prepared to hear what you dont want to. More often than not, you will have customers writing about how the product doesnt work, and how they think the company is over-charging, etc., etc. ... you know, pesky customers! Of course, a mature organization would be able to hear these, without flinching. Acting on these is another thing, though. When folks write comments on a CEO's blog, they would think that something would happen, based on their feedback. When not much happens, you would only get more disappointed customers. This is to convey the impression that web 2.0 is a double-edged sword, and this must be grasped before embarking on this journey.

Maybe a better idea would be to treat web 2.0 as more than a marketing tool ... as a means for communicating with a wide spectrum of audience ... and this takes on a different shape. Why not have the Chief Executive, and other managers blog about the things the organization is doing, write about some of the recent wins, losses, strategy, etc. ... things which could be of more interest to employees. Thing is, most senior managers dont see the value of this, and the kind of benefits these could bring to the organization. Though this is where web 2.0 has the potential of generating far greater value, than as a PR tool.

Obama On Outsourcing ...

Mr. Barack Obama, a few days ago, came out harshly against out-sourcing. Mr. Obama is against encouraging out-sourcing of jobs out of America. Thats a fine sentiment ... after all, a politician has to play to the galleries ... say what the people want to hear.

Only thing, this entire objection to out-sourcing must be looked at in the context of a new, global economic order, where economies are dependant on each other ... where the markets are far more open than they have ever been ... at least in theory. How does high-cost manufacturing gel in with this new economic order is a question which would need an urgent answer.

On another aspect, it would also need to be seen, whether Mr. Obama is talking about only services outsourcing to, say, India, or is he also referring to discouraging out-sourcing of manufacturing activities, too, to, China, for instance?

NSG And The Art Of Proliferation

If the Nuclear Suppliers Group is the central body which governs all commerce related to nuclear material, and all nuclear technology, then it certainly stands to reason that all proliferation till date has been courtesy of this same organization which is supposedly meant to check it. If this be the cartel of nations which are the sole suppliers of all nuclear material in the world, then logically, unless someone is importing nuclear material from another planet, that must be coming from one of the countries which make up this cartel.

Physics Today carried a report by Mr. Thomas C. Reed, titled The Chinese Nuclear Tests, 1964-1996 ... this report brings out the nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan ... a collaboration which, over the years, has also resulted in the nuclear Wal-Mart of Dr. A. Q. Khan. Interestingly, the Pakistani and Chinese embassies in Washington, D.C., have not replied to requests for comments. One wonders why ... One also wonders how the NSG is able to justify its existence, while denying the right to nuclear technology to 1/6th of humanity. First, i think the NSG should have a lot of answering to do on this aspect. Unless they believe that you have the right to proliferate if you can bully them enough?

Having said this, maybe the Government of India should take a stand here, which is more harsh than the stand we are taking as of now. It must be made clear that in today's world, India carries much more clout than an Austria or an Ireland do, and India should maybe flex her muscles, and send stronger signals to the naysayers at the NSG. For starters, we might make it clear to the dissenters at the NSG that this episode may not be seen in isolation of other interactions with those countries. That maybe, out technical collaboration with Ireland may be developed based on a broader definition of technology than simply civilian hi-tech.

Drawing Parallels ...

I, for one, like to draw parallels between the things we see in day to day life, and some of the concepts which we wax eloquent about at work, in blogs, management schools, etc. As you can see, how i used to teach min-max planning and the sawtooth curve during training sessions. I find such parallels clarify the thinking, and the most important thing they achieve is to build a relationship between the new concept you are learning, and the concepts which you are already carrying in your head.

Which is why i found this blog quite interesting ... my good friend and colleague, Subash, has drawn a parallel between ... hold your breath ... the ubiquitous Masala Dosa, and Knowledge Management ... and too, between driving a motorcycle ... something i have been doing whenever i am giving a talk about KM ... focussing on the tacit knowledge piece ... about how difficult it is to document the amount of salt you want to put in the curry!

Though, i would add ... i am not sure how many folks would actually be able to make the Masala Dosa, reading the manual straight away. Not many, probably ... which is where the learning part comes in ... the learning by doing!