Social Technographics Profile

As I was reading through the book, Groundswell, I have been thinking a good bit about my social technographics profile. This blog is not the first one that I have had, but I haven't updated one regularly in a while. I am a member of quite a few social sites, where I generally do not post new information, but rather comment on other people's content. This leans me towards the profiles of a Joiner and Critic. According to the book, this puts me within 45% and 59% of the rest of the 18-27 male population. Overall, the book has made some interesting evaluations involving the online profiles. I would assess the idea that people desire to connect, to create, to stay in touch, and to help each other as universal emotions that drive people to the groundswell as accurate. It is also interesting to see the different cultures' relative participation in the groundswell. This new idea of reaching the consumer from the groundswell is revolutionary, but is profound in that it connects them to the product at a whole new level.

Hulu

Hulu is a web-based movie database, where consumers can simply browse and play video content (even in HD!). This service is free and commercials help offset any cost to the consumer. Unlike Youtube, consumers cannot add video content, but content is uploaded from major TV networks. I do not know if the intend to charge for this service, but it is similar to netflix's "instant" movie services (which cost about $10 a month. I know many individuals that do not have TV service, but rather use Hulu to watch whatever they would like, on demand. Enjoy this short SNL clip about consumer spending, and apply the knowledge you gain to your life!

Purchasing a Home

This month I have really been considering purchasing my first home. I have rented either an apartment or house for my entire life, and the current stimulus bill offers me $8,000 in tax savings towards this purchase if I have a signed contract before April 30th. Based on my research, I would also have to close on the house by June 30th.

I have found that there are many different things to consider when buying your first home. Some of the essential considerations are the mortgage and payments, property tax, insurance, PMI (if applicable), interest and principle portions, crime rates, proximity to the interstates, school districts, the pricing of the house itself, and working with banks and realtors. This is very intimidating! I do not know how I would be able to manage all this without all of the valuable knowledge and wisdom I have gained in my classes. I feel like most people that make these decisions, do it without fully understanding all of the data that is put in front of them. It is absolutely necessary to have knowledge in order to create information from data. This is the application of knowledge management to my life!

Digg

I have used Digg on a number of occasions, and without fail, it has always provided interesting news stories, blogs, or just about anything on the web. It is a powerful networking device that pulls pieces of the internet together, allowing users to rate their interest level and the importance of the article. This type of tool is elementary in concept, but vastly useful.

People, empowered by technology, have the ability to accomplish seemingly nearly anything. Digg is on the front of the "empowerment" line, allowing people to connect and form community within the scope of the entire internet. This is big stuff!


You can check it out by navigating to www.digg.com

The Golden Arches

I respect McDonald's. They took a lot of heat in the last decade about being unhealthy and not meeting the needs of the consumers' diets. They have adapted their entire business and stores to meet that need. This is mostly a result of the openness to change in the CEO's leadership. This has made the corporation fast to adapt to the market's criticism. Cantalupo's distinct leadership giving the company a competitive advantage, even when faced with changing management.

In a business that is a global leader in the food industry, it is important for McDonald's to adapt quickly to meet the needs of different cultures in a speedy manner. Even ketchup tastes different in different cultures! With these types of worldwide differences, McDonald's needs to have an open and diverse workforce or community.

The Power of Blogging

Today I read a large portion of the book, Enterprise 2.0. One of the excerpts in the section I will be responsible for presenting discusses the potential for these ESSPs to stop terrorism attacks like what happened on 9/11. I do agree with the author about the strength in blogging and sharing knowledge, but I am skeptical about whether this could actually increase the predictability of future terrorist attacks. In my opinion, this claim seemed like an exaggeration.

I also saw very little distinction between converting potential ties and interactions between strangers. Though it is a very valid and useful point, it seems as though it is the same point said in two different ways.

On a side note, I am very curious of how I did on the exam last week. I hope I did good enough to get an A!

