KM Consulting

Knowledge sharing in 3D virtual meeting rooms

2009-12-16T00:16:00.000-08:00

Up until now I have been using videoconferencing tools on the desktop and laptop, like Skype and ooVoo, to communicate and collaborate with virtual team members. They are located in New York, Tokyo and Singapore. I still find these tools amazingly good.We are collaborating to write a manual, courseware, and a wiki of essential and highly desirable KM Methods and Tools for the Asian Productivity Organization.

Yesterday, Andy Burnett, a team member from KnowInnovation.com based in New York State and Cambridge UK, invited me to try a virtual meeting using Software-as-a-Service that combines collaboration with a Second Life type interface, from Teleplace.

It was awesome!! Immediately,I started thinking about how this could improve effective knowledge working, through its very rich environment.Even though it was meant to be a simple introduction and walk through tour, we started to look at and use project information, in new ways, handling more complexity more naturally.

Teleplace promotes this as a tool/service for collaboration in virtual meeting rooms. That it certainly is. It has an intuitive environment that, to quote teleplace "combines VOIP, Chat, Video, a robust Virtual Operations Command Centre, and can be deployed either behind a firewall or in the cloud."

In terms of effective knowledge management, at project, programme, team and organizational levels, I see much more.

For a start, knowledge working productivity could dramatically increase with faster and smarter decision making. And this should significantly accelerate knowledge transfer. And that is just the beginning, after a 30 minute introduction.

So, our global virtual team of 5 people, across Asia, USA and Europe, will take advantage of the 30 day evaluation period for our next virtual meeting, this Thursday 17th December.

I will share my learning's and experiences after that.

Ron Young

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Capturing and sharing the best new Knowledge Management learnings

2009-12-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start and publish a monthly 'Best New Learnings Digest' for me as a KM Consultant, and KM Practitioner for 2010.

As I work with my KM research and KM client engagements, I will capture the key new learnings in this blog, as they happen during the months. Naturally I will respect fully client confidentiality, but will distill all generally applicable learning principles. At the end of the month, I will send out and share this 'Best New Learnings Digest' as a free emailed newsletter, to all interested parties. It will link each new learning to the blog posts.

I will also summarize what are the most important new learnings for me.

I will then use this monthly digest to update my knowledge base on being an effective KM Consultant.

All feedback and further contributions will be most welcomed.

If you are interested in receiving this monthly free digest from January 2010, please go to the website and subscribe to the free newsletter.

Subscribe here

Ron Young

Knowledge Management for SME's - free ebook

2009-11-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

I am glad to let you know that a new free ebook has been published today called 'Knowledge Management for SME's. I am one of the co-authors and the book was a collaborative effort from KM practitioners in London, Tokyo, Singapore and Taiwan.

The book is published by the Asian Productivity Organization, in Tokyo, and they describe the book below.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Knowledge management (KM) has generated considerable interest over
the years. Numerous books and articles have been written on the subject,
and many conferences on KM have been convened.

In our attempt to understand how KM may enhance and promote productivity, the APO has also organized three international conferences and several study meetings, seminars, workshops, training courses, study missions, and research on KM practices in member countries. Through these endeavors, we noted that while KM is well entrenched and practiced among large organizations, this is not the case in the vast majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Our own research indicated that SMEs are far behind in terms of KM implementation in most member countries and that KM is either poorly understood or understood differently by SMEs. Our experience also suggests that while it is easy to talk about KM, it is not necessarily easy to practice it. This in a sense is compounded by the fact that there is no one “right” way to implement KM. Likewise, there exists very little literature on KM implementation at the SME level.

With a view to assisting SMEs in member countries in applying KM, the APO thus developed an APO KM Framework, as well as a practical and simple approach for implementing KM in SMEs. Knowledge Management: Facilitators’ Guide for utilizing the framework was published thereafter. This casebook is an accompaniment to the Facilitators’ Guide. It describes real-time experiences of SMEs that have successfully implemented KM to provide guidance and inspiration to SME owners and managers and stimulate them to follow these exemplary cases.

