The issue that you raise is very important, perhaps at the face of it, it can easly be ignored as a non-issue. Disasters such as you refer to seem highly unlikely. History however teaches us different lessons. The worst disastors that ever happened in our times and even before definitely did not give warnings; and when they did give warnings they were short and unheeded.
You therefore have become the third eye facing back for our generation. In otherwords you are asking us to safe guard posterities history for it is their due inheritance. Indeed the only reason why we study most ancient civilisations is not so much because other civilisations did not exist but rather it is because they managed to somehow document their experiences.
Your rather tacit suggestion is not so much for invention new methods of knowledge management, rather that we should'nt discard old tried and true methods like publishing books. Indeed the culture of book buying and story telling that most of us benefitted from seems to be dying out.
Honors is upon us to ensure that generations to come lives to experience them as well. Unless I have gotten you wrong, then I will be directed by you.
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Nobody has a monopoly to wisdom... we can learn even from the children

It is so absolutely true that we can we can learn many things from children too. They don't 'know' as much as adults do and they therefore don't know what to fear, what not to do and what questions not to ask.

The essential issue is that we have become so dependent on technologies to store and disseminate information and knowledge, that any loss of computing power or Internet connectivity could be devastating. We discussed this topic in a workshop with senior business leaders some months ago and there was a consensus that business and government without IT and connectivity would be inconceivable. Some suggested that they expected anarchy and chaos if this were to happen for any length of time.

Given that the paradigm of KM has become inextricably linked to technology, we need to ask pay special attention to tribes and cultures that continue to manage to share and store knowledge without ITC. To believe that all the information stored in our computers and disk drives is safe forever is clearly wrong, so what to do when the technology comes undone? How do we communicate with generations to come in a way that they will understand?

Steve

Knowledge Management in the past had been treacherous and fluid even. For example stories passed down from generations past kept on changing as generations passed-by. New systems of Knowledge Management therefore became the hallmark evolution. We remember the early calygraphy of the ancient Egyptians, and Chinese. We have monitored the development of languages as a result of Knowledge Management systems. We continue to seek newer and better ways of managing Knowledge and the computer has come up with alot of promise.

Development demands that we explore the promises afforded and seek further knowledge to address the inherent risks to the same knowledge that the technology promises.
Indeed some of the risk include disasters causing electricity failure e.t.c. , but also other risks such as crime and abuse of information systems. Which is why we have a new SIG on 'ICT Investigation'.

Nobody has a monopoly to wisdom... we can learn even from the children

Despite the fact that computers have only been around for a few years, they are everywhere and most people who read this might have a problem if they didn't have access to the Internet and a computer. What would KM be without blogs, tweets, facebook, youtube, linked and KMAfrica.com SIGs? Among some questions, I'd be interested to know what happens to a hard drive and the ATM machines when there is a polar magnetic shift.

To try and answer your question, In Africa, where the oral tradition originates, we have always known what Western business schools are only just starting to discover - it is all story. And the story works for as long as there are people to tell it. When there are no tellers of stories, the knowledge of how to engage with the world disappears. Knowledge is held in the stories we repeat to ourselves and tell to the world around us. When we were children we heard stories of Jackals and Baboons and Cows that would teach us about our world and things that were valuable. Our children hear other stories besides the sacred ones we told them that were told to us - that makes their world different from ours. So, to me, stories are the container of knowledge - they build hope, they destroy, they contain our dreams, our fears and our highest aspirations. And knowledge is created by conversation - you know what you know because of the questions you ask. So what questions are you asking? Who are you asking?

africanstory