Some Thoughts on Knowledge Management Systems

Organizational culture shows itself everywhere in an organization

2010-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

As a resesarcher and a consultant, I used to make frequent visits with managers and executives of a variety of companies. One thing that still interests me even to this day is the fact that some companies just feel so different. And the differences are so pervasive in the organization. They showed on people, products design and quality, processes, and even on minute details of the physical environment. Those companies are both teams and comunities. They are high-performing teams with discipline. They are also communities of members feeling a strong sense of belonging. The pressure is always there, but is manageble. Plenty of supports are provided to help employees grow and enjoy their life. Executives and managers are extremely concerned about the trust factor that glues the elements together. Yes, they do have to deal with crises. But they do it together, and always come out stronger that they were before. This kind of organizational culture is not easy to build, but is not more difficult than competing in the business world either. Everybody plays a certain role. But it's the executives and managers that make the most difference. Business is not nasty and boring because of thoese executives and managers.

Domain-specifc knowledge vs. domain-independent knowledge

2010-02-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

Problem solving requires both general problem solving skills and domain specific knowledge. Logical reasoning and creative thinking, for example, are essential in finding a smart solution to a challenging problem. These skills usually can be applied to different fields. That's why some CEOs got to transfer to work in an industry that they did not have much experience. However, if they are to work in, say, a hospital or manufacturing firm, they must possess much knowledge that is unique to the industry. They must know a lot about the product/service, operational processes, and other areas in order to make good decisions. The 80/20 rule is still helpful here. The higher the rank, the more important the general (or domain-independent) knowledge and the less crucial the domain-specific knowledge. Workers and mangers at the lower and middle managerial levels usually contribute mainly by possessing and applying their domain-specific knowledge.

Where does the domain-specific knowledge come from? Some from education. A lot from working experience. Education provides general frameworks. But it's working in the field that substantiates and solidifies the working knowledge. Being in the field is critical in building the expertise in a particular domain. It is important that, if a knowledge management initiate is to be effective, the organization must develop its own implementation program. Looking to benchmarks is a good start and often inspiring. Ultimately, a successful knowledge management program must embody the unique characteristics of the organization.

Community as a form of collaboration

2010-01-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

Bounded rationality furnishes the theoretical basis for collaboration. When problem complexity is overwhelming, divide-and-conquer is often an effective problem-solving approach. For many years before the Internet got so convenient, collaboration takes place within the department or the corporation. Communities formed within the organizational boundary, when operating with momentum, unit more brain power into a great value-producing system. The communities that involve the whole world, as radical as it seems, have been demonstrated to be a great business thinking for some companies in certain sectors.

Open innovation through various types of community has captured much attention of mass media. IBM joins effort with the open source software community and puts linux and Apache at the center of their core products. A significant portion of new products produced every year is the result of networking with people they did not hire. Counting amazon, eBay. jeep drivers, Mac users, ..., you'll notice that community, like knowledge, is everywhere. Can one imagine several years ago that community management would turn out to be a core competency of managers and organizations in the knowledge economy?

Inductive learning and deductive learning

2010-01-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

Inductive reasoning generalizes and deductive reasoning tests the generalization on a specific case. Effective learning requires both.

Similarly, tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge are essential components of an upward spiral. One prompts the other to elevate our level of knowledge. Converting explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge involves the act of internalizing what we learn. Making tacit knowledge explicit reinforces better and deeper understanding of what vaguely and fuzzily exists in our knowledge base. Not a dichotomy, but more a continuum. It's just like water exists in both the liquid and vapor form most of the time.

Wisdom matters the most

2010-01-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

Can one be both knowledgeable and stupid? Of course!
One can knowingly ignore the long term and opt for the short term benefit.
Or, knowingly put one factor above everything else that ought to be considered.
That is, wisdom has to to with perspective and priority. And the issue of perspective and priority is tied to the notion of significance. Significance is not a mind work. It is what one treasures out of heart. At least, it is a good blend of mind and heart.