Financial Peace

I've spent the past few days making a budget (aside from being sick!). I have been going through a study with my college bible study based on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. That man is so incredibly wise when it comes to financial decisions! In the book, The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Financial Fitness, he explains the different types of accounts you need in a monthly budget as well as his 5 baby steps to lasting wealth.

Let me be the first to tell you, if you make it to the 5th step you are both very wealthy and very wise. His writing and speaking ability makes the book and video series easy to comprehend and easy to use. This level of communication is what organizations strive for. The skill set that he possesses has allowed him to share his gift with millions and millions of individuals all across America--in a very useful way. Thanks, Dave!

Enterprise 2.0

I have finally made some headway into the chapters my group will be presenting for Saturday from the Enterprise 2.0 book. The executive summary of these two chapters would be...

Chapter 3 takes a step back in time, and describes how the new collaborative technologies and communities on the internet appeared, and also that they were radical departures of previous communities, not just incremental improvements.

Chapter 4 discusses how each of the organizations adopted new technologies and collaborative practices and benefited greatly. It also places the case studies within a broader framework that illustrates the value of Enterprise 2.0 for four different categories of user:

1. Strongly tied colleagues,

2. Weakly tied colleagues,

3. Potential collaborators who are not yet working together,

4. And professional strangers.

I am curious to get into the later chapters of this book. I know that these types of internet services have impacted and changed daily living for most people and businesses. I am just curious to see if the author will expound further than my understanding. I hope so.

Increasing Returns of Scale and the Internet

The internet and it's resources are becoming more and more useful. Both organizations and individual users find a need to be online. As more users begin to upload content to the internet (via youtube, facebook, wikipedia, etc) the internet becomes increasingly more useful to other users. Although this is true, as illustrated by the above comic, there is not very much accountability on the internet.

For businesses, it is essential to have some sort of founding site where consumers can find information, and marketing on social sites is probably efficient. Today I was browsing apartments in Nashville online. I was using google maps to read reviews, compare opinions, and find relative prices. An apartment complex that has established a good online community where I can read reviews, view floor plans, and get information quickly has a much higher chance of getting on my list than one that simply has a phone number to call.

Knowledge and Action

One of the topics that came up on Saturdays lecture was the idea that knowledge and wisdom do not in themselves create value. In fact, if knowledge and wisdom are not externalized, no value can be created. Value is added when this tacit knowledge influences the actions of individuals and they way they do things.

This idea is biblical. James 1:22-25 says:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

As you read scripture, it is important to not simply internalize the knowledge attained, but rather to apply it to your life. This will bring value to your life. The bible refers to this value as God's blessing.

This is the most prevalent message I could deliver to you from God. The freedom that comes from living your life to the standard of God is a liberation from the evil that reigns on this earth through the blood of Christ. Ask for it in faith, and it will be given to you.

Knowledge Assets in the Music Industry

If you would have asked me a few years ago what my dream job would be, I more than likely would have told you that I would like to be a producer in the music industry. A producer is someone who goes to the studio with artists and musicians, sets up all of the recording equipment to get the desired sound, and tweaks all of the hardware and software in order to create hit songs. Let me tell you, there is a plethora of techniques for setup, hardware, software, and controls that impact each little nuance in a song.

This type of know-how asset is very tacit in nature, and will not flow easily from one individual to another. Even if someone is mentored by a highly skilled producer, this type of knowledge asset will not easily transfer. You may understand what they are doing, but understanding when and why they do each minor adjustment requires a certain "gift"--you must have an ear trained to understand every little piece of a song. Every fabric sewn into a song then becomes evident as you hear it.


The complex process and assembly of music makes this type of knowledge asset low in supply and high in demand. Organizations with the top producers will have the hit songs, many times regardless of the artists' abilities.

Apple

Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the market today. They are continually searching for methods to stretch market demand into new areas, and lead the market in several areas (mp3 players, personal computing, etc). The key to the success of an organization like Apple lies in knowledge management. In order for the creativity in different departments to flow through other departments, creating synergy. About a week ago they released the Ipad, which I emphasizes their innovation and marketing.


