Mr. Rod Welch
rodwelch@pacbell.net
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
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Subject:
Weblogs Klogs Blogs Foster Culture of Knowledge
Dear Rod,
For an idea that completely misses the point, this article has some
interesting points...
.. http://writetheweb.com/read.php?item=123 ..
Apparently the approach is meeting with some acceptance from users and
executives. Considering that the linking has no automatic features, there is
no real concept of chronology, and it is largely stream-of-consciousness,
this may provide an idea of an aspect of shared knowledge that might warrant
some consideration.
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From the article:
Within a corporate context, K-Logs make it possible for any employee to add
knowledge to an Intranet. It's easy enough to use (start-up in less than five
minutes) that it overcomes resistance. Further, K-Logs provide people that use
them two immediate benefits: 1) it is a highly visible way to enhance personal
brand and 2) it is a great organizing tool that you can share with co-workers
(it organizes your most important information over time). There is no other
better way to get employee knowledge off the desktop and out of their heads and
onto an Intranet where it can be archived, browsed, and searched.
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Further, K-Log features like subscriptions let you as an employee keep up with
what is going on by automating the process of collecting information. It
creates a knowledge network within a company, all based on easy to understand
Web standards. K-Logs break down the data silos on the desktop, particularly
the notorious e-mail inbox and the directories of files people store all over
their desktops. By publishing those e-mails and documents to the Intranet,
everyone can get access to that information.
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WtW: Do you think senior execs "get it"? How will it benefit their business?
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JR: Those that have seen a K-Log in action do. This is the kind of revolution
that will sneak in the backdoor of most companies (much like the first PCs), by
people that see the benefits of using a K-Log at work. That's another reason
that a K-Log works best as a desktop tool, it is portable.
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Once execs see K-Logs in action in their company, they usually buy-in. Why?
Here are a couple of immediate benefits:
People publish into K-Logs what they are doing often on an hourly basis.
It is a great way to keep track of what is going on (coordination).
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Archives. Given that K-Logs are public archives, this is particularly
useful when an employee or consultant leaves a company. You now have a
permanent record of what they did or didn't do. It also is an easy to
use repository for people that need to find answers to specific
questions or specific experts that can help them out.
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It makes it easy to share information and get discussions going (which
results in better ideas). K-Logs eliminate the barriers that prevent
many people from posting to a discussion group. Everyone with a K-Log
has a soapbox to say something. The best ones get links from all the
rest.
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New hires. New people or people that have been recently assigned to a
project take lots of time before they can become useful. Much of that
time is lost casting about for scraps of information that are useful.
K-Logs make that easy. All you have to say to someone new is read all
the team members K-Logs for the last two weeks.
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Everything is there: thinking, files, e-mails, POV, and links.