Future of Books is Social

I just stumbled across Book: A Futurist's Manifesto by O'Reilly Media readable completely on the web.  In What I Would Like in a Corporate Library, I talked about the library facilitating connections between people who share an interest in a book or topic. The way this book is published enables that, but most importantly there are a number of essays included that delve deeper into the idea.

What I think is important in social reading is to always give the reader the option of being social or easily "going dark."  Sometimes people just want a bit of privacy, whether because they are reading about a sensitive topic, or just for a bit of piece and quiet. 

The Dangers of Objectifying Collaboration

In a recent McKinsey Interview, Don Tapscott said: "Knowledge management has failed. We had this view that knowledge is a finite asset, it’s inside the boundaries of companies, and you manage it by containerizing it."

Well, not ALL knowledge management has failed - primarily those that focused on thinking of knowledge as an asset and over "engineered" efforts to manage it.

A recent Harvard Business School blog post titled Collaboration as an Intangible Asset written by Accenture's Robert J. Thomas references the very often spoken of challenge of measuring intangible assets, and positions collaboration as an intangible asset. Applying Tapscott's perspective, viewing collaboration as an asset will doom related initiatives to failure much like KM.

I think we have to stop thinking of social process as assets or objects that should be weighed and measured. Some of the outcomes can and should be be captured and managed as assets, as they are often re-useable results of good work, or evidence of business activity.

Let's spend more time trying to encourage, facilitate and remove cultural, structural, managerial barriers collaboration, knowledge sharing and learning, and less time trying to mange "assets," tangible or otherwise.

Great Resource List on Cognition

The Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology (OTRP), which develops and distributes teaching and advising materials and provides services to teachers of psychology at all levels on behalf of The Society for the Teaching of Psychology, has created a GREAT list of resources and videos on cognition - so important to learning and knowledge management.

Of note, two video clips by Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow, on the concepts of thinking "fast versus slow," and how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently.

You'll also find links to some great Ted talks by Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice, Diane Halpern on how our government is broken, and Kathryn Schulz on embracing our fallibility.

I'd have made it easy for you by putting in specific links to the above, but there are many more great resources on the page, so best to navigate directly there so you don't miss a thing.

 Happy viewing!

Time to "Get Back At It'

Thanks to a post on the SIKMLeaders forum, I just noticed that Stan Garfield kindly posted a link to this blog on his KM Blog list. Honored and humbled I am. Time to get back at it.  Stay tuned.