Apple always tries to develop simplicity in their products. Watching the video on the Ipad, I believe this is exactly what they have created. Looking into the future, I also believe this will be a part of knowledge management and networking. As users begin to adopt the Ipad, they will have more continual access to the internet, their library of books, and a means to communicate with their networks involving all of the information that is literally "at their fingertips."

Wisdom and Understanding

Every morning, I spend time reading the bible and dwelling on topics it discusses. In this way, I expand my knowledge, understanding, and wisdom daily. The bible is the only solid standing truth that we have on this earth--everything else is devised by man, who is just as unwise as I am. Because the bible is from God, we can trust it to be all-knowledgeable and all-wise.

Proverbs directly deals with the acquisition of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (very similar to knowledge management!). According to Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." I believe when we humble ourselves and allow God speak to us, we are able to expand in knowledge and wisdom. Most of the time growing up, I have found that I am wrong. The ability to accept God's discipline, and consequently his wisdom over my own, is a technique that I have had to develop over time. I still work on it daily. It strengthens me and makes my way absolutely perfect. That is how the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge in my life.

Social V.S. Collaborative

Interestingly enough, both of these words mean essentially the same thing.

Social

1.	pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations:

2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.

Collaborative

1. To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.

2. To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one's country.

The core of either word rests in working together, and emphasizes the importance of relationships. Although this is true, the connotation to either word in the business world are opposite in nature. Social has the connotation of wasting time, non-work-related activities, or even productivity-draining, while collaborative on the other hand, is regarded as clutch for successful knowledge management initiatives. This is pointed out in the introduction of Enterprise 2.0. The emphasis of collaboration and community occurs time and time again throughout the articles we have read on knowledge management. Perhaps we should be reconsidering the connotation of these words as similar, rather than distant.

Mystery and Technology

Today I began reading Enterprise 2.0, and I found some fascinating ideas throughout the introduction. The author began the book with a brief survey and discussion of new technology like Facebook, Google, Oracle, Apple, RIM, Blackberries, iPhones, Java, and even Wikis. As he began discussing the growth of some of these areas, I realized how familiar I am with some of these interfaces. Interestingly enough, as familiar as I feel like I am, I really have no idea how these types of things work.

Innovation at companies like Google, Apple, and RIM must be consistently well-beyond what I consider "familiar." Take a few seconds and consider Google. The people (mostly everyone) that use google searches are diverse, and all have separate things that they are looking for, yet when they perform a google search they are all able to find exactly what they need. The google algorithm must be something incredible, because it is able to meet the needs of almost every internet user, within the few seconds it takes to load a page of results.

Question 7

Compare Hallmark Cards' knowledge management strategy with Brighham & Women Hospital's. Discuss their similarities and differences. Also discuss why the differences.

Hallmark Cards' knowledge management strategy is very different than the knowledge management that took place at Brigham & Women Hospital. Hallmark deployed a strategy that helped them connect with their customers. Their purpose and focus was primarily in the innovation of new ideas, while the hospital's purpose and focus was a more of a tool to empower doctors with the knowledge they need to stay "on top of their game." While both of these systems placed extended emphasis on technology, the communities created at Hallmark seemed to be more people oriented than that at the hospital. I feel like this is true, because of the relationships formed between contributors of those communities. In both examples, the knowledge initiatives created opportunities and advantages within that company.

On the other hand, both companies' knowledge management initiatives had a focus on communication between diverse groups and effective transfer of knowledge as a resource. These companies both had to overcome obstacles in order to bring their prospective groups together.

Question 6

(6.1) What is organizational culture (OC)? the value perspective? the behavioral perspective? Are these two perspectives related to each other in any way?

Organizational culture is a significant knowledge resource through its ability to facilitate the creation, storage, transfer, and use of knowledge. The values perspective of culture consists of four sub-types - involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. It also examines the relationships of these types and organizational effectiveness. The behavioral perspective focuses on culture as defined by actual work practices. The behavioral perspective distinguish the sub-cultures of organizations better than that of the value systems. The value perspective seems to be more tacit-based, while the behavioral can be more readily observed. They are similar in the fact that both are part of organizational culture, and influence the knowledge initiatives of a company.