The free ebook may be downloaded here

Ron Young

More information at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Disaster Risk Management and effective Knowledge Management

2009-11-05T00:14:00.000-08:00

I have been engaged by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNISDR to assist them with more effective knowledge management.

As a first step, I am very keen to make contact with those KM practitioners and KM consultants who have experience in this area and/or who have a very strong interest.

The first step is to find out what work is being done already with KM and DRR.
Are there any communities of KM practitioners in this area?

If one doesn't already exist, I would like to create a forum/community of KM practitioners to help move forward faster with effective KM for disaster risk reduction.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Ron Young

More at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Knowledge Transfer through a free Global Videoconference on the internet

2009-09-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Its 2pm in Europe, 8pm in Singapore, 9pm in Tokyo and 8am in New York, the same day, 10th September 2009.

I fire up my ooVoo. I click and call the four team members and we all appear on the computer screen in high quality. It looks like the video links that you see everyday on the television news.

Because I can see everyone, it is a very similar feeling to all sitting around a meeting table.

We talk naturally most of the time.

For 50 minutes we work our way through an agenda that includes, as a main topic, an overview of a collaborative work space that we have just set up and all need to start using. As a team of knowledge management and innovation experts and practitioners, we are going to compile a manual and courseware with a list of essential and highly desirable KM Tools, Techniques and Technologies.We aim to complete the first draft by the end of this year.

I think that, for fast and cost effective knowledge transfer, videoconferencing like this must be top of the list for me, as an essential tool.

After the video conference on the internet, I got myself a cup of coffee and reflected for a few minutes. Just a couple of weeks ago we were all together, as a team for the first time, in Singapore. In just a few days, we got to know one another and we started to build relationships, trust and respect, and a sense of optimism in working together. Now, two weeks later, I feel like I have physically attended a further meeting with them all. We agreed to have our second meeting, and first learning review, in two weeks time.

Please follow this blog, labelled 'Planetary Knowledge' and watch this space if you wish to follow my experiences in attempting to develop effective virtual knowledge working.Your feedback is most welcome.

(from the book under development
Planetary Knowledge - effective knowledge working in a global knowledge economy)

Ron Young

PS I have absolutely no financial interest in the tools I will describe in this book. I simply wish to openly share my experiences of those that work well.

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Global videoconferencing using ooVoo

2009-09-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Today was my first experience of a 5 way
free video conference using ooVoo.

We were from New York, S.France, Singapore and
two from Tokyo.

The quality was excellent and, because we each had
4 other team members on our PC and Mac screens, it
was a true sense of being together. So much so that
the video/audio conferencing protocol I was used to,
to stop people butting in, or avoid long period of
silence, was simply not necessary, as we could all
naturally scan each other as if sitting around
a meeting table.

And if thats free video conferencing on the internet
today, totally acceptable, I certainly look forward
to the future developments too.

Ron Young

More information at

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Assessing and Developing the Global Knowledge Economy

2009-08-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

I am doing some further research into the growth of the Global
Knowledge Economy, for a paper I am presenting at the
International Conference on Knowledge Economy in Johannesburg,
South Africa in October 2009.

I base much of my primary assumptions on country growth and effectiveness, within the Global Knowledge Economy, on the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies' and also their book, Building Knowledge Economies: Advanced Strategies for Development.

I would be most grateful to receive any further links, suggestions and/or feedback
that you may have to help me develop an even richer understanding of the Global
Knowledge Economy.

Thanks

Ron Young

More at: www.knowledge-management-online.com

Knowledge Management for SME's in Jakarta - some learnings

2009-08-20T02:16:00.000-07:00

For the week 10th - 14th August 2009, I was one of three KM consultants / facilitators working with a group of participants from over 20 Asian countries for 5 intensive days of learning, knowledge sharing and practical workshops.