Interesting! from knowledge management point of view, running a business requires both mind and heart. Pursuing a career also requires both mind and heart. Business world is not supposed to be hard and cold. Work is supposed to be an integral part of life. There is always something that can be done to improve the status quo. Enjoying the fun of improving harmonizes work and pleasure, and thus links work and study directly to significance. At the very basic level, one is motivated by the sense of significance.

Blog for reflective learning

2010-01-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

When used as a study tool, blog support reflective learning. Employee can blog to keep a detailed record of what's learned and tried. Team members can blog to stimulate ach other's thinking. When practiced in a disciplined manner, blog enhances personal knowledge management and support collaboration. Blogs can be inter-linked into a knowledge network and form a community of practice. The scope of the community often extends far beyond organizational boundary.

Sounds straight-forward, and yet rarely taken seriously. Actually, most widely known habits share the same destiny: regular working out, no procrastination, planning ahead, leaving 10 minutes early to avoid traffic,...

It's hard enough for individuals, and it's even much more challenging for an organization to build collective memory using such tools as blogs. That also explains why knowledge management is a core competency for any organizations.

Knowledge appropriability and competitive advantage

2010-01-24T19:03:00.000-08:00

While praising the act of sharing, knowledge management does not ignore the importance of the type of knowledge that is proprietary and increases the power of the product/service or process that contains that knowledge. When the knowledge appropriability level is high, it is difficult to be replicated or imitated. The benefit created by the knowledge lasts longer.

Knowledge appropriabiity is due to the very nature of the knowledge. It can also be the result of patent or copyright protection. The legal mechanism is necessary in order to provide incentive for knowledge workers to pursue innovative activities. It is clear that intellectual property right protection can hamper further innovation. From the government policy point of view, the key is to find the balance between too much and not enough.

Knowledge is power

2010-01-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

"Knowledge is power." said Sir Francis Bacon. It is truer today than it was some 400 years ago when Bacon made the statement.

A knowledgeable firm competes better than one that is not. Knowledge is the true source of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. To provide innovative product/service in the innovative way, firms must work diligently to replenish and deploy their knowledge stock.

The statement shouldn't be misinterpreted to justify knowledge hoarding behaviors by individual employees, however. The tricky thing about knowledge is that knowledge must get updated and upgraded to remain valuable. Sharing what you know can deepen your understanding and increases your knowledge. The notion of "knowledge is power" supports knowledge sharing, not knowledge hoarding. The organizational culture that encourages and rewards knowledge sharing as well as knowledge creation is an essential component of an innovative organization.

Wealth as an example of increasing returns

2010-01-24T07:10:00.000-08:00

The value of an asset increases faster than the increase of the asset itself. Computer network is a typical example. Community of practice also is mentioned quite often. Innovative capability increases with the experience of innovating. Adding a complementary asset to the asset portfolio can create benefit similar to increasing returns.

Is wealth an example of IR as well?

The first $20 given to an empty-pocket person creates excitement. The fifth time $20 is given to the same person probably would not create as much excitement as the first time did. This is a typical example of diminishing return of utility in the physical world.

What about"the more you already have, the more you want to have?"

Yes, the more money you have already had, the hungrier you may be for even more money if you believe money makes you happy. That would be increasing return in a different sense.

To blog or not to blog, that is not the question

2010-01-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

It's fun to turn the pages of a family photo album. They help bring back lots of memories long after the events happened. It's also fun to read the diary that logged your mind, your heart, and your life. It's hard to imagine a society that does not have any record of of things, big and small, that involve its members as days go by. The reality is that what's not captured is typically much more than what actually gets recorded. What a waste of "natural resource"!

To blog or not to blog? If a company executive asks me this question regarding the company policy, I would quickly say, "Go ahead, of course." The question should be how to encourage employee blogging so that everybody not only benefits as a result but also enjoys the process. This is a great new corporate ethic: perform and enjoy. Of course there are concerns. It takes time. Company secret may leak out. Well, there's no such thing that is risk-free in the real world.

The question, therefore, is how to make it work well.

Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge

2010-01-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

Explicit knowledge is visible and readily sharable. Tacit knowledge only resides in the head and doesn't easily get exchanged.

