PKM

The technology of reminding yourself

storytelling — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:10:12 -0600

An important aspect of PKM is stimulating the right habits and reminding yourself to attend to a particular thing at the appropriate time. For example, you might want to remind yourself of some of the following recurring events such as:

when to exercise
when to pay the bills
when to water your plants
when you should study
when you need to take medicine
when a proposal, project deadline or assignment is due
when an important anniversary is happening

A simple way of doing this is via google calendar available on calendar.google.com Website and if you don't yet have a gmail account, we strongly recommend that you set one up on google.com Main Website so that this feature works. Once you have setup your appointments - including the recurring appointments, remember to register your mobile number (google will send you a response code that you will need to enter into the google calendar interface). You will now be able to receive reminders by SMS to your cellphone sent when you require. The result of this approach that you don't need to spend your time worrying about what you have/have not done and it frees you to attend to a schedule that you create rather than schedules that are imposed on you. You can choose to receive alerts through a combination of emails, popups and sms messages and the the service is free at the current time. The result is you can focus on what you are doing without worrying about what you might have forgotten to do.

There are a number of useful public calendars available from Google Calendar including public holidays, astronomical calendars, phases of the moon, tides etc.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Personal Knowledge Management Project

storytelling — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:03:46 -0600

The mission of The KMAfrica.com Knowledge Warrior Project is to provide links to useful software and know-how which together comprise most of what you need to support your KM efforts both on the road and in the office. The criteria for this collection of software includes the following:

Ease of use
Ability to work with data from different software packages
Preferably FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) so no expenditure is required.
Functionality
Portability - allowing you access from anywhere
Backup and recovery strategies

We'll be looking at the following software in depth

FOSS Operating Systems such as Linux
Office software - including presentation, drawing, spreadsheet, word processing and database
Web search strategies, software and browsers
Browser addin software for KM and information processing
Mobile / 3G systems
Specialist FOSS software for applications such as GIS, Aerial & Satellite Mapping
Opensource educational materials
Software that facilitates access to social and professional networks

Ideas for powerful networking

storytelling — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:33:26 -0600

The ability to network powerfully is an important skill and a key resource in your personal knowledge management strategy. In this discussion we'll look at ways of interacting with your network plus ideas for powerful networking. You could see your network as a series of circles that contain your immediate family, your friends, your professional networks, and the general public. While some of these overlap, others do not are and quite distinct. In addition to the face-to-face networks you engage in on a day-to-day basis, the vast majority of these networks are becoming available on-line and so these ideas are designed to provide know-how designed to help you get the best out of all of your networks:

Create a clear vision of success for yourself including an idea of what you want. Do not proceed until you have achieved this.
Cultivate a clear idea of the network, its' identity, why you want to be part of it and what you want from it.
Cultivate a clear idea of how you wish to be seen by the network and ensure that your behaviour is always consistent with the identity you desire to portray.
Are your personal value systems compromised in any way as a result of engaging with this network? If so, you should either a) seriously re-consider being part of the network and rather not engage it or b) re-evaluate your personal values.
Be deliberate about how you project your profile to the world and ensure it is consistent across all networks. You can check your KMAfrica.com profile on http://isivivane.com/kmafrica/?q=user
Have a carefully constructed 'Elevator Pitch' ready for delivery - when you make a connection, you'll need to describe who you are, what it is you do and why it is important in the form of a short story - practicing and having this story ready for delivery makes it more likely to be memorable and impactful.
You are going to need a well designed, aesthetically pleasing business card that includes your email address and other contact details. The way this card looks and feels tells volumes about you so make certain you give it the care and attention that it deserves.
In business and relationships, it is not always what you know or even how brilliant you are that makes the difference but rather who you know ... actively cultivate friendships and connections with people who will further your own vision of success.
Find out where the people you want to network with hang out … and then join them.
Practice a winning smile in the mirror and use it more often than you frown - even if no-one is watching.
Commit to provide prompt, intelligent and courteous feedback.
Honour commitments and deadlines - try not to save things to do for the last minute.
Listen actively and carefully but when afforded the opportunity to speak, contain yourself to asking well thought out knowledge creating questions.
Make careful notes of your meetings, activities and contacts and re-read these notes at least once a week.
Make a point of remembering the names of the people you make contact with
Commit to learning how technology and a well formed PKM strategy can help widen your circle of contacts.
Commit to learning more about personal branding and developing a unique, compelling and authentic style though which you project yourself.
Develop a personal networking code for yourself and ensure that you stick to it...
It is important that you take an interest in your networks and that you participate in them intelligently and regularly.