The event, organized by Asian Productivity Organization, APO focused on KM for SME's. My co-consultant/facilitators were Praba Nair, Director of Knowledge Drivers International (Asia) Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, and Naoki Ogiwara, Senior Consultant and "Ba Conductor" for Knowledge Dynamics Initiative, Fuji Xerox Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

There were many new learnings for me, but I thought I would share some of the key principles and learnings, focused on SME's.

1.Generally, the KM education and literature available does not focus enough
on SME's so I congratulate APO for this significant initiative.

2. SME's are likely to be very interested in joining 'Knowledge Clusters'
as a KM strategy.

3. SMEs are more interested in new knowledge creation and innovation,
as they better know 'who and what they know' than larger fragmented organizations

4. SMEs can more readily start 'personal KM and team KM' initiatives

5. SMEs can take much better advantage of the use of (often free) Web 2.0
tools and do not have the same usage problems as large organizations

6. The APO is publishing a book of eight case studies 'Knowledge Management for SME's' in the Autumn and I will provide the link through this blog and website when available (I was one of the team writing the book for APO)

7. I like “Knowledge is sticky – it will not move without a process". Most SMEs need to improve or implement better knowledge processes.

My favourite learning for the week in Jakarta from the opening speech from the DG for Manpower Transmigration for Indonesia was "Our goal is to move from unemployment and earning a wage, to gaining an income through knowledge".

My favourite paradox, when I teach KM is, 'Fun is serious business'. We learn so much more when we enjoy the learning process.

There was certainly much fun and learning by all over the five days.

The group of participants present in Jakarta, Indonesia, have taken the initiative, led by Viki, to 'practice what we have learned' and create a KM forum using the social network NING.com at KM-ONEWORLD.

Why not join us?

Ron Young

more at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Google Knol has an automatic audio facility !

2009-06-12T01:16:00.001-07:00

I normally check my Google Knol articles once a month.

Today, I noticed that Google have introduced an automatic
audio facility that speaks the article. So people can now
read the article or listen to it or download an mp3 file. Cool.

It's quite a strange feeling to hear an automated voice read
an article I have written.

My article 'Knowledge Management - back to basics' has taken
on a new form of life.

Ron Young

More at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Boiling frogs, or is the world restructuring around Knowledge

2009-04-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have been unable to blog this past few weeks, as I have been totally preoccupied with updating my KM 2009 seminar and workshop materials.

During the KM seminar update,I once again considered the annual report from the World Bank Institute 'Measuring Knowledge in the World's Economies'. The report considers, for each country, the application of knowledge, as manifested in entrepreneurship and innovation, research and development, and software and product design, as one of the key sources of growth in the global economy. It also states that many developing countries fail to tap the vast stock of global knowledge and apply it to their needs, but they can build their strengths and can capitalize on the knowledge revolution.

Countries such as Finland, Korea, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile and more recently, China and India illustrate the rapid progress that can be made.

Then I started thinking again, more deeply, about the way that work around the world is increasingly being organized far more around the knowledge, as an end in itself, and not just the product or service provided.

For example, General Motors do not employ people any more, directly, to manufacture a single car. They employ people to develop and apply GMs 'knowledge' about design, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, service etc. The manufacturing is outsourced and the profits are to be made in applying their knowledge. Shell International tell the same story. Once they said their core business was oil exploration, oil refining and distribution. Now they tell us that they have the best 'knowledge' of oil exploration, refining and distribution and are organizing themselves around the value that this knowledge provides. Airbus Industries have said that they can make more money licensing their knowledge on aerospace to China, for example, than actually building aircraft.

It didn't take long for Accounting Firms to realize the higher value and profitability in offering financial and management consulting services through effective knowledge management.

Banks are far more interested today in high value added knowledge financial services than making money to keep your money safe (that is - unscrupulous traders and dealing, and lack of applying knowledgeable regulatory best practice, aside).

