Brief Post-Christmas Update

This semester was a doozie - both challenging and rewarding.   Heavy course work load kept me from blogging, although I probably have at least a half-dozen half-written posts needing to be polished up and fleshed out so I can publish them already.

As far as how I did in the classes, I enjoyed them greatly, and I really like finally getting to thoroughly exercise my brain.  I'm still awaiting the final grade on a major group project in one class (40% of the grade for that course), but I got a high A in Organizing and Accessing Information and Knowledge, which was a course heavy on metadata, taxonomies and information architecture, with three substantial projects.  In the first course (in September), Information and Knowledge in the 21st Century Economy, which was a foundational course, I got a solid A.  Management and Leadership in the Knowledge Domain is my only still-outstanding grade.  I have a 94 so far, but that 40%-of-the-grade project obviously carries a lot of weight, so the final grade in that class is still up in the air, but I have high hopes and expectations.  :)

I just got back to NY from Texas, after visiting the family for Christmas.  My 1-year-old niece is absolutely adorable :)  I love getting to play doting Auntie!  Of course, I came down with a cold my last day there, so had to skip the goodbye kisses and hugs for the little one :(  At least I got my flu shot this year.  Too bad it doesn't do anything for the common cold.  :\

Now back to the job hunt, and seeing how much productive stuff I can get done between now and when classes start back up on January 17.

Happy New Year!!

Thoughts on a (rhetorical?) question in Peter Morville’s “Search Patterns”: “What, if anything, will never be subject to search?”

My first thought was that we’re not currently able to search by feeling or emotion, and that that might not ever be possible.  And to be clear, when I say search “by feeling or emotion,” I don’t mean searching using a feeling word, like googling “sad” or “depressed” or “happy.”  That, obviously, is eminently possible now.  

What we aren’t doing yet, is to literally search (and tag) by the feeling or emotion experienced.  Certainly, you can already tag, for example, a TED Talk, with a feeling or emotion word, such as “inspiring,” or “fascinating,” or “funny.”  But you can’t communicate the actual physical, emotional experience that a video, blog, website or other content provides.  At least, not yet.  What if you could tag a YouTube video with the physical sensation of the uproarious laughter you experienced when you watched it?  Or if you could actually share the feeling of delighted terror you experienced at that new horror movie?   

Or perhaps you could search by physical touch sensation.  If you could imagine the feel of silk, and the online store would filter clothing results by those with that “feel.”  Or someone might sensation-tag a wool sweater as “very itchy,” and when you clicked on that item, you could choose to “feel” the sensation-tags that other users had applied.  (I would hope the default would be that you would have to request or allow that tag first - nobody likes auto-launching music on sites, I can’t imagine they’d appreciate auto-launching sensory overload.)

Or what if you could research vacation destinations by searching for the sensation of warm sand between your toes and the sun on your face?  Or picturing the type of wilderness trails you'd like to hike and letting the search engine find close matches to that visual image, and rank them by, say, how close they are to you?

The more I thought these ideas, though, the more I realized it might not be so impossible, after all.

Consider how advanced things like fMRI are now.  Scientists know where in the brain certain emotions are seated, and can visualize, in real-time, the blood flow to those regions, indicating whether or not you are using that part of your brain, and experiencing that emotion.  And advanced prosthetics are able to use electrical signals from the brain to control movement of those artificial limbs, and the science behind those is continuing to advance.  One has even been demonstrated on the Colbert Report.  We already have fairly accurate speech recognition capabilities which allow people to control their computers hands-free.  

And the technological development (that I know of) that is closest to something which could evolve into the mechanism for such a type of search, is the brain-computer interfaces which are already capable of helping locked-in syndrome victims communicate by focusing their thoughts to move a cursor on a computer screen to communicate, surf the internet and more.  One great example is this video of the NeuroSwitch:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWe5YVV9dWs  And that’s not the only such brain-computer interface out there.  

It’s not a far cry from that to “mind reading,” of a sort.  In fact, when I googled the phrase “computers reading minds,” it returned over 28,000,000 results.  Perhaps a little frightening, in the time elapsed from this afternoon to this evening, the same search yielded 100,000 additional results the second time.  

