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Duz emale mak u stupit?
Last April, researchers at the University of London reported on a study of "Infomania" -- a term they coined to describe an
excessive dependency on email and text messaging. Eighty volunteers took place in clinical trials, and more than 1,000 people were interviewed. Six in ten felt they were addicted to checking email, to
the point that they read work-related messages at home and on vacation. Half said they responded immediately to emails, and one in five admitted they would interrupt face-to-face meetings to do so.
The researchers found that Infomania produces a temporary decline in IQ which is more than twice the four-point drop associated with smoking marijuana. People suffering from Infomania find it hard to
focus on the task at hand, because they're maintaining a permanent state of readiness to react to technological interruptions. The brain's overall effectiveness is reduced as it spends energy on the act
of juggling small, insignificant tasks. The study was commissioned by Hewlett Packard, and you can read about it at TimesOnline.
This isn't a breaking story any more, but it had very little coverage in the US. It might still be news to some of you, although probably not a surprise. If you
sometimes feel the pace of the wired world is making you progressively dumber, you may just be right!
Building Communities On-Line
There's something ironic about the two-edged nature of web technology. It opens the
possibility of unlimited networking, eliminating the conventional boundaries of time and space and identity. (Remember the old New Yorker cartoon?)
At the same time, it isolates us. It creates the appearance of a rich, multifaceted exchange, but in fact, it only delivers the kind of experience that
can be pumped down a thin strand of copper. It gets better all the time, but even broadband isn't all that broad. It's like the difference between eating a great meal and reading a restaurant review.
Still, a web-based community is better than no community at all. It can integrate content and communications in an engaging way. It can provide a way for members to contribute their own ideas. It can
strengthen relationships within a group, and thereby facilitate knowledge sharing. It can accommodate many different working styles, since members don't need to participate in real time. Many businesses
see this as a kind of Holy Grail, since having a true community of customers would be a terrific way to maintain brand loyalty. Philippa Gamse and Terry Grunwald have a nice checklist to help evaluate whether a community strategy makes sense in a particular environment, and for moving things forward when it does.
It will always be a lot easier to get an on-line community going if there's an opportunity for some face-to-face interaction as well. Maybe you'll never get all the members together, but perhaps
you can establish smaller, geographic chapters. Maybe there can be one big annual gala. David Gurteen is a UK-based Knowledge consultant who has a portal site, a free electronic newsletter, a paid print newsletter and a regular series of events. He's covering all the community bases, and in fact, is taking his show on the road. In July, he'll be there for the first Gurteen Knowledge Cafe in New York City. The details are still TBD, but you can bet we'll be there.
The Butcher Man
A few blocks from Knowledge Street World Headquarters there's an old German butcher, and it's the kind of
shop that seems to have been there forever. It has a well-trodden floor and a freezer under the windows and shelves for canned goods. Across the back wall, there are two refrigerated cases, separated by
a counter and an aging NCR cash register.
There's a lot of conversation in this shop, a lot of banter between the butchers and the clientele. It might be about meat and oven temperatures, but it's
just as likely to be about the game, or the garden, or the kids. There's a shared assumption that you're among friends in front of that counter, and you can tell some of those present have been friends a
long, long time. On a recent visit, the conversation had to do with the father of a 50-something customer. It seems his dad used to come in around the same time every month to buy casings for his own
sausages, and when he didn't show two months back, Marty the butcher knew something was wrong. It was a stroke, and the old man's sausage-making days seemed to be over. He could stand, and walk with
help, but it was hard for him to speak. And he'd lost the use of his hands.
So on this particular day, Marty was explaining his solution. "We found a young girl," he said "and she
wants to learn how to make sausage the old way. So you get your Dad down here, and we'll get him propped up on one of those stools in back, and he can teach her whatever he knows. All he has to do is
point and nod. She can be his hands."
Here in this little neighborhood shop, we have Knowledge Management in action. We have the prerequisite community, within which people feel safe enough
to share. We have the recognition that knowledge is both valuable and transient, and is something worth preserving. We have a creative solution to a intractable problem, with a third party brokering the
transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. And finally, we have a story, which works pretty well as a parable of KM.
In an earlier issue of Directions, we urged people to look at the world through Knowledge-colored glasses. When you do, you'll see KM everywhere.
Mark Your Calendars!
Given that K Street has a dual focus on KM and Communications, we couldn't let this issue out the door
without telling everyone that June is Effective Communications Month. Really!
Of course, while we think it's a great idea to promote effective communications, we're not sure about tying it to a
particular month. That might encourage the kind of one-off thinking that makes communications such a challenge in the first place. It's not something you can do, and then consider done. It's a thing you
have to be doing all the time. It's a process thing, not an event thing. In any case, we thought we'd mention a few other important dates this month. Some have already passed, but you still have time to
celebrate the others.
- June 02 - National Leave the Office Earlier Day (sorry we missed this one!)
- June 04 - National Dog Appreciation Day
- June 22 - Stupid Guy Thing Day
- June 27 - Please Take My Children to Work Day
Ever wonder where these come from? The definitive source is Chase's Calendar of Events, and any organization is free to suggest an event that deserves a
special day in its honor. You can even do it on line, but the deadline for the
2006 edition was April 15. Maybe in 2007, we should pitch an international Knowledge month? There are no rules of exclusivity, and we'd be willing to share. After all, June is also International
Accordion Awareness month...
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