It seems very clear, and very obvious to me that the world's major industries and institutions have all realized that there is more money to be made from restructuring around the highest knowledge available (the best recipe)and outsourcing the lower value core activities elsewhere.

I am so reminded of 'the boiling frog' syndrome that I learned twenty years ago from Professor Charles Handy, London Business School, and I guess that it is this that has compelled me to write this blog today.

Charles Handy taught me that it is a fact that you can put a frog in a saucepan of cold water and slowly heat it up. The frog will continually adapt to the increasing heat and, eventually, die in the pot of very hot water. On the other hand, if you first heat a pot of water to, say, less than the temperature that will kill the frog, and if you drop a frog in it, the frog will immediately leap out of the water.

We all seem to be boiling frogs around the world. For several years we have had the increasing climate change to boil in. We are boiling in world pollution and so on.

But my point today, is that we are experiencing an unprecedented and exponential increase in information and knowledge around the world, and we are restructuring our businesses and our institutions and our daily work more and more around knowledge. Furthermore, the World Wide Web is fundamentally and radically restructuring our businesses around higher knowledge and better ways to create and apply knowledge.

This major change in redesigning our work around knowledge, major growth, and major disruption, will undoubtedly bring massive new global opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, growth and profitability, on the one hand, and certain death to those businesses who sit as boiling frogs and do not see the change taking place.

Too many politicians are boiling frogs too, and are still talking about fixing things, back to the way they were, as opposed to recognizing the global restructuring around knowledge that is taking place day by day.

Let's not be boiling frogs but, instead, let's leap into this new paradigm of one highly interconnected global knowledge economy.

What do you think?

Ron Young

More at www.knowledge-management-online.com

KM in Defence and KM in Government

2009-04-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am running two three day KM events in Singapore in May 2009 as follows:

21 - 23 May KM in Defence
25 - 27 May KM in Government

For further details of these and other events go to the K2B website.

Ron Young

More information at
www.knowledge-management-online.com

Facebook Youtube & Myspace

2009-04-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

On my flight back from Delhi, India to London yesterday, I read 'The stories of facebook, Youtube and myspace - the people, the hype and the deals behind the giants of Web 2.0' by Sarah Lacy. Sarah is an award winning journalist and writer for Businessweek.com and lives in San Francisco.

I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for some great insights into the Web 2.0 workings of Silicon Valley. I read it non-stop.

Here are just a few snippets that inspired me, and maybe they will resonate with you too:

- we are now dealing with proven Internet business models, dramatically lower costs of doing business, and the now billion-person-strong Web audience.

- Blogging, Sharing videos. Sharing news clips. Sharing restaurant reviews. Sharing photos. Sharing friends. Every single one of these sites is about meeting people, staying in touch, or witnessing people's own personal quirky forms of self-expression.

- Eyeballs, then cash.

- to get Digg up and running. A thousand bucks went to a coder, who actually built it. Server space, rented online, was going to run him $99 a month. The domain set him back the most, $1,200. Ouch.

- But most important than entertainment, self-expression, or ego-boosting is the human need to connect...sites are frequently described as addictive.

- No other place has mastered and utilized community the way the world of open source software had.

- Both Linux and Mozilla succeeded because they made people feel they were a part of a movement, something bigger than themselves.

- By August 2003, Niklas sent some text messages to his friends telling them to check out Skype.com. They told their friends. That was the extent of their marketing. Within a month they had 1 million users.

- The Web would know you, and as a result what you would like

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

What Would Google Do? Global Knowledge!

2009-02-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

Although I have just reached page 82 only, of a 250 page book entitled What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis, I strongly recommend the book already.

I have already learned so much and it has given me many more new and very powerful insights into the New Economy.

Jeff Jarvis reverse engineers Google and shows how the internet challenges us all with amazing new opportunities based on abundance thinking, and at the same time, how it is destroying organizations who thrive on scarcity.

