brentashley

I really put a lot of effort into being reliable – meeting expectations, following up on promises, arriving on time at appointments. I put even more effort into recovering from the inevitable circumstances that get in the way of being reliable – phoning to warn that I may be late, delivering that little bit more to balance compromises that had to be made, emailing to apologize or explain lateness or inability to attend. I’m ALWAYS thinking about the other person’s perspective.

Dunno why, but in return, I’m always the guy arriving 5 minutes early but still pacing and looking at his watch a half hour after the appointed time. The guy sitting waiting for the promised phone call that never comes, as neither does the call or email explaining the missed appointment. The guy who just lets it slide and moves on when the other person strolls in an hour late with nary an apology for having wasted my time.

I’ve been a “pleaser” for much of my life. I expect I will continue being a pleaser. But no more doormat for me. Anyone who displays the kind of lack of respect associated with this type of inconsiderate behaviour gets one chance. Unless they redeem themselves without my prompting, then NO MORE.

I will not wait more than 15 minutes for someone, ESPECIALLY if I know they have a cell phone. I will not put off doing anything for me while waiting on someone else’s promised input.

As it happens, this particular rant isn’t about anyone specific, but if you were thinking it was about you, then it’s time to kick yourself in the ass for being such a putz and start being a little more considerate.

I just noticed that any email to beta@blogchat.com was being bounced back. It must have been like this for a few weeks since it’s because I was redirecting it to a list that rejects any mail without its name in the To or CC. Soooo… if you’ve been sending emails to get in on the beta, just give it another try.

Dave and John have some thoughts on the stock market, including quotes from Allan Greenspan’s recent comments about reading the fundamentals of the market through the fog of corporate malfeasance.

I’ve watched my mutual funds drop 10% over the last 6 weeks. I pulled them out into interest-bearing investments this week, expecting there is still some drop to go as more and more of the corporate shenanigans iceberg is revealed. Call me a pessimist but I’m fairly confident we’ve only seen the tip, and the political fallout hasn’t even started to gather steam.

Now is exactly the right time for every corporate executive to get a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Consumer and investor confidence will return quickest to those corporations who really sincerely grasp the concept of two-way communication with their market.

People are now more than ever wary of suits, bafflegab, slick salesmanship of any sort. Transparency and humility will win back investors and customers. No bullshit, no *seeming* to be trustworthy. Cards on the table time. A blogging executive has an advantage in building trust with his or her market over an executive whose human persona remains unrevealed.

Armin’s off and running:

Jon Udell recognizes Jeffrey P Shell’s thinking out loud as knowledge management. He’s right, you know.

I finally nailed down Michael O’Connor Clarke and we had a coupla pints together on Friday. We’ve yakked a bit on BlogChat and via email, but had never met. Just like when I met Shane not too long ago, it’s as though we knew each other all along.

It was really just a matter of time before our lives collided anyhow, from the amount of contacts and near-misses Michael and I seem to have in common.

Every company can benefit from K-Logging.

Projects collect and compile hard data and soft knowledge into reports. Often the details of the lessons that are learned through the project are distilled out during the reporting process, such that subsequent projects tend only to benefit from the accrued soft knowledge if largely the same team is reassembled.

Knowledge Logging (K-Logging) is a bottom-up approach to sharing the soft knowledge that is built during the course of a project. Knowledge is both logged and shared continuously at the source, using content management tools which allow easy updating of a shared website. Style is informal, freeform and conversational and the focus is on collaboration and discussion.

The thinking-out-loud style of writing a K-log journal of project activities allows every part of the process to remain available during and after the project. This allows detailed review and enables latecomers to the project to get up to speed. The dead-end attempts that provide the best opportunity for learning are documented and kept for others to learn from.

Since knowledge is continuously shared, teams that are spread out get to share best practices without waiting for summary or review. The knowledge website can also act as a portal to centralize access to other essential project information – scheduling, maps, data storage, email, etc.

There are many tools available for this kind of distributed knowledge management. While prices can range from free to tens of thousands of dollars, cost does not necessarily imply value. There are many open-source content management tools which suit this purpose well.

A good flexible system can be built with Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP and any of a number of content management systems – all open-source software with no licensing costs. Dedicated hardware needs are modest – a used name-brand Tier-1 Pentium-II 300+MHz can be had for less than CDN$200 – a second such machine could provide standby and backup. A high-speed internet connection would be necessary although bandwidth needs would be low. SSL (https) can provide end-to-end encryption for secure access.

Some upfront analysis would be necessary to determine layout, functionality, permissions. Training needs are small – users access the site via a browser and are presented with straightforward editing screens. Ongoing care and feeding needs would depend on selected feature set.

A simple collaboration tool could be built in a day with no capital outlay using space on an inexpensive hosting provider for US$20 or less per month.

A custom knowledge portal could be built with cdn$500 hardware/software budget and consulting hours to suit the needs.

Here is a short and by no means exhaustive list of some of the tools that can be used for K-Logging (and all sorts of content management):

drupal
manila
moveable type
nucleus
pmachine
postnuke
radio userland

Resources:

KLogs group on yahoo
David Gurteen is a good resource for all things related to Knowledge Management. KM is a much bigger topic than K-logging.
Steven Vore has a good KM-based blog
John Robb is on top of the whole K-logs thing at Userland
Pat Delaney uses K-logging to coordinate educators.

Finally, Phil Wolff has a great article about how K-Logging can solve many of the problems that companies face with knowledge management.

I finally went out ant got myself an 802.11b card and access point. I got the SMC2632W card and installed it under Windows with the drivers on the disk.

I was dreading the uphill battle of getting it running with Linux, but I fired up Mandrake, pulled the ethernet card out and slapped in the wireless card and PRESTO! Worked right away, no config, no searching for drivers, no nothing.

Fan-freakin-tastic.