Right now, the focus seems to be on more obvious practical benefits, such as helping the locked-in communicate, rather than a superfluous-seeming search-by-emotion capability.  But if you consider how quickly computers evolved from giant mainframes that cost millions of dollars, to something you could carry in one hand and use to read books, watch tv, play games, shop, make phone calls, video conference, and more, given the technology that already exists for computers to interpret human brain patterns, what as-yet un-thought-of applications might that develop into in the next 25 years?  It would be frivolous now to use the technology for “mere” online search purposes, but there may come a time when that’s the least of what brain-computer interfaces can achieve.   

Twitter - I'm behind the curve :\

Sometimes I think I'm so smart, but so far, it's always been the case that somebody else already had the idea before me... Wall Street Journal article about Researchers utilizing Twitter data

Knowing the right compromise requires knowing your purpose

[slightly modified from a discussion board post I made for a class assignment]

Management thinking great Peter Drucker states that you have to start out with “what is right rather than what is acceptable” before you compromise, so that you don’t make the wrong compromise (from The Daily Drucker, p. 304).  

As an aside, I would argue that part of the reason is that the compromise itself is what is “acceptable” - it’s what you settle for when you can’t get what’s ideal.  If you’ve compromised the ideal before you even reach the point where you have to compromise, you haven’t left yourself many good options.

But I digress.  I think in corporations, compromises are most often made over money - how much to budget, and for what.  Where to strike the balance between profitability and the sustainability of the organization.

And this is where successful companies have realized that having a purpose can help guide those determinations and compromises.  Some part of any corporation’s purpose is, of course, to make money, to be profitable.  But that can’t be the sole driving force in a company.  It doesn’t motivate workers, or create or increase morale, and it often doesn’t even drive profitable behaviors, because the decision-makers ignore sustainability and future success in favor of profits now, and by failing to invest and plan ahead, can (eventually) completely eliminate the business’s ability to be profitable.

So, “what is right” is what aligns with the company’s purpose.  To use our first class presentation subject, Procter & Gamble, as an example, the company’s purpose is “touching and improving more consumers’ lives in more parts of the world more completely.”  And this sense of purpose is infused throughout the company.   We had the good fortune to interview a P&G employee who said that he is guided only a daily basis in his work by the company’s purpose.  With that sense of “what is right,” people at any level of the company can make the right decisions, the right compromises, and still achieve the company's goal without "cutting the baby in half."  The company can decide to invest in an audacious goal like digitizing the entire company, because they see that doing so, and using technology to be as efficient and informed as they can possibly be, will help enable them to touch and improve consumers' lives all over the world, including growing markets like China and India, where they can’t necessarily just sell to a few giant Wal-marts, but need to reach many smaller stores in order to deliver their products to their consumers.

A blind pursuit of nothing but profit can lead organizations to make bad compromises and bad decisions.  “Undisciplined pursuit of more” is what Jim Collins, in “How the Mighty Fall,” labels as the second of five stages of corporate decline.  If you cut costs and expand markets or grow company size without investing in technology, training, and process improvement, you can end up with a company that is analogous to a tree that has rotted on the inside, where it may still look fine on the outside, but it’s only a matter of time before a storm comes that tears the whole thing down.

And the expert interview [part of our class materials] with Jim Igel touched on this, as well, when he and Guy St. Clair addressed the importance of corporate social responsibility.  The interesting fact is that social responsibility and even altruism in corporations is not only *not* anathema to profitability, but there’s also a substantial body of research demonstrating that the two things actually go hand in hand - a company that benefits society ultimately improves its own bottom line (cf. “Built To Last” by Jim Collins).  

Coincidentally, I posted this homework assignment on Friday, October 7, and the very next day, October 8, @TEDNews tweeted this TED Talk by Simon Sinek, discussing how inspired and inspirational leaders and organizations "Start With Why" - "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it."

Twitter for Research?

We just finished our P&G research project and presentation yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, today I came across an excellent source that I hadn't previously found - a video interview with P&G's current CEO, Bob McDonald.  And you know how I found it?  By searching the phrase "P&G CEO" on Twitter.  A Yale student/grad had tweeted a link to it (it's on a Yale Blog).  None of my other research (or the rest of my team's) had uncovered this.  I found it in a twitter mention.  It hadn't occurred to me to use Twitter for my research for the project - I was just trying to see whether Bob McDonald tweets, since I was very impressed by his thinking and management style, after having done our project.