Free is a business model and it certainly made me think 'What business are you really in?'

I think this book is an absolute must read, for anybody who is serious about the global knowledge economy.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Not just knowledge management, but really achieving corporate objectives

2009-02-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

Several months ago, I had a meeting with an organization
who wanted to review their knowledge management progress
over the past 12 months.

They recalled that a first principle of good knowledge management
is to develop a strategic plan which links knowledge management
activities to the corporate objectives. Although they
had done this in the development of the km strategy, they
had not set up any effective ways to measure this and, in fact,
had forgotten to properly focus on this as a first principle.

In reality, they had become too immersed and too engrossed with
the notion, and within the boundaries, of the practice of knowledge
management.

The key question to ask ourselves is 'Are we in the business of helping
the organization better achieve, or even exceed, its corporate
objectives, through implementing effective knowledge management,
or are we in the business of effective knowledge management?

There is quite a difference in focus and implementation.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Knowledge Management and the power of a simple search

2009-01-31T02:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I amaze myself with simple things!

My website www.knowledge-management-online.com
is three years old and, this morning, I was reflecting on future
directions, topics and themes for knowledge management.

I have always had a simple Google search on the home page,
both to search the web, and to search within the website.

Because the website contains all the structured input, as well
as all the unstructured, or less structured blog content from
my KM consulting blog this past three years, and it contains
Directory details and comments from KM practitioners around
the world, I was simply amazed at the results I received from
several interesting internal searches of the website.

The searches gave me far far more information than I will ever
remember or recall. Even the content that I wrote myself!

How powerful, and yet, so simple. Or is it really that simple?

Think of all the advances that humanity has had to make to get
to the stage of offering us all simple searches on the World Wide
Web using a laptop computer, or even now, a simple search
using my iPhone!

I would call it simply marvellous.

Ron Young

More at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

New free KM ebook from Asia

2009-01-29T04:42:00.000-08:00

I was very pleased to hear from my good friend and work colleague, Dr. Serafin D. Talisayon, this morning.

He announced that The Asian Productivity Organization today released a new free KM e-book entitled “From Productivity to Innovation: Proceedings from the Second International Conference on Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management.” The conference was held in New Delhi, India last 12–14 February 2008. Dr. Serafin D. Talisayon of the Philippines served as the conference rapporteur and volume editor.

I started session 1 'Setting the Tone' with my paper 'Back to Basics: Strategies for Identifying, Creating, Storing, Sharing and Using Knowledge.

You can download the e-book for free by clicking HERE.

The book has 20 chapters, plus Q&A and technical sessions:
1: Back to Basics: Strategies for Identifying, Creating, Storing, Sharing and Using Knowledge (Ron Young)
2: Technology and Innovation for Knowledge Management (G. S. Krishnan, Arundhati Chattopadhyay and Avadh Yadav)
3: A Strategy for Library Networking in the Knowledge Economy (Dr. Prema Rajagopalan, Prof. M. S. Mathews and M. Kavitha)
4: Global Knowledge Management Trends (Dr. Rory Chase)
5: HAWK-i: Holistic Analysis for Working Knowledge and Implementation (Anne Chappuis, Luc de Golbéry, Paramita Sen, Nirbhay Sen and Sanjay Gupta)
6: Case Study: Knowledge Management in Wipro (Ved Prakash)
7: The Knowledge Economy Project: The Experience of IIT Roorkee (Prof. Harsha Sinvhal and Prof. Vinay K. Nangia)
8: Knowledge Management Framework: An APO Perspective (Praba Nair)
9: The Status of Knowledge Management in Asia: Results of an APO Survey of Nine Member Countries (Dr. Serafin D. Talisayon)
10: Critical Factors Constraining the Growth and Development of the Indian Economy: A Sectoral Study (Dr. Prema Rajagopalan, Prof. M. S. Mathews and M. Kavitha)
11: Knowledge Management in the Food and Nutrition Community in India: The UN’s New KM Initiative (Gopi N. Ghosh)
12: Participation of the International Management Institute in the Knowledge Economy Project (Prof. Ashoka Chandra and Prof. M. K. Khanijo)
13: Innovation and Knowledge Management: An Indic Play Ethic and a Global HR Model (Dr. Prem Saran)
14: Dimensions of Knowledge Management Projects and Leveraging Technology in Higher Educational Institutions (Dr. M. S. Rawat)
15: Service Quality in the Supply Chain: A Knowledge Gap Perspective (Gyan Prakash and Kripa Shanker)
16: The Intellectual Property System (N. N. Prasad)
17: Knowledge Management Systems in an Engineering Consultancy Organization (Sanjeev Kumar)
18: The Transformation of Innovation into Technology, Economy and Society (K. Kalaiselvan)
19: A New Infrastructure for Managing Knowledge in High-Value Outsourcing (Avinash Rao)
20: Knowledge Management for Competitive Advantage in the Steel Industry (Y. Bhaskara Rao and J. V. S. Sarma)