(6.2) How does OC influence knowledge creation?

Knowledge is created, shared, and amplified through social and collaborative processes. These processes are strongly embedded within an organizations culture. Knowledge creation is not a formal process, it is a socially constructed process that occurs over time through informal human networks. The author of this article suggests that cultures with a high degree of change and flexibility will have a positive effect on knowledge creation.

(6.3) How does OC influence knowledge transfer?

Knowledge transfer is based in knowledge sharing and knowledge acceptance. One of the elements of a culture is it's openness or closedness. An open culture will cause employees to feel at home almost immediately. Cultures will tend to transfer knowledge more efficiently where there is an open culture. The two other elements of OC that will cause more efficient knowledge transfer are a parochial system (rather than professional) and an employee-oriented culture (rather than task oriented).

(6.4) In your opinion, how can knowledge management initiatives impact OC?

According to this article, there are a number of ways that knowledge management initiatives can impact OC. Examples include the "Buckman Code of Ethics" and the metaphor of a waterline. In my opinion, it is very difficult to create a KM initiative that can fully create or properly adjust OC. Culture can be impacted by these KM initiatives, but the amount of community acceptance of the proposed "culture" is not estimable. People may reject the proposed initiative.

Question 5

Does the framework presented in the collaborative advantage article suggest anything useful for the Hallmark Cards' knowledge community? Explain your answer.

The collaborative advantage article shared many of the same topical areas as the Hallmark Cards' knowledge community article, with a different focus of application. With Hallmark, their primary example of effective community is the relationship that they established with their customers, and the way that they were able to connect with the end-user of their product. The MIT article seems to discuss the value and means of collaboration with the focus on inter-unit collaboration. Regardless of these differences, I feel like the concepts in the MIT article could be useful within the scope of Hallmark's knowledge community.

The value of this collaboration is seen in cost savings through the transfer of best practices, better decision making as a result of subsidiary advice, increased revenue through shared expertise and products, innovation through the cross-pollination of ideas, and enhanced capacity for collective action and company swiftness. These are all values that Hallmark would surely embrace. The concept of barrier removal within the company is the focus of the MIT article. Hallmark could apply this concept in their communities by making expertise available and fostering their communities to encourage members to work together and share knowledge.

Question 4

The knowledge community of Hallmark Cards is initiated by the company and membership is by invitation. Would this "top-down" approach to the community development cause any problem in achieving its effectiveness? Discuss.

Communities as defined by Hallmark are knowledge groups devoted to growing the business by sharing innovative ideas and building on the ideas of others. I do not believe a "top-down" approach to community development would be effective based on the fact that the entire community relies on the informal structure and dynamic membership created by voluntary participation. In work groups, people are motivated to participate because it is their objective, but in a knowledge community, people are motivated by their own internalized sense of purpose and rewards. If a company were to create a community with the top-down approach, I believe this would not be an effective "community" at all, but rather a work group created for a specific purpose. Even if the purpose was some sort of knowledge initiative, the overall effectiveness of the "community" would be minimal.

Question 3

Use an example to discuss the importance of active participation in a community of practice (CoP). Discuss the pros and cons of online CoP vs. offline (traditional) CoP.

Efficient communities of practice have the potential to encourage knowledge sharing, learning, and change. This will improve a companies performance and competitiveness. Active participation in a CoP is needed in order for it to fulfill it's purpose of promoting learning, solving problems, or developing new ideas. The value that derives from a CoP hinges upon the input of knowledgeable, active, and committed members. Some CoP's will meet more regularly, while others may only interact on occasion. For example, if you view our class as a community of practice, it is important that each student participate in community as a whole. The more each student participates and contributes, the more value is created within the classroom community. If nobody were to write blogs, comment on blogs, or discuss our topics today, the entire class would not benefit or grow (not to mention fail!).

