Author: Nancy White

Article on the CGIAR’s Knowledge Sharing Toolkit

screen shot of KS ToolkitI wanted to point out a new article on the CGIAR’s ICT-KM site about the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit Wiki that I’ve been working on and which has become near and dear to my heart. Here is a snippet:

Knowledge Sharing in the CGIAR – Tools and Methods for Sharing Knowledge: The CGIAR’s Wiki Approach
The Institutional Knowledge Sharing (KS) Project of this Program together with its CGIAR Center partners has been experimenting with a range of KS tools and methods over the past five years and has recently been assembling these and many others into a toolkit (http://kstoolkit.wikis.cgiar.org). This evolving resource – continually updated, edited, expanded, and critiqued in wiki fashion – is targeted mainly on scientists, research support teams, and administrators in the 15 international centers of the CGIAR. But it also serves their partner organizations, as well as development organizations working in areas other than agriculture. And it benefits from their diverse feedback too.

Science has traditionally relied on a few key vehicles for sharing and validating new knowledge. The most important are experiment replication, the publication of research results in peer reviewed journals, literature searches, and formal and informal communications at conferences, workshops, and other meetings. In addition, the patent system serves as a complementary knowledge broker in instances where research spawns technical innovation. With such longstanding institutions already in place, why is there a need for new avenues to share knowledge? The answer to that question is surprisingly complex; but a few key reasons stand out.

Washington DC the End of October?

Every time I contemplate getting on an airplane, I’m thinking “how do I maximize the carbon, cost and time of this plane ride. So in that vein, I’ll be going to Washington DC the last week in October. If you were thinking about having me do work for you, visit, hang out, have fun, or whatever, in DC, let me know either here in comments or email me. I’ll be booking my ticket pretty soon, so let me know!

The World Cafe Community – Virtual Cafes?

There is a very interesting conversation buzzing around in various locations online about how to do World Cafes online. I am feeling tortured, because I’d like to be fully participating, but due to the “to do list” I’m watching from the side. I think there is much more here than looking at how to do World Cafe gatherings online, but in a larger sense, how do we best utilize convening methods from our F2F practices in a distributed environment – and all the juicy questions that go along with it. For me, some of the key questions include:

  • What methods can “translate” into an online space – why or why not? What do we even mean by “translate?”
  • Are we being strategic and clear about what method to use when – online or off. In other words, lets not do the “move our dysfunctional offline meetings into the online space.” The bottom line is creating interactions that matter – online or off.
  • What are the social implications?
  • What are the technical implications? Existing and potential tools (especially free or low cost tools)?

The main thread about virtual World Cafe’s is on the World Cafe’s community space here –> The World Cafe Community – Virtual Cafes?. Some other side shoots and resources:

Truly, I’d love a month to research this sort of thing and things like useful patterns and practices in online events… and so many other things. Maybe in December…. 🙂

Thinking about “Slow Community” (particularly online)

Tonight I’m sharing a few thoughts at ZAAZ about “Slow Community” and I thought I’d share the slides. They can be found here as well as embedded below. This all came out of a blog post a few months back that generated some very interesting comments.

In preparation, I pinged my Twitter network – who gave some fabulous insights and suggestions. I’ve screen captured them and put them on a a wiki page to capture further thinking — slowly.

It is kind of ironic to use the fastness of Twitter to think about slowness. 🙂

Today is Chocolate Day

Chocolate hat © Ann de Gersem, photo C. BaeleWe now divert from our normal online-blah-blah-blah and take a reverent moment to acknowledge that it is Chocolate Day! Want a little chocolate fun? Take the Is It Beer or Chocolate? quiz (I did terribly at 51%). Look at some of the interesting links from Chris Hodge. Think about the political implications of your chocolate. The health benefits.  Chocolate as art and inclusion. (Image to the right — Chocolate hat © Ann de Gersem, photo C. Baele)

And yes, even a link to a story about online communities, support and of course, chocolate. Ah, so this post isn’t so frivolous after all. 🙂

Hat tip to Chris for pointing out this critically important day to all chocoholics.

Signed

Choconancy