Ron Young

More at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

The Intersection of Ethics and Knowledge Management

2009-01-27T01:46:00.000-08:00

I am so pleased to see that the Southern California Knowledge
Management Forum have set a very powerful theme for this year's
conference.To my mind,'Ethics and Knowledge Management' are the
key issues before us, whether it's developing a KM strategy for
Human Rights, Extreme Poverty, or simply increasing the level of
trust within the organization.

Third Annual Meeting, August 5 - 6, 2009
Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

Conference Theme

The theme of this year's conference is "The Intersection of Ethics and Knowledge Management." The global business and economic landscape has seen many recent changes and firms are being faced with new challenges each day. But can all of the efforts to manage the knowledge of the firm be considered ethical and socially responsible? The conference seeks to explore the development and application of corporate knowledge practices and issues emerging in the knowledge economy from a social/ethical perspective. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Social, cultural and ethical impact of Web 2.0
Advancing privacy, security and trust in a knowledge-driven economy
Advancing globally responsible practices through knowledge management
Ownership, collaboration and digital rights management
Individual rights vs. Collective rights
Legal (and illegal) implications
Stewardship, mentoring and succession management
Multi-generational learning and knowledge-sharing
Return on investment and corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Establishing values-centered employees

For more information about the conference go to:

http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/newsevents/kmforum/

Ron Young

More at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

New Global Knowledge Order - New Rules?

2009-01-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

This morning our UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, talked from
Downing Street about the global financial crisis and suggested
a new global order with some new rules.

Although he was talking about the global financial economy,
in the main,I could not help but relate it to the global knowledge
economy.His words would not be amiss in a discussion about
global knowledge management.

He said we need a new way of thinking and governing.

He talked about the high interdependence and connectivity of
the world, and global flows.

He stated that we cannot bring about better global security control
with only national regulation. We need an open global economy and we
need a global coordinated response.

He proposed a new global order, with some new rules.

He proposed an 'early warning' system, or an early alerting system
to prevent systemic imbalances.

In discussing a global regulatory system, he talked of the
importance of establishing a common set of principles, best
practices and common standards across nations.

He stated the need for 'agreed transparency'.

I am not saying that I agree or disagree with his talk
and proposals, at this stage, but I did think to myself,
as he was speaking:

'I have seen and heard these same words, so many times,
in many KM blogs, KM articles and KM books, including my own.
But I do not like the thought of ,say, a new global knowledge
order,with its emerging new rules, working with global regulation?
I thought also, what risks do we take with sub-prime knowledge?'.

But, is there anything here, between money flows and
knowledge flows, that we can learn and use?

Ron Young

More at:
www.knowledge-management-online.com

Book - Knowledge Management for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

2009-01-09T01:48:00.001-08:00

I am working with a global km practitioner team to develop a book
on KM for small and medium sizes enterprises, to be completed by
April 2009.