An online CoP has the benefit of uniting individuals across a much larger scale than a traditional CoP. This promotes collaboration across all divisions in a company, and helps the entity be quick-moving and focused in growth. This will also grow individual "spheres of influence" beyond what a traditional CoP is capable of. Online and offline CoPs will also have different needs and support activities. Specifically in the areas of management, technical infrastructure, and culture.

Communities of Practice

The article, Creating and Facilitating Communities of Practice, focuses on the unstructured organizational form that have been emerging in organizations called communities of practice (CoPs). According to the article, these CoPs have the ability to create competitive advantage through knowledge sharing, learning, and change, but have one central weakness. Management cannot control the focus or content of CoPs.

This makes CoPs a double edge sword. It can boost your organization's performance and efficiency, but also can lose focus. This seems to question the importance of management within knowledge organizations. In my opinion, it is not a matter of lack of manageability--the issue at hand is the lack of knowledge involving how to manage these communities. My hypothesis is that effective management of communities of practice should be based in leadership, rather than in management. A manager tends to demand control and performance, while a leader can influence people in a positive way in order to generate the same performance. Organizational leadership is a skill that needs to be developed in order to promote CoPs, which in turn promotes effective knowledge management.

Culture

Most organizations view culture as an underlying set of values that determines how firms perceive and react to their environments. Under this perspective, culture cannot be measured or controlled. The article, Organizational Culture as a Knowledge Resource, offers an alternative perspective of culture, diverging from the element of control involving culture. Culture can be effectively managed if viewed as a competitive resource. Cultivated knowledge culture can create competitive advantage in knowledge creation, storage, transfer, and application.

The part of this article that I found most interesting was the specific criteria that they used to describe cultures. The trade off between stability and control versus flexibility and change. Different cultures will excel in different criteria, and thus create competitive advantage in knowledge creation, storage, transfer, or application. The article also offers a number of unconfirmed hypothesis about the impact of organizational culture and the competitive advantage created.

Collaboration

Collaborative advantage is the new competitive advantage for industries that are already established. Economies of scale in these veteran industries fail to create a competitive advantage, while collaboration will help a company leverage their dispersed resources and capabilities in each subsidiary or division--even globally. The article, How to Build Collaborative Advantage, discusses this phenomenon. Some of the advantages a company will experience are a cost savings, better decision making, increased revenue, innovation through cross-pollination of ideas, and collective action potential.

A large part of the article discusses the barriers that must be removed to achieve interunit collaboration. These are unwillingness to seek input and learn from others, inability to seek and find expertise, unwillingness to help, and inability to work together and transfer knowledge. Most of these issues involve the networks and community established at the organizational level. By focusing on furthering such topics, companies will achieve competitive advantage.

Community of Believers

The concept of sharing knowledge to create value is also one that is clearly visible in a christian community. According to Brailsford, many things need to "move" in order to create value. Electrons must move to generate electricity, money most be moved to have value, and knowledge must be moved so it can become useful knowledge. In a community of Christ followers, the more efficiently knowledge is transferred within it's members, the more effective the entire church becomes.

The steps needed in order to create that element of transfer within the community of believers are also similar to those described in Hallmark's communities. The removal of boundaries is the first step mentioned. I would suggest that in our culture, people create barriers around things that they consider personal (religion, politics, or even music), in order to gain an feeling of protection. This type of isolated perspective is one of the central barriers that must be removed in order for the church community to create effective encouragement at the individual level.

Community

Yesterday I read through the article, Bulding a Knowledge Community at Hallmark Cards, and I found some interesting assertions about community. The primary characteristic that I noted is that a community is generally composed of volunteers, rather than mandatory assigned participants. I attended church yesterday, and as I looked at those that were around me, it became clear that they were all there by their own choice. The church is a perfect example of a knowledge community devoted to growing, innovation, and sharing knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I also observed the dynamic membership within the church community. As described at Hallmark, there is 10-20% of those that are willing to commit to serve additional time beyond Sunday to uphold other duties. The rest of the people I observed would be "lurkers" and "non-contributors." In the case of the church, a non-contributor would be a guest or irregular attender.

