Sharing Modes

Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr

The recent KIN Summer workshop took a detailed look at 'The Psychology of Knowledge Sharing'. Russell Davies has just posted a great blog post on this topic referring to Clay Shirky's assertion that there are fundamental differences in behaviour, cost and motivation behind sharing products, sharing services and sharing information.

"Sharing Goods - the hardest to do, because if you give a physical good you no longer have it, you're deprived of it.

Sharing Services - like giving helping someone across the road - you don't lose out on physical stuff but it's an inconvenience.

Sharing Information - like giving someone directions - you don't lose stuff, it doesn't take much time, no inconvenience".

If you want to know more, take a look at 'Why We Cooperate' from MIT Press.

Knowledge Assets

The theme of our December workshop is '21st Century Knowledge Assets'. As usual, we a researching this topic to ensure a thought-provoking event. And in the time-honoured tradition of KM we would like to tap into the collective wisdom of our members. The question we have for you is - "What are your favourite examples of innovative and/or engaging knowledge assets either internal to your organisation or external".

As an example:

Some of you may already have see the 'Instructables' website. For those that haven't, here is a knowledge asset 'How to add a USB outlet to your car' from that website.

Notice that they have links to related Knowledge Assets. Notice especially that the Knowledge Asset is not static. The comments allow users to chip in with their observations, use cases, tips, hints and modifications. You can easily share it via Twitter, Facebook or email. You can download it as a pdf. You can even embed it in another webpage (see below)

Ignoring the adverts (they have to make money somehow!) how many of your Knowledge Assets are like this?


Add a USB Power Outlet in Your Car - More DIY How To Projects

Image by williamcho via Flickr

Wow, two blog postings in a week, both based on Dave Trott's output (here's the other).
The KIN Summer Workshop on 15th June is on 'the psychology of knowledge sharing'. Something dear to the hearts of all KIN member organisations trying to achieve collaboration and knowledge sharing in increasingly tough times.
Dave Trott's blog posting on 'Singaporean Choice Architecture' is not some a missive on Oriental building design, but rather on 'how to engineer choice'. This is particularly appropriate for our Summer Workshop theme, as I think what we are trying to be is 'architects of collaboration'.
Dave concludes with a great quote from McDonald's Ray Kroc; “The art of salesmanship is letting people have it your way.”

Dave Trott on 'Just enough information but not too much'

Image by johnbullas via Flickr

Dave Trott is in advertising.
He is revered as a skilled commentator and communicator.
I enjoy his blog and would like to share him with you.
In particular this post on Colin Powell's '40/70 rule'.
Comments left by his readers are also worth a look.
Enjoy

Interestingness

Image by Auntie P via Flickr

What do 'Being a Gentleman', 'Innovation in Cartoons', 'DNA Synthesis' to 'why frivolity is important' have in common? They are just a few items that featured at the Interesting2009 event. I've followed Russell Davis' eclectic blog for quite a while; his quirky view on life is refreshing and challenges conventional thinking. As well as a regular contributor to Campaign and Wired, Russell is one of the people behind the Interesting events.

KIN Members tell us that the diversity of organisations that participate, is one of its main strengths. This stimulates lateral thinking and sparking unusual ways of thinking about common problems. You can't get more diverse than the speakers and participants at an 'Interesting South' or ' Interesting North' event. "Interesting is a 'theatre of ideas' – very informal, with a very 'open source' approach. If there was a single shared quality between speakers and participants it was curiosity".
I'll be trying to get a ticket to ' Interesting North' on 13th November, but they sell out really fast.