In part of the book, we are researching and writing KM for sme
case studies, probably 8 - 10 good cases across industry sectors
and geography.

Please let me know if you are interested in our developing a
case study for your organization, or if you know of a good sme
implementation to nominate.

We would probably define an sme as an organization with less
than 200 employees and / or sales turnover of less than
US$ 10 million pa.

We intend to finalise the list of case study companies by the
end of January 2009.

Please, also, let me know if you are interested in receiving
details of the book/ebook when published.

You can contact me directly at: ronyoung@young-int.com

Ron Young

More at:www.knowledge-management-online.com

Book - Personal knowledge management in a global knowledge economy

2009-01-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

I have set my New Year goal to finish my latest book which has the working title "Personal knowledge management in a global knowledge economy". It should be ready as an ebook within the first quarter of 2009.

Naturally, I would be so grateful for any interest shown or feedback given, so I enclose a description of the book, as at today, as a soft pre-release.

I do hope to get your feedback and interest, or email me directly ronyoung@young-int.com.

Happy New Year

Ron Young

Planetary knowledge with personal knowledge management.

This book is written to change lives and organizations around the world. It provides substantial opportunity in a rapidly emerging global knowledge economy, despite global recession in traditional economies. We are at the dawn of a revolutionary era where the means of production is not with the capitalists who own the land, buildings, plant and machinery etc, but with the individual, wherever he or she may live. We are entering the era of the individual knowledge capitalist, who owns the means to knowledge production! This book describes in simple steps the means to effective knowledge working.

It is a book that contains one of the most critical and essential life skills for the 21st Century – how to become an effective knowledge worker - in a rapidly growing global knowledge economy. It is for those who wish to become Web citizens.

The book is inspired by the Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, who said

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That is our commitment“

This book shows you how to much better develop your ability to create, capture, store, share, apply and sell your knowledge by applying the best personal knowledge management disciplines, process, methods and tools. It provides you with a very fast, convenient solution, immediately downloadable, and it has been written by one of the thought leaders in global knowledge management today.

It is a book where you will learn how to:

* Create personal income and wealth in a rapidly growing knowledge economy

* How to develop a perfect business with no financial capital and turn your personal knowledge into digital income.

* How to avoid stress and ‘information overload’ and save time and effort, by organising and accessing your information and knowledge effectively in a personal goal and results focused way

* How to develop valuable sought after knowledge working skills and competencies

* How to save time and money by less ‘reinventing of the wheel’ and ‘repeating the same mistakes’

* How to use your brain more effectively to provide you with the events, circumstances and opportunities you need to succeed in a knowledge economy

* How to successfully participate in global knowledge community web services

* How to develop a knowledge based livelihood that significantly contributes to a more sustainable and ecologically friendly planet

For the past fifteen years, Ron Young has been giving presentations, running seminars, workshops and conferences all over the word in knowledge management. He was also inspired to write this book following his introductory quote from the late Professor Peter Drucker who said

“The greatest contribution that management has made in the 20th Century was to increase the productivity of manual working fifty fold. The greatest contribution that needs to be made in the 21st Century is to similarly increase the productivity of knowledge working fifty fold”.

This book aims to dramatically increase personal knowledge working skills, competencies, productivity and income.

Whether you are working in a large organization in a developed economy that could benefit from your increased knowledge working skills, or an individual in an under-developed nation that wishes to fully participate in a global knowledge economy, this book will most certainly change your life.

The book has been written as a result of Ron Young personally ‘practising what he preaches’.

1. A day in the life of a global knowledge worker
2. Trust the system and start using the knowledge tools today
3. The practical personal daily knowledge management process
4. The principles of personal knowledge management
5. The global knowledge community
6. The global knowledge web services

Copyright Ronald Young 2009 - All Rights Reserved

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Capital, Knowledge and Transparency

2008-12-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

This resonated with me:

McGraw-Hill aligns with three enduring global needs:

• the need for Capital
• the need for Knowledge
• the need for Transparency

These are the foundations necessary to foster economic growth and to allow individuals, markets and societies to reach their full potential.