An Effective Social Ecology

The article, Knowledge Management's Social Dimension: Lessions From Nucor Steel, focuses primarily on the effectiveness of the social ecology at Nucor Steel Corp. In order for an organization to become an efficient knowledge base, they will need to understand the premise of what defines a social ecology.

1. Drives an organization's formal and informal expectations of individuals
2. Defines the types of people who will fit into an organization
3. Shapes individuals' freedom to pursue actions without prior approval
4. Affects how people interact with others in and out of the organization

Nucor gained access to superior human capital through the location of their plants, while offering lofty compensation to select the best workers. Through shared incentives, they were able to boost productivity, share knowledge interplant and intraplant, and increase acceptance of new practices across the company. The social ecology at Nucor turned the company into a knowledge powerhouse, creating a competitive advantage and increase profits for 30 years in the shrinking steel industry.

Importance of Knowledge Management

The necessity of knowledge management can be debated in each field. In some cases, the cost of creating efficient knowledge networks may exceed the benefit. Based on the article, Just-in-Time Delivery Comes to Knowledge Management, it is very clear that the medical field has a dire, specific need for efficient knowledge management systems.

According to the article, an average physician needs to know 10,000 different diseases, 3,000 medications, 1,100 laboratory tests, and over 400,000 articles each year to the biomedical literature. That is a significant amount of information! Decisions that these physicians make, in some instances, can be life or death. Placing a high value on the life of a human being, it is my opinion that an effective knowledge management system is needed, regardless of the costs incurred. The hope in this type of system would be the reduction of human error, and a overall better medical field.

Nucor Steel

The article, Knowledge Management's Social Dimension: Lessons From Nucor Steel, revealed many ways an organization can build an effective social ecology. The importance in of the social ecology in any organization involves the accumulating and mobilizing of knowledge. This is the essence of knowledge management.

Prior to this article, the only true example I had imagined in order to make a knowledge-based organization was a efficient information technology (IT) system. In reading about Nucor Steel, it has become clear that efficient IT is only one part of an effective social ecology. Some of the other parts are the knowledge acquisition and retention, as well as knowledge identification, outflow, transmission, and inflow. In the case of Nucor Steel, this was best seen in their group-based incentives. These incentives pushed the employees to do exactly what the company wanted: expand, accumulate, and mobilize knowledge to gain a competitive advantage.

Second Step

Today I ordered the two books required for my Knowledge Management course. They should provide further enrichment to both my knowledge and the content of this blog.

I also finished reading through the suggestions in the Does Accounting Account for Knowledge article. Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard and Skandia navigator both involved strategic, focus areas that a company would report to the investors (i.e. financial, customers, processes, learning and growth, etc). I believe this type of supplementary information could be useful, but it would require some of the elements that the value chain scorecard discussed. Investors would desire something quantitative, while auditors would require standardization and confirmation through empirical evidence. In my opinion, the best model would be a combination of Kaplan's balanced scorecard and the value chain scorecard.

I am still skeptical as to whether you could measure non-physical assets such as knowledge in a quantitative and standardized way. I would need further detail on this process.

A Thought on Accounting

The article, Does Accounting Account for Knowledge, poses thought-provoking questions about the future of accounting and current accounting inefficiency. The major issue at hand seems to be our knowledge (i.e. non-physical) based economy coupled with the current accounting system for measuring physical capital. I have never considered this issue in the past, but while reading this article, the problem seemed obvious.

The article concludes with a discussion of six alternatives to better account for non-physical future economic benefits. I hope to look further into these alternatives later, but my impression of the first two were an entire reworking of our current conceptual framework with an estimate-based earnings realization model. This includes redefinition of assets, liabilities, and equities, which are the part of the core for all current accounting. The real issue that I had with both of these solutions (TVC and AFTF) are that they simply have management estimate profits and expenses for projects in advance. This could be problematic when management has been proven to serve their own agenda and earn benefits based on their high estimates.