Knowledge expressed and represented in a certain visible form can be distributed and shared among users. Explicit knowledge can be validated and examined more conveniently than tacit knowledge. Accounting statements, for example, convey measurement information regarding various types of resources and business transactions. Ideas about new product/service design, however, are not always easy to describe in words, text, or pictures. We all have been dealing with explicit knowledge (such as this blog). We all also have a lot of tacit knowledge about the things we are familiar with (such as life).

Most people agree that, relatively speaking, explicit knowledge is no more than the part of iceberg above the water surface, and tacit knowledge is that part beneath.

Less is discussed as to which comes first.

When learning to drive, we first heard instruction spoken out and watched actions and movements demonstrated. After much practicing, we drive in a way that the vehicle seems to have been united with you. Every part of you acts in synchronization with other parts of your body and mind. Explicit knowledge get internalized and becomes tacit knowledge.

An expert strives to turn lots of explicit knowledge into tacit in developing expertise. Then they are asked to transfer what they keep in their head to a form that can be put in the systems. Upon more thoughts, I found that this is similar to chicken-or-egg problem. It's a mutually reinforcing cycle, an ongoing process of induction and deduction. I guess some specific examples would serve well on this point.

Is KM a new thing?

2010-01-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Everybody has been practicing knowledge management all the time. But recognizing the strategic value of knowledge and treating it as a source of competitive advantage for all companies is a recent enlightenment in organizational management. The term KM does not even have to be used to label the activities that in essence is related to knowledge management. As a matter of fact, some people deliberately avoid use of KM just to reduce confusion and controversy (not everybody agrees that knowledge can be managed).

It's less controversial that innovation is crucial in enhancing an organization's competitiveness. It's also clear that new knowledge must be constantly created and deployed to innovate. Explicit knowledge can be managed directly. But tacit knowledge can only be managed through people network. If we don't overly simplify the point of argument, there would not be so much confusion. It's like human resource management. How do you management human resource? The asnwer would depend on what you mean by managing. Right?

Increasing Return

2009-02-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

The phenomenon of increasing return (IR) refers to a virtuous cycle in which the output of a production system increases disproportionally than input does. For example, an already very innovative company can easily get even more innovative than a less innovative one. The more knowledgeable you are about a subject, the easier for you to learn a new knowledge. The four factors driving this phenomenon are (1) standards and network externalities, (2) customer lock-in, (3) large up-front costs, and (4) learning effect.

The importance of knowledge management for a company in pursuing sustainable competitive advantage can at least partly be explained by the concept of IR. Competitive advantage does not happen automatically. It takes commited and conscious effort to build. The people in Nucor Steel, for example, are not complacent about their success. The social ecology already working within the entire company keeps pushing their standards higher and higher. Partners Healthcare, as another example, would find it easier to build another knowledge work-supporting system once they have had experience building one. IR usually is associated with learning, experience, capability, and skill.

Data Hierarchy

2009-01-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

From data to information to knowledge to wisdom, data is tedious and wisdom is abstract if they are treated like they exist by themselves. However, when placed in a specific context, a business process or other situations, data is concrete because it represents facts. The meaning of wisdom would be neatly framed and understood. This is equivalent to viewing the data hierarchy from the top down:

Wisdom is knowledge viewed from an appropriate perspective. Knowledge is information related to problems or decisions. Information is data placed in and presented for a specific context. And data is the description of reality or facts relative to a specific setting.

Wisdom is knowledge placed in

Are social networks more than social?

2008-11-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

The hottest Web 2.0 issue is, perhaps, social network. Using web content analysis tools, one can derive much useful information about users. By targeting those who exhibit "right" personal characteristics, a business can identify a promising customer base for their products / services.

Theory and practice in knowledge management

2008-10-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

A smart and bold entrepreneur or manager came up with a great idea and gave it a try. It worked. The idea was duplicated at other locations to produce more evidence for its value. The experiences inspired and fueled development of a new theory, which in in turn inspired practicing managers to adopt the new thinking in their department or company. This dynamic, two-way interaction process goes on until everybody seems to have taken it for granted. Then, it disappeared from the public scene. From business strategy researchers, knowledge as a strategic asset and knowledge management as a crucial value-creating activity have been taken for granted. However, a close look at their discussion quickly reveals much impact of km on most of the components in their frameworks.