I've also been discovering that seeing who a person/entity is following can give you a lot of insight into that individual or company.  And that can be its own source of valuable research.  I followed @RossDawson because a lot of KM people I follow are following him (e.g., Thomas Stewart, Kate Pugh, David Griffiths, KM World Magazine, David Gurteen, Andrew McAfee, ARMA, AIIM and more).  I didn't know anything about him but what was on his twitter profile.  

Then the other day I somehow came across Ross Dawson's name outside of Twitter (I think I followed some series of links from an Andrew McAfee blog that's assigned reading this week).  And from there I got to Amazon and their Ross Dawson author page, and learned more about him.  Now he's less a random name to me, and more a recognized quantity.  And a good resource to be following.

I'm trying to formulate my thinking on Twitter follows and mentions.  In the current digital landscape, it seems that a follow on Twitter can be somewhat analogous to a citation in an article or book, and the perceived quality of the follower (as would be the case with a publication), reflects directly on the person/entity being "cited" to in this way.  A follow isn't a citation (as opposed to an @ mention or a RT or link to a blog post), but it's sort of a "potential" citation, in that the follower values the follow-ee's knowledge and insights enough to want them in their feed, and/or expects the content thereof to be useful and/or entertaining.

I'm finding that I very much use Twitter as my source for news and articles relevant to my current interests.  I'm following people involved in the field(s) I'm interested in, and when they link to blogs and/or articles, I often try to read those myself (I really need to learn to speed read, though!).  

The twitter-verse is sort of like word of mouth at warp speed.  I think many companies and individuals have already seen its potential as a resource, but I suspect there's even more gold to be mined, both content-wise, and from studying the sociological phenomenon of it...  

The Personal Statement that got me into Columbia

Unabridged and unadulterated, below is the personal statement/statement of academic purpose I wrote as part of my admissions application to the Columbia masters program in Information and Knowledge Strategy.  I was pretty pleased with it, if I do say so myself, and I dare say it helped me get into the program.  Judge for yourself:

I recognize that it may not be obvious from my resume why I would be interested in knowledge management generally, and specifically in Columbia’s Masters in Information and Knowledge Strategy.  I will admit that mine is perhaps a strange path.  I’m definitely a career-changer, looking to significantly alter my trajectory.

I came to New York to study acting, and pursued that for about ten years.  While I was taking acting classes and singing lessons and voiceover lessons and auditioning, I worked mostly full-time day jobs, usually as a secretary or assistant. 

A couple of my early jobs gave me valuable exposure to business processes, because I worked in very small companies (an owner plus me in one; an owner, an accountant and me in another).  In those environments, I learned to be a jack-of-all-trades; to look for ways to overview an entire business and find ways to help it operate more efficiently by creating documents, systems or processes to automate or streamline whatever I could.  I had a lot of responsibilities, and I learned a lot, but didn’t see where I could apply that experience (plus, I was still focused on pursuing acting).

My next substantial job brought me to the field of law, working as a legal secretary at a small law firm (approximately 20 employees total), where I supported three partners and an associate.  My four years there were another wonderful learning experience, as I gained broad exposure to many aspects of the law and legal processes.  In fact, during that time I brought a rent overcharge case against my then-landlord, pursuing it pro se and doing my own legal research, writing and filing my own briefs, and even arguing twice in New York State Supreme Court.

I found that I had a certain affinity for the law, but after my four-year odyssey with the legal system, I had no desire to become an attorney.   I won my case, and therefore had some money on which to live, so I quit working to pursue acting full-time.  Ultimately, that proved less than successful.  Although I was getting some steady voiceover work, I was soon low on reserves and feeling disheartened.  Shortly after returning to work from my “sabbatical,” I began working as a legal secretary at my current employer.   In this job, I have seen numerous opportunities to improve processes and efficiency but have rarely been able to find an audience for my ideas.  I simply don’t have the credentials to back them up.

It wasn’t until February of this year that I discovered the existence of the field of knowledge management.  I was visiting with a long-time friend who works at an AmLaw 100 firm.  One of our conversations segued into a discussion of her firm’s intranet and knowledge management department.  I was surprised and excited to learn that much of what that department does encompasses the types of ideas that have occurred to me over the past three years. 

