Weekly Knowledge Management Blog by Stan Garfield

KM Question, Blog, Link, and Book of the Week

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KM Question of the Week

Q: I am wondering if there are some good articles you have found on communities of practice.

A: From my book , pages 131-132:

For more information on communities, see:

• "Communities of practice: a brief introduction" by Etienne Wenger at http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
• "Communities for knowledge management" by Steve Denning at http://www.stevedenning.com/communities_knowledge_management.html
• "10 Critical Success Factors in Building Communities of Practice" by Richard McDermott at http://www.knowledgeboard.com/lib/3465
• "A bibliography on communities of practice" by CPsquare and com-prac at http://cofpractice-biblio.wikispaces.com/
• "Books for Community Building" by Michael Burns at http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2CBSJVLYZCG9F/
• "Communities of Practice Resources" by Fred Nickols at http://home.att.net/~discon/KM/CoPs.htm
• "Caterpillar Communities of Practice: Knowledge is Power" by Sue Todd at http://www.corpu.com/newsletter06/cat.asp

For more in-depth understanding, read one or more of these books:

• Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier by Etienne Wenger and William M. Snyder http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005RZ9V/
• Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity by Etienne Wenger http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521663636/
• Cultivating Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578513308/
• CompanyCommand: Unleashing the Power of the Army Profession by Nancy M. Dixon, Nate Allen, Tony Burgess, Pete Kilner and Steve Schweitzer http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976454106/
• The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578517087/
• Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice by Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159140200X/
• Going Virtual: Distributed Communities of Practice by Paul Hildreth http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159140164X/
• Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage by Hubert Saint-Onge and Debra Wallace http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/075067458X/
• Beyond Communities of Practice: Language Power and Social Context by David Barton and Karin Tusting http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521544920/
• Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability by Jenny Preece http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471805998/
• Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace by K. Ann Renninger and Wesley Shumar http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521785588/
• Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning" by Sasha Barab, Rob Kling, and James Gray http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521520819/
• The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier by Howard Rheingold http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262681218/
• Communities in Cyberspace by Marc A. Smith http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415191408/
• Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787944602/
• Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787976148/
• Communities of Practice: Lessons from Leading Collaborative Enterprises by Simon Lelic http://www.ark-group.com/home/xq/asp/pubid.05FE2EAB-FF4F-457D-AFE6-218DE78F25D4/pTitle.Communities_of_Practice/qx/Publications/Publication.htm

KM Blog of the Week

Knowledgeline by Tom Baldwin

New site on the KM scene

Every now and then, something comes along that is compelling to spend time with. I received an e-mail from Matthew Parsons with a link to his new site (co-authored by Neil Richards), Knowledge Thoughts. I'm hard pressed to classify it as a blog or a wiki, I suppose it really a bliki - combining elements of both. Here's Matthew's description of the site:

In my initial scan of the site, it's already rich with a variety of content for those seasoned vets in the KM space, or those just starting out and wanting to learn more. There's a wiki section and a section with a ton of rich media content, aimed at helping explain KM. Much of this comes from outside legal, which is a great thing. A section bound to be on everyone's "to be seen" list is their leading people and thinkers page. If you're looking for ideas to kick-start your knowledge management initiatives, there's even a thought starters section.

KM Link of the Week

Document, Records and Content Management available online at Kent State University

Document, Records and Content Management for the Enterprise will be offered in Spring, 2008 in the IAKM online program at Kent State University.

The course instructor-facilitator is Len Asprey, who heads a consulting agency, Professional Information Management and Technology Consulting, with world-wide clients. He coauthored (with Michael Middleton) Integrative Document & Content Management: Strategies for Exploiting Enterprise Knowledge, which won the "Mander Jones Award" in 2003. He was the founding Chair of the Institute for Information Management (IIM) and is a member of AIIM International.

This course can lead to a certificate in Knowledge Management or a Master of Science with a concentration in Knowledge Management.

IAKM online is also offering Effective Knowledge Management in Organizations.

The course tutor is Robert Frey, a Principal in the consultancy Successful Proposal Strategies, LLC. He held the position of Senior Vice President of Knowledge Management and Proposal Development in RS Information Systems, Inc. (RSIS) from 1999 – 2007. Mr. Frey developed and implemented knowledge-sharing and knowledge-transfer mechanisms throughout RSIS to capture and leverage best practices, project success stories, lessons learned, client intelligence, and emerging technologies.

KM Book of the Week

Web 2.0 Reading Lists by Bill Ives

Google results:

• The Quintessential Web 2.0 Reading List
• Web 2.0 Reading List - VC Mike’s Blog
• Tame the Web - Web 2.0 reading list
• Web 2.0 List of Lists - actually the better list is found on the right side bar in his book suggestions
• Bill's prior post on Enterprise 2.0 Reading List

Bill's latest picks:

• Wikinomics by Don Tapscott
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger

And the classics:

• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger

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[The contents of this KM blog are my personal comments and do not reflect the official views of Hewlett-Packard Company.]