This book, The new age of innovation, does not carry km in its title. Yet, km lies at the core of everything. Knowledge is the input and output of business processes. ICT infrastructure facilitates or even enables knowledge creation, dissemination, and application. Value-creating business models are driven by km activities. Innovative business strategies essentially encompasses innovative km activities.

About the online class experiment

2008-10-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

The first experiment provides some insights for future improvement.

Students are not used to the informal nature of blogs and the fact that blogs can be edited after they are posted. Actually, they don't have to finish everything at one time. Coming back at it several times would be more fun and less burden. They should feel free to add and expand their thoughts. Lacking the spirit of freedom, blogging would not turn into anything substantial.

I wonder what'd happen if these are made clear to the students before the experiment.

Thoughts about blogging

2008-10-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

Blogging ought to be part of daily life.

Forget about reputation. Forget about who's reading. Just concentrate on your thoughts. Not everybody is a guru about something. But everybody can write down what's in their mind. Start with a purpose. Set up as many blogs as you want. There needs to be some for school, some for work, and for life, and for anything else.

Is time a barrier? No. Passion is.
Don't know anything that you can write about? The fact is, you do know something that you can write about. At the very least, you are an intellectual, a human being that feels and thinks.

Just like with any program implementation, starting small is a good advice. Blogging is a habit worth developing.

Blogs for good and bad

2008-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Blogs spread good news and bad news at a rapid speed. While we praise their ability to deliver great benefit, we shouldn't neglected the possibility of damage the may be caused by faudulent blogs. Take a look at this story as an example. We certainly don't need this kind of blogs in the midst of global financial turmoil.

Implications of knowledge spiral

2008-09-11T14:35:00.001-07:00

Everything, good and bad, is a cycle. The knowledge spiral cycle consists of internalization, socialization, externalization, and combination. The internalization quadrant involves one learning from assimilating - by reading, listening, observing, or other means - what's external into his knowledge base. The socialization stage brings out his understanding or insight to the sharing community. As a result, private knowledge becomes public (or shared) knowledge.

The externalization phase turns a collective insight into a visible form - prototype, formula, equation,report, meeting minute, paper, or design drawing. Tacit knowledge becomes explicit knowledge at this point. The explicit knowledge inevitably gets confirmed or challenged by other knowledge. This process leads to more understanding and deeper learning.

One may begin at the socialization quadrant or the internalization quadrant. The internalization process is stimulated by the explicit knowledge, whereas socialization requires exposure to sharing of tacit knowledge. Both exist in the real world.

The knowledge spiral model describes the necessary steps one goes through in learning. Knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are simply different points in the knowledge life cycle. Not all knowledge has great problem-solving power. Knowledge gets updated and even gets obsolete. One's knowledge spiral is really an on-going process. Intellectually, one grows along the way.

Dual roles of knowledge in knowledge economy

2008-09-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

The two definitions of knowledge economy - economy of knowledge as products and knowledge-based economy - are actually two sides of the coin, or two related views of the same phenomenon. As the economic vitality is propelled by innovative knowledge, the knowledge itself may be packaged as a valuable product. Cloud computing provides a good example. Well-established online companies like Amazon depends on its powerful information infrastructure for everything it's doing in the online market space. They are now making their processing capabilities available to the small businesses who want to go online but lack the technological resource to do it. The cloud computing phenomenon illustrates the fact that knowledge can play dual roles in the knowledge economy point of view - knowledge as a product and knowledge as an asset. There are companies, however, that specialize in creating or gathering patents with the hope that they'll profit from their collections someday.

A logical flow for teaching KM

2008-08-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

Environmental factors: Knowledge economy, global nature of major issues, and
Theoretical foundation: Strategic value of knowledge, knowledge attributes,...
Cases: ....
Technologies:...
Implementation strategies and applications: Collaboration, innovation, organizational culture, community of practice
Challenges:performance measurement, knowledge accounting

Blogs for converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge

2008-02-29T07:25:00.000-08:00

Whereas most of what we know only resides in the head, it is crucial that we try hard to ducoment it in some way. Explicit knowledge is more manageable than tacit knowledge. It helps the knower even more, actually. Ever pull out the album that has your (or loved ones) childhood pictures? We all need to keep track of what we have learned, what we think, and how we feel along the way. That kind of deep conversation with self may also help others understand real you.