Finally, something fit.  This was a field where I could utilize all my abilities: I’m intelligent, analytical, organized, and detail oriented; I’ve discovered that I’m a systems thinker (I hadn’t known there was a term for the way my brain works); I’m a problem solver and a figure-out-er; I anticipate needs and potential problems, and plan ahead to avoid or minimize future difficulties; I’m good at finding more efficient ways to do things; I enjoy exploring technology and software (everywhere I’ve worked, people have always come to me with their questions about software).  Knowledge management would take advantage of all these skills and would allow me to perpetually challenge myself.   I finally have an answer to a question I’ve always dreaded: “What are you passionate about?”

In March, I saw an ad on LinkedIn for Columbia’s Masters in Information and Knowledge Strategy.  I immediately clicked through (proof that internet advertising does, at least occasionally, work), and signed up for the online information session.  Much of what was said in the session dovetailed neatly with what I’ve been researching and contemplating for the last few months.   The role of a knowledge management professional was described in exactly the way I’ve been conceiving it in my head for the past several months.

I plan to use the MS in Information and Knowledge Strategy to enter the field of knowledge management, and ultimately to take on a role such as Knowledge Management Director or Chief Knowledge Officer, perhaps even establishing a knowledge management initiative at my current firm.

Too much information

Loving IKNS so far, but man, do I feel like I have a short attention span.


When I was in college, we didn't have all this new-fangled technology.  So much information, so easily accessible (and that's the key), I just keep following links and reading fascinating things and absorbing and learning and then I realize, I'm getting away from the actual task - getting my homework done!


It's not like I'm "wasting" time, exactly.  I'm not watching tv or playing games or goofing off.  But I go check my twitter and follow an article link from The Economist, then one from the ABA Journal, then see something Richard Susskind tweeted and investigate that, and then see Ted News tweet about how the screenwriter for Contagion started out by watching a TED Talk and so on and so on... 


I have to figure out how to rein in my curiosity, at least until I've finished my coursework :|  
I feel compelled to follow all these information trails, because I worry that if I don't follow the links to things now, I won't come across them later, because I won't know to look for them.  And I'm not too great at remembering sources (if I'm not specifically writing them down and citing them for a paper).  For instance, in my research on Proctor & Gamble for my current class team project, I came across a page (pdf) on their website where they talk about how they have "begun to use Lofts, an immersive, multi-sensorial experience based on classic storytelling."  I could swear I've read a story or article somewhere about something similar, but when I try to recall specifics, I can't pin them down, and I sure can't remember whether I read it online, or in a magazine, or in a book.  I'd like to read that article/chapter/story again, but I can't even think what search terms to try on Google.


And none of that has anything to do with my homework.  :\


Focus.  I haz to find some...

IKNS First Residency Over

Well, our first residency for the Columbia IKNS program ended yesterday.  I already miss everybody, although we're starting to make all sorts of online connections, and there's the course website and an IKNS community site.

I'm still coming down from all my excitement about the program and the people involved.  Larry Prusak spoke with us on multiple occasions during the week, is an Advisor for the program, and will be teaching one of our courses.  He's an author (or co-author) of numerous books in the field.

Thomas Stewart is the author of the first book we read for class, Intellectual Capital, one of the faculty advisors, and he is an amazing speaker in person.  Lots of short stories throughout his speech.  Little bits of unexpected humor everywhere.  And, like all the other faculty and speakers, lots of energy for his topic.

We can also count as faculty Guy St. Clair, Kate Pugh, Linda Stoddart, Joshua Goldblas, Leala Abbott, Jeanne Harris and more.  Guy Scalzi with Aspen Advisers is another faculty advisor.  In addition to authors Prusak and Stewart, both Kate Pugh and Jeanne Harris have authored recent books in the field.

We also have an extremely diverse and talented cohort, all of whom I'm excited to begin and continue this journey with for the next 16 months.  It's going to be a lot of work, but thank goodness I find all this fun! :)  Stay tuned...

When I Grow Up I Want to Be Malcolm Gladwell

If I had realized, in middle school or high school, that such a career path was possible, I would have wanted to be Malcolm Gladwell when I grew up.  Or maybe Atul Gawande.  Theirs are the kinds of minds I admire, that inspire me.  They are perpetually intellectually curious, and capable of amazing (and entertaining) feats of analysis and synthesis.  Oliver Sacks is another one.  

