Learning, Technology & Change

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo . Another outstanding contribution from the crew at Common Craft. They always craft their messages using a great metaphor and bring complicated concepts down to the bare essentials. I find them an inspiration for learning professionals. In an age where people tend to cram as much material as possible into a training session the ability to distill information down to core concepts is key. Their story technique works wonders for retention. A great example of information design.

heading to user conference in Montreal. My head has been in a fog all weekend with no remedy in site. Presenting on Tuesday & Wednesday... this ought to be hilarious. If anything the aches and pains should make for some good tweets.

We're doing a talk on how our customers can better understand and use social software to further their knowledge management initiatives. I took this question to my social network. LinkedIn Answers is a great tool for tapping the wisdom of the crowds. I posed the following question How can we use the enthusiasm and technology of web 2.0 within knowledge management initiatives? I got some great responses, which also spawned a few followup discussions. People are optimistic about "Enterprise 2.0" and its adoption. Sharepoint is a traditional collaboration tool which Microsoft is attempting to "socialize". Other more familiar 2.0 tools mentioned were the suite from 37signals It would appear that the tools are there and maturing. However, with any Knowledge Management initiative the tools are not enough. The people using the tools are the ones that build the knowledge base (Bad tools never help the cause either). So I go back to the question of the enthusiasm and pa...