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
  

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.
  

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.
  

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.
  

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.

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
  

Personal knowledge management (PKM) refers to a collection of processes that an individual needs to carry out in order to gather, classify, store, search, and retrieve knowledge in his/her daily activities (Grundspenkis 2007). One of its focus is about how individual workers apply knowledge processes to support their day-to-day work activities (Wright 2005)

Personal knowledge management (PKM) integrates personal information management (PIM), focused on individual skills, with knowledge management (KM). Many people undertaking this task have taken an organizational perspective. From this perspective, understanding of the field has developed in light of expanding knowledge about human cognitive capabilities and the permeability of organizational boundaries. The other approach for PKM is metacognitive - it compares various modalities within human cognition as to their competence and efficacy (Sheridan, 2008).

Connections to Organizations and Groups