When used with discipline, blogs can be a great tool for knowledge creation (reflective thinking) and knowledge transfer (sharing).

One learns from wiki that, in the group work, everybody is held responsible for the group outcome. Individual preformance directly impacts group performance.

Through blogging, one experiences the difficulty of converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Difficult, yet crucial. No wonder knowledge management is claimed to be a core competence that drives competitive advantage.

Business is about providing solution

2008-02-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

People often ask wrong questions. Then they try very hard to figure out how to solve those wrong questions. As a result, one problem solved often leads to another problem being created. It may even be a much bigger problem! Buckman Laboratories is in specialty chemical products market. Their competitive advantage primarily stems from their customer-centric approach to doing business. Everything they do starts with customer problems. Their knowledge-intensive internal processes seek to solve customer problems. Customers constant bring about new problems. Buckman Labs thrives in creating and mobilizing new knowledge to satisfy their customers requirements.

Managing codified knowledge

2008-02-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

We know that what we don't show that we know (tacit knowledge) is usually much more than what we show. We also know that learning and knowing often take place at the individual level. After all, how great a team can be without great members? No wonder most KM literature stresses management of tacit knowledge more than that of codified knowledge. Perhaps only technology vendors would devote entire articles on description of how to manage codified knowledge. However, it's also true that not everything that is tacit should remain tacit. We can't argue against the value of documentation in management of information systems. Managing a large application portfolio lacking documentation support is difficult assignment. Similarly, codifying knowledge may also be a discipline issue. Painful, perhaps. But with a little experience, things can get easier and easier. Converting what is tacit to an explicit form is a valuable competence that requires conscious and disciplined effort. Remember, the effect of increasing return will be experienced here.

Knowledge Economy

2008-01-27T11:57:00.001-08:00

Understanding the driving forces and characteristics of knowledge economy provides motivation for the organization to be serious about knowledge management. After all, if nothing but knowledge can sustain competitiveness, where is the room for putting off activities of knowledge accumulation and knowledge application?

It's clear that smart product and service impress customers. It's also clear that smart products and services are only delivered by smart people through smart business process and smart management. It's less clear, however, how to create a smart organization that is characterized by extraordinary value-creating power. The field of knowledge management represents an attempt to systematically deal with this challenge.

I learn, I know, I grow, and I rejoice

2008-01-25T07:32:00.001-08:00

Knowledge is an outcome of learning. Learning feeds innovation. Innovation creates value, value for all stakeholders. Learning is an essential skill in the knowledge economy. One of the best things a business manager can do and should do is to develop and nurture a culture of organizational learning in the organization. Technological tools are great. But, ultimately, it's people that make the greatest difference. The same people may perform very differently under different leaderships and management styles. Besides, not all types of knowledge ought to be treated in the same way. How to best synchronize application domain, people, technology, process, and measurement still remains a major challenge for managers today. Is it analytic or holistic in nature? Both, I'd say. Is it more important for some sectors than the others. I'd be tempted to quickly say Yes. But a little more thinking pulled me back to say "Well, not quite." Nobody can solely rely on his muscle to perform excellently at work. Brain power has to be drawn upon and utilized in order to produce innovative value and sometimes even just to get by in today's business environment.

Knowledge Management Technology - Expert System

2007-03-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Expert systems are developed to solve complex problems in a specific domain, such as system configuration, trouble shooting, data interpretation, etc. The core of an expert system is a knowledge base, which is primarily a collection of decision rules that represent explicit knowledge about the target domain. The amount and the quality of the knowledge in the knowledge base determine how useful and powerful the system is to the user.

Expert systems in business are usually developed with an expert system development tool. There used to several dozens of these tools in the market, ranging from many thoudand dollars in price to free of charge or less than $100. A great shakeup and the consequent consolidation took place around 15 years ago. Now there are only a few out there. For an example, go to www.exsys.com.