It’s funny - when I was growing up, somehow I got it into my head that “non-fiction” was synonymous with “boring.”  I just didn’t understand at the time how non-fiction could possibly be entertaining.  Now I know better.  Thank you, Malcolm Gladwell.

So many organizations, so little time...

So, I just discovered that my firm is a member of the ILTA, which means I can join the ILTA (International Legal Technology Association).  So I just did, woohoo!  Yet another wealth of resources that I can never possibly have enough time to digest.

I've read a number of excellent books since spring, and I have a ton of books on my shelf waiting to be read (as well as dozens more on my Amazon wish list), plus the PMBOK and BABOK (monster tomes, both).

I've joined ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators), AIIM (Association of Image and Information Management), ABA (American Bar Association, as a student associate member) and PMI (Project Management Institute).  Still on my to-join list are the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) and WITI (Women in Technology International, which I'll join as a student member once I pick up my Columbia University ID next week).

I'm trying my best to take full advantage of everything available out there to expand my knowledge of the field of KM and related disciplines (I think an understanding of project management and business analysis is important to KM as well).  There's such a mountain of good material out there, I just have to try not to get buried under it!

Off-Topic: Excerpts from Stonehenge Management's big F*** all of You email

Roseland Properties is truly a caring, concerned property management company, whose first and top priority is the comfort and safety of their tenants.  Observe:

“If the authorities issue a hurricane warning for the area, the management team will leave the community.”

“It is important to remember that hurricanes and all associated weather and tidal conditions are natural disasters. Management cannot be responsible for any resulting property damage, interruption of utilities/services, or bodily injury.”

“We would like to remind everyone that the use of personal portable generators is not permitted” 

“Given the potential for driving rain during a hurricane, please take the steps necessary to prevent damage within your apartment home, i.e. dry water around windows, blinds, and window sills to reduce the potential for mildew.  Also, don’t forget to empty your refrigerator before evacuating or at the point power loss exceeds 24 hours.  The refrigerator must be emptied at the point power loss exceeds 24 hours, otherwise the refrigerator could be damaged resulting in financial responsibility to the resident up to and including the replacement of the refrigerator.”

“Do not tape any windows. Windows may be boarded from the outside only.  Repairs needed from any damage caused to the building by the resident from boarding windows will be the financial responsibility of the resident.”

“Pursuant to your lease agreement, all residents are required to carry renter's insurance.”

“Please wipe all moisture from windows and doors.”

“Be patient.  It takes a team effort to clean up after a storm.  Responsibility for the cleanup falls to numerous local, state and federal agencies.” 

“As you can imagine, many of the vendors and contractors we depend on to provide parts, labor, or technical assistance may be stretched to the limit. Because of this our response to service requests in you apartment home may be delayed.”

“Please take the time be as prepared as possible.”

So, basically, "we're getting the hell out of here," "any damage is your fault," "you'll have to pay for any damage," and "we aren't responsible for doing anything".

Classy.

The middle of the Beginning

Next week I start the Information and Knowledge Strategy masters program at Columbia University, and I'm excited to meet and work with some heavy-hitters in the KM field.  It's been a whirlwind year - at the beginning of 2011, I'd never even heard of Knowledge Management, and now I'm going to get a masters degree in it!

Considering that I came to New York in 1998 to study and pursue acting, one could legitimately wonder how I got from there to here.  I’ll skip the long story for now (maybe I’ll revisit in a future post), but in February I visited a good friend in California, who works at an AmLaw 100 firm.  The conversation turned to intranets, and she told me a bit about their knowledge management director, then said, "hey, you'd be great at that!"  

And with the seed thus planted, I started researching and reading everything I could find about knowledge management, clicking from articles to blogs to books to footnotes back to websites and articles, discovering a vast community of resources.  I’m still uncovering new gems, even after months of reading and downloading and connecting.  I had thought I was more passionate about performing than anything else, but once I discovered KM, I realized I hadn’t had a clue what it felt like to be truly compelled and impelled by an interest in something. 

Somewhere in the midst of all my researching, I stumbled across an ad on LinkedIn for Columbia’s brand-new masters program.  I applied, interviewed, and got in, and the journey begins next Wednesday.  :)