Cool - Ron Young

More at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Learning and Knowledge creation is Super

2008-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

I am certainly glad to be back blogging my KM Consulting learnings and experiences after a few very hectic months of writing a series of KM articles, which you can read as Google Knols and, also, writing several KM reports and recommendations for clients with pretty tough year-end deadlines. But life is now back in balance for a while.

I hope to soon share some incredible new learnings and experiences that I have had, and some of which I believe will literally turn the KM world upside down, and, I am glad to say, for the better. Just as an interesting aside, I had a fun experience whilst travelling to a client last week.

Whilst travelling from New Delhi to Ghaziabad in a car, I noticed a large billboard on the main road. It was advertising a forthcoming spiritual event promoting the peak of well being, and there was a great quote I wanted to capture and share.

"It's not about becoming Super Human

Its about realizing that being Human is Super"

Sadhguru

Not only do I like this quote, but it inspired me to spontaneously think

"Its not about becoming a Super learning and knowledge creating organisation
but its about realising that learning and knowledge creation is Super"

Enjoy

Ron Young

more at www.knowledge-management-online.com

Knowledge and wisdom are my passion and my work

2008-08-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

Today I have created my third Knol article on Google entitled ' Knowledge and wisdom are my passion and my work'.

Throughout my life, I have always been extremely passionate about knowledge and wisdom

At one end of the spectrum, I am extremely passionate about knowledge management for individuals, teams, organizations and global communities and networks. It became my profession, as a knowledge management consultant, since 1995.

At the other extreme, I am passionate about what you might call 'higher knowledge', philosophy, especially moral and spiritual philosophy and/or ethics. I am passionate about both the ancient wisdom, especially eastern philosophy and modern scientific knowledge, whether it be about quantum theory, neuroscience, nanotechnology or even molecular biology and molecular computing.

If you are interested in my thoughts and my work with knowledge and wisdom, whether it is about practical daily issues and challenges of knowledge management, or whether it is about my perspective and experiences about the meaning and purpose of life, or both, you can find my books, articles and blogs listed.

As always, I would highly value your comments, feedback and any reviews, so that I may continually improve this Knol.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Updating the Future of Knowledge Management - a second Knol

2008-08-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today I have created my second Knol article on Google entitled ' Updating The Future of Knowledge Management'.

In 1999 I published an article entitled 'Future of Knowledge Management' in the European American Business Journal. Today, 9 years later in August 2008, I decided to review and rewrite this article.

Where is Knowledge Management (KM) going in the next ten years? What did I get right in 1999? What did I get wrong and what have I learned from this? What are the challenges for knowledge driven organizations if they are to thrive in the global knowledge economy in the next 10 years?

I find it exciting to write about the future of knowledge management in 2008 on a Knol, as I fully embrace the Knol as a great addition to the knowledge management toolkit.

As always, I would highly value your comments, feedback and any reviews, so that I may continually improve this Knol.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com

Leading Knowledge Management and Communications at Hewlett-Packard, India

2008-08-05T07:47:00.001-07:00

Sameer Agarwal from India has made and entry in the KM Global Directory.

Sameer works with Hewlett-Packard - Decision Support and Analytics (DSAS) and serves as the leader for Knowledge Management and Communications. At HP, he has been responsible for setting up an integrated KM, information and communications program based on contextual KM techniques.

He spent close to 4 years at A.T. Kearney learning the various nuances of Knowledge Management – from technology to strategy to operations. Post this, Sameer moved to Genpact where he led the corporate knowledge management initiative at a global level.

Sameer can be tracked on his blog at www.sameeragarwal.com/blog

If you are interested, you can read more in the Directory and communicate with Sameer directly.

Ron Young

More information at:

www.knowledge-management-online.com