When the first batch of expert systems appeared, people were amazed at the problem-solving power and create unrealistic expectations for something even more powerful. When the expectation "bubble" bursted, the pendulum swun to the opposite extreme almost overnight. Even until today, expert system technology is still viewed as either completely useless or at least not practical for business applications.

The fact is, expert system is a great technology for certain types of problems. Often , they are integrated with other front-end or back-end applications to deliver intelligent services at some points of user-system interaction experience. It's how the technology is used, rather than the technology itself, that determines its value to the user.

Knowledge Management Technologies - Search

2007-03-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Although technology alone is not sufficient, it is usually essential for successful implementation of effective km initiatives. A number of technolgies pop up in my mind when speaking of km technology: collaboration software, expert system, data mining, neural network, search, content management, intranet, extranet, concept map, Web 2.0 tools (e.g., blog, wiki), just to name some of them. Different tools are designed for different purposes. Since an organization typically manages different types of knowledge and km activities, a portfolio of technologies is required to achieve ultimate success.

Search is becoming a powerful way of finding knowledge. In the data and information management era, quick finding is ensured by proper organization. Organization depends on classification and hierarchical layering. While classification and hierachical structuring are still important, they are becoming more and more difficult due to the very nature and massive amount of knowledge resource. More than once when I was looking for an e-mail or a paper file in my computer, after a series of fruitless clickings, I clicked on the Google Desktop icon. That brings up a reasoanly short list of possible spots. With one more click, the right thing was found. Powerful search engines have beat my memory and my organization capability.

With such an important role to play for knowledge management, search tools are bound to continue to advance. Currently, for example, finding rare, local services is still not readily accessible.

What's so unique about Nucor Steel?

2007-02-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

For one thing, the phrase Knowledge Management doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the company bulletin board. What matters is not the label, of course. It's doing what you know that makes knowledge a source of competitive advantage that truly matters.

Making sure good knowledge constantly gets created is fundamental. Networking with external sources is important. But being aggressive and systematic in running good experiments to create proprietary knowledge from within the organization can bring about even greater value.

Knowledge is created by people and applied by people to boost performance. Recruiting people from knowledge management perspective is an age old wisdom with a little new significance in today's knowledge economy.

Blogs and Wikis

2007-02-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

We've barely scratched the thinnest surface of blogs and wikis as educational tools. Blogs and wikis have some things in common. But they are also different in several ways. Both can be used to capture thoughts and ideas. Blogs look just like a personal bulletine board that allows visitors to leave comments. Time is one of the most basic dimension in our experience. Content organization based on date and time, in and of itself, is a facinating feature. The core spirit of wikis is collaboration. Both blogs and wikis invite user participation in content creation. Wikis seem to be more open in terms of content contribution, while blogs give bloggers more control. Wikis give more room for participants to make their contribution. That is, more space is furnished by wikis. Just like time and space are both distinctive and related in some way, so are blogs and wikis.

I know I'm ready to use both blogs and wikis more for future teaching and research. Both are great tools for creation, organization, and distribution of both personal and enterprise knowledge. Increasing return is not just a good idea in knowledge economy. It's also a great driver in the enterprise of meaningful living.
Here's a great website on blogs and wikis for education. Now that I have put it down in my blog, I won't forget it when I need it. Ha! Ha!
http://opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Bloggers for hire

2007-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

A recent BusinessWeek article introduced a new Internet company called Federated Media Publishing Inc. (http://www.federatedmedia.net/blog/) that active bloggers would be excited about. This company functions as a broker matching big advertisers with cool blogs. It's an equivalent of Google's Adsense in a sense. Instead of relying on programs to automate every single step of the process, Federated Media has human specialists providing blog authors with valuable supports to make their blogging more efficient and more attractive. With this kind of service, bloggers can more seriously consider blogging an endeavor not only emotionally but also financially rewarding.

Sharing your experience, insight, and observations is usally like an echo chamber. But you are the only one in the chamber. Perhaps, that's a great reminder that we are simply rushing from one day to the next most of the time. There is not enough might, soul, and heart engaged on the life journey. Or, you've got to double check on your crowded schedule and see if it's possible to set aside a little more quiet time for yourselves. If even for nothing else, reflecting on your classes and your study can be very beneficial for improving your academic performance.