Do you have any more suggestions? Please comment below!

Fireside Chat

Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

KMAadmin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:02:24 -0600

The following details some of the more common fallacies of logic and rhetoric. It is an important thinking skill to be able to recognise when one or more of the following are being used:

Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
Argument from “authority” or "appealing to a higher power"
Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an “unfavourable” decision).
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
Special pleading (typically referring to god’s will).
Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not “proved”).
Non sequitur - “it does not follow” - the logic falls down.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - “it happened after so it was caused by” - confusion of cause and effect.
Meaningless question (“what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
The Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the “other side” look worse than it really is). This is normally used when someone speaks about an Either / Or alternative
- Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle (“why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?”).
- Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
Confusion of correlation and causation.
Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack..
Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
Euphemisms and reframing such as “police action” to get around limitations on Presidential powers.

Thinking Skills - Carl Sagan’s 'baloney detection kit'

KMAadmin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:55:04 -0600

Based on the book 'The Demon Haunted World' by Carl Sagan, the following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:

Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no “authorities”).
Spin more than one hypothesis - don’t simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours.
Quantify, wherever possible.
If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
“Occam’s razor” - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

Additional issues include

Conduct control experiments - especially “double blind” experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.

Google Squared Search

storytelling — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:01:51 -0600

Google Squared is a search tool that helps you build a collection of facts from the Web for topics that you specify. Facts about your topic are organized as a table of items and attributes (called "Squares"). Of course, you need to create the question that will get the system to display the results that you need. Once the initial squares are generated, you can:

Customize these Squares to see just the items and attributes you're interested in (by adding rows and columns to the square)
See the websites that served as sources for the information in your Square.
Save and share Squares with others

For example, say you're curious about universities in Africa. A normal web search would involve combing through many different webpages to compile the information you're looking for. With Google Squared, all you have to do is type [ African universities ] into the search box at http://www.google.com/squared and click Square it to see an automatically generated table of roller coasters and their attributes. The example here is provided in realtime and you can update rows and columns of the following example search:

Search engine strategies

storytelling — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:53:05 -0600

The way in which the majority of internet users use search engines is simplistic in the extreme if we are to believe the statistics. Normally, a visit to google.com, few key words, a few clickthroughs with only a small minority of searches ever making it onto page 2. The result is that you are missing out on an enormous amount. Here are some suggestions for your personal search strategy that will empower your internet use and make your searches more powerful.

There isn't just google! Remember that there are many search engines on the internet - don't rely on a single source and cross reference with other search engines. Sites such as Dogpile.com have the ability to search across multiple search engines eg. google, yahoo and msn.
Properly format the question. Be clear about what you want to ask and look for the most efficient way in which to format and ask your question so that search engines provide useful results.
The source of the information used to search will profoundly impact the usefulness of your search. What organisations, keywords and networks are associated with chat you are looking for?
Higher quality searches are to be found on the Google Books programme or the Google Scholar for more academically oriented resources.
Google Print - Google has partnered with several libraries and publishers to digitize their collection and Google Printaims to search the book content and links to view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title's bibliographic data.
Install the Stumbleupon Stumbleupon.com search tool onto your browser. This will enable you to do searches within websites that have been recommended and reviewed by communities and individuals with interests similar to yours.
Install Delicious Delicious is similar to Stumbleupon in that it allows you to do searches within websites recommended by communities and connect with people that have similar interests to your own.

Make it part of your search strategy to do meta-search; search some of the more exotic search engines on the 'net from time to time. Just a short search of 'search engine' using the resources above will bring you many useful links. A 'computational knowledge engine' called WolframAlpha launched in May 2009 promises to be a totally new category of search engine. Interestingly, Wolfram Alpha produces the following when asked to define knowledge: "knowledge | the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning

Steve Banhegyi - steve@storytelling.co.za

Models and Modeling

KMAadmin — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:21:29 -0600

A model is a formal, abstract, hypothetical description of a complex entity, system or process. Any system can be represented through a number of different models, depending on the level of abstraction required and the intention behind how the model is to be used. Examples of everyday models include climatic models as expressed in weather forecasts, models of ecosystems, economies, stock market simulations and other complex systems. While you can expect to study many different models during your career, it is important to understand the following principles about all models:

A model is an attempt to explain the dynamics of "what is going on". It can never really explain what is really "going on".
A Useful Model that is shared, openly discussed and deconstructed leads to a common understanding and insight.
The most powerful and meaningful models are metaphorical and are commonly used in everyday speech – they describe a complex system in terms of analogy eg. Our company is like a busy beehive / a Roman slave galley / a Circus / a well oiled machine etc..
Models should be evaluated for usefulness rather than truth. What is useful is not necessarily true and what is true is not necessarily useful.
Models change over time – old models fall into disuse and new models are continuously being developed. You can expect to see many different management models and fads during your career. Remember, these will come and go.
Every model has its own unique terminology and language. As such, models can be said to be "semantic models" in that they convey meaning.
If a model becomes popular and sufficient numbers of people start to use it as a way of seeing the world, it will tend to impose its "truth" upon the world. Any competitive advantages conveyed by the model become eroded as more organisations adopt it.
It is particularly useful to look at models from a number of different fields of study and to create your own models in order to help you understand.

Characteristics of good models include:

Keep it simple - simple notation, representation of the system with few rules and symbols, no new skills should be necessary for the user to understand the model.
Ensure the number of variables or elements in the model does not exceed 9 – Having more than 9 variables or factors in the model will tend to make it too complex and difficult to understand and convey.
Reliability – can the model be applied on a number of different occasions and reliably reflect the behaviour of the system under investigation? In addition, can the model stand up to "shock testing" which involves improbable/borderline situations being presented to it?
Validity – does the model reflects/measure the dynamics which it is supposed to reflect/measure? Are there other dynamics of which you might be unaware?

“The range of what we think and do / is limited by what we fail to notice / and because we fail to notice / that we fail to notice / there is little we can do / to change / until we notice / how failing to notice / shapes our thoughts and deeds” (R.D. Laing)

From: Art and Science of Change - A Resource for Management and Leadership - (ISBN-978-0-9802550-3-4) Ubuhibi Media Catalogue

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Managing what the world knows about you

storytelling — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:13:32 -0600

In this age, if you are doing business with anyone, it is more than likely that they will be finding out about you by searching for your profile on the Internet. There are a huge variety of networking, special interest groups, mailing lists and sites that tell a lot about you if you are associated with them. And the reason you need to be aware of this is that these linkages can work to your benefit or detriment if they are not properly and actively managed. There are stories of people who have been hired and fired based on what is found out about them on the internet.

This PKM group discussion is about strategies to help you manage your reputation, internet profile and what the world and prospective business partners know about you. It is about managing your story and making certain that the story is consistent and congruent with your own personal vision, mission and values. This is especially important because everything that is captured about you on the internet is likely to be around and available to anyone for as long as the internet is around.

So, do a search on your name using each of the search engines and see what you come up with. Remember to enter your name in quotation marks eg. "Sipho Shabangu" and see what comes up for you. Do these linkages and rankings adequately and appropriately describe you and your relationships?

The appropriate questions are:

At which crucial social networking sites should you maintain your own personal profile?
What is the best way to showcase yourself professionally?
What is the best way to showcase yourself personally and why would you want to?
What are some example internet reputation management strategies?

Steve Banhegyi
www.storytelling.co.za

Personal Knowledge Management Project

The Skills of personal knowledge management

storytelling — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:52:13 -0600

The following are some of the skills and the taxonomy associated with personal knowledge management (PKM)

Reflection Related to continuous improvement on how you operate - using your outputs and experiences as learning inputs.
Managing your own learning Manage how and when you learn and the ability to create and manage your own personal learning environments.
Information literacy Understanding what information is important, understanding what information is unimportant (exformation) and how to find unknown information. Also consider Neo-Literacy and ability to engage diverse media - physical and computer-based.
Organizational skills Personal librarianship? Indexing. Backup. Personal categorization and taxonomies. Ability to recover from disaster
Networking with others Know your 'elevator pitch' and be clear about what you are offering. Knowing what your network of people knows. Knowing who might have additional knowledge and resources to help you. Also includes Collaboration skills eg. co-ordination, synchronization, experimentation, co-operation, and design.
Researching including active listening, canvassing, paying attention, interviewing and observational - these are the 'participant observation' skills of cultural anthropology.
Communication skills Perception, feedback, intuition, expression, storytelling, visualization, and interpretation
Creative skills Imagination, pattern recognition, appreciation, innovation, inference. Understanding of complex adaptive systems.

Personal Knowledge Management Project