Blogs also should be used as a community building tool.

Blogging is fun

2007-02-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

Blogs can be used for both personal knowledge management (PKM) and exterprise knowledge management (EKM). As a PKM tool, blogs collect thoughts and ideas. With a little discipline, one can accumulate a great wealth of "thought prints" over years of blogging for life. Becoming famous or not, he/she will find it fun to go back and read about the journey traveled. For EKM, blogs are good for collaboration and knowledge sharing. For example, employees in different department can exchange ideas and feelings about a new company initiative. Members of the new product/service development team can provide insights from different points of view. Employee blogs can be kept on the intranet to prevent confidential content from leaking out.

I personally find blogging helpful in forcing me to practice my English writing. Since Chinese is much easier for me than English when it comes to expressing deep thoughts, I would usually prefer writing in Chinese rather than in English when given choices. However, I do love English as a language. Just like there are things that can only be more fully expressed in Chinese, there are also things that English does better than Chinese. Having been switching between three languages that I use regularly, I know how important it is to keep up with practicing. A great example of intellectual capital and increasing return here: The more you use, the more you have. And if you quit using a language for a while, you could lose it gradually.

The greatest challenge for blogging is time. But it's a habbit worth spending time to develop.

Sustainable competitive advantage comes from proprietary knowledge

2007-01-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

A low barrier to entry does not prevent existing and prospective competitors from entering the race for the same profitable business. Similarly, in order for the knowledge-based competitive advantage to be sustainable, it must be difficult for anybody else to import or create the knowledge. In an era in which knowledge quickly gets obsolete, the only way an organization can stay at the top of competition all the time is to constantly renew and expand its knowledge base. A steel manufacturing company called Nucor Corp. (www.nucor.com ) and the most envied Google pop up in my mind on this point.

Nobody can afford basking on its past or current success for too long a time and still expect to be a model business. Just like the earth never stops revolving aroung the sun, a business must constanly move along the right direction and do so in the right way. This is just how the reality work. Calling it challenge or calling it fun doesn't change the basic nature of competition. Asking why doesn;t help. It's easier to deal with you own perspective.

The only way to sustain competitive advantage is to constantly recreate competitive advantage. This is equally applicable to a society, a firm, a department, and an individual.

Experience: Pros and Cons

2007-01-26T07:17:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia defines experience as a general concept that comprises "knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event." One with a lot of experience in a certain field knows a lot about that field and can be called an expert. An expert solves problems both effectively and efficiently. Experience therefore is a big part of expertise. It lies in the core of maturity.

Firsthand experience is good becuase of the opportunity to see how things actually work in a real circumstance. Some experience can even change one's perspective and thinking at a fundamental level, triggering a chain effect in his/her life. However, firsthand experience may be biased by personal interpretation. Besides, given the limited amount of time that can be devoted to experiencing, we can't simply rely on firsthand experience to grow our knowledge base. Although second-hand experience is not as intimate as firsthand experience, there can be more available to promote learning.

For the most part, experience is good. Obtaining firsthand business or work experience adds value to one's employability and can mean something positive in the eyes of the prospective employer. From the perspective of IR (increasing return) effect, it's advisable for a full time student to take the first step in accumulating work experience as soon as possible. On some occasions, however, we want to be careful not to be misguided by our past experience. Things, both internal and external, may have changed and require revision of your knowledge base. It's a good mental exerciese to develop of habit of reflecting on your exprience regarding something and evaluate with a fresh mind how valid those experiences really are. Thinking outside the box often is critical in innovation.

Abundance is the key

2007-01-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

Is knowledge management about management of knowledge or management of the knower. I think it's both. Knowledge as hardware, software, design, patent, paper, or other forms of representation can and ought to be managed. However, a lot of valuable knowledge only resides in people's head. Tacit knowledge can be created and shared primarily through the networking and interaction between the knower and the learner. What needs to be remembered is that effective management of valuable knowledge requries systematic measures, not ad hoc actions.

Often the use of knowledge as a logical assets creates increasing return due to the network effect. The network effect results when two entities interact to produce the result that is greater than the sum. Knowledge sharing, wehn done in the way way, produces network effect, which in turn propels increasing return. This, coupling with the fact that knowledge is only used and not consumed (used up), explains why knowledge economy is an economy of abundance, not scarcity. From both individual and management's point of view, this is a great example of "is give is to get."

Some thoughts about knowledge economy

2007-01-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

Knowledge economy either denotes the economy of knowledge as products/services or knowledge-based economy. The latter refers to activities or processes directed by knowledge as strategic assets. Two most striking contrasts of knowledge economy with physical economy lie in (1) the difference between abundance and scarcity and (2) the phenomenon of increasing return. Ideas don't necessarily get used up. Instead, ideas can breed even more ideas. The dynamics of the idea economy is meta-scientific, beyond physics and chemistry.

Knowledge economy is driven by globalization, information/knowledge intensity, and ubiquitous connectivity. The first two constitute demand factors while the third driving force represents a supply factor with regard to knowledge production and use. Wherever there are supply and demand, there is a market. The knowledge market can be internal or external. The internal market of knowledge results in improved innovation, which in turn is reflected in the external market. The basic outcome of knowledge exercised in the external market is economic benefit.

When viewed from the knowledge perspective, business management and business operations can take on a very different, and often deeper, meaning. Just as with e-everything, there'd be k-everything. Call it knowledge literacy or knowledge sensitivity if you want.

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

2007-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

Data represent certain aspects of entities, logical and physical. Information adds relationship into the description. Knowledge links information and data to problems-solving, decision-making, and/or actions. Data is objective. Information is objective and subjective. Knowledge can be even more subjective in addition to being objective. Wisdom guides thinking and action toward problem-solving by adding perspective to the scenario. From data to information to knowledge and then to wisdom, the distinction can be depicted as one circle enclosed by another with feebback arrows pointing from any outside circle back to inner ones. The point is they are all related to each other, mutually reinforcing and mutually regulating. It's a double arrow-headed link bewteen cause and effect. This shouldn't be surprising because the main actors are human beings. Human beings can be extremely non-linear in their thinking and actions,

Knowledge Economy and Increasing Return

2007-01-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Inreasing return is driven by the virtuous cycle. Virtuous cycle is started somewhere sometime by somebody. What I have yet to determine is the source of this first "push". Is it internal? or external? How are they different? Perhaps it's either one, or both. Once a virtuous cycle gets started, it's vital to keep the steam going. Or better yet, create an accelerating force to turn addition into multiplication, linear growth to exponential explosion! What's the most important factor to jump-start the cycle and to keep the cycle? Leadership matters, for sure. What about middle managers? First-line people? Technology is probably not as significant as many people would like it to be. Technology is at best an equalizer, enabling small players to on the equal footing in competing with their larger counterparts. Wait a minute. What about innovative use of technology? That can be signigicant, especially when the technology is used to change the way people work, communicate and live.

Blogs can be a cool tool for keeping track of thoughts

2007-01-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

I did this last semester. This semester I am going to do it again. I will continue to experiment with blogging to help keep track of my wonderful thoughts about knowledge-based decision support. This is done partly out of trust in Google to manage their systems the way their are supposed to: privacy will be respected. Content will not get lost. Convenience and useful features are the real incentives, of course.

Recording and storing thoughts with help of great technology are a sure way to organize and accumulate ideas. This is actually practicing what you preach about management of tacit knowledge. Everything existing only in the head is tacit by its very nature. The content of the brain can not be seen in any reasonable way. To make the implicit explicit, you must describe it in some way. This is not always an easy task. It's especially hard in the beginning. But you get better and better with practice and experience.

Another obstacle is reluctance to open yourself up to the whole world. Actually this is mainly a matter of perception. Some online activities may be risky, but certainly not blogging. There is no private information to leak out. You have total control over what to disclose. It's alright to share your thoughts, understanding, or even your emotion with others. It's a good habit actually. Only those who are really interested in your content will take time to read it. No instrusion to worry about. No apology to make. In summary, the benefit well exceeds the cost.

Make this a good new habit to pick up for this year. Happy blogging to you all!