Wednesday, April 10, 2013

What I learned in the UOKM class


  • Introduction



For my entire student life, I am always busy learning and learning. I read and write everyday and get knowledge from the outside world. I barely think about how to manage what I have learned and how to apply them in my future study and life. After the first class of knowledge management, I found it was so fascinating because it made me start thinking about my learning process. Just like this blog post, we can go through the knowledge and reflect back what we have learned. Also I really like the format of our class, I mean using facebook, twitter, scoop.it and other social media. We are learning communication in a fast changing and high technological mass media environment. There is no better way for us to study and research the mass media than that we are part of what we are learning.

In this blog, first I want to illustrate some of the main concepts we have talked about in class such as big data and personal knowledge management. I think they are very important and interesting. Then I want to talk about the book I have chosen for my presentation, enabling knowledge creation: how to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the power of innovation, written by Nonaka et al. (2000). In the end, I want to talk about some of the reflections I have for this course.






Two articles I read from scoop.it about big data and algorithm are really interesting. One is about IBM took the wraps off new data storage systems and software for businesses struggling to manage Big Data stores and cloudify their file access. (Pedro, 2013) Big data and cloud storage are really hot topics in nowadays. The advent of so-called "big data" means that companies, governments and organizations can collect, interpret and wield huge stores of data to an amazing breadth of ends. (Taylor, 2012)

We are in a data centered society. Society is built surrounding data more than people or real building. Also we do not communicate with people by sending them messages directly, but by modifying the environment around them. Building bigger more capable storage systems is only part of IBM's strategy for tackling Big Data. The tech titan wants to help organizations have less to store. (Taylor, 2012) The product refresh is part of IBM's plan to bring once lofty IT projects, namely Big Data and cloud computing, down to earth for more businesses. (Taylor, 2012)

"Big data and cloud systems that were once only affordable to large enterprises are now available to the masses. With these new systems, IBM is forging an aggressive expansion of its Power and Storage Systems business into SMB and growth markets," (Taylor, 2012)

The second article is about team uses big data and algorithm to compete in the election campaign, which is related to what professor Lévy had talked about in class about Obama’s team in the election campaign. In the big data era, information is the deadliest weapon and leveraging massive amounts of it is this era's arms race. (Jason, 2012) As part of the Obama administration's "Big Data Initiative," the Department of Defense launched XDATA, a program that intends to invest $25 million toward systems that analyze massive data sets in record time. (Jason, 2012) With more efficient number crunching, the U.S. military can funnel petabytes of data toward cutting edge advances, like making unmanned drones smarter and more deadly than ever. (Jason, 2012)



Sasha Issenberg got a new book out, The Victory Lab, and he’s been hitting the interview circuit informing viewers political campaigns have officially embraced the age of big data, algorithmic analysis, and behavioral science. (Jason, 2012)



  • Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)


Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is an individually created process. It is about how we can manage to make sense of information and experience in our electronic surroundings. (Harold, 2010) There are mainly 9 procedures in professor Lévy’s PowerPoint in class about PKM.



Terms such as Filter or Sense don’t adequately describe the sense-making process in PKM. We are adding value (and context) to information so that we can later retrieve it and perhaps use it. Whatever we make transparent is value-added information for others, especially if we do it consciously and well. (Harold, 2010)

The image below shows an expanded description of sense-making in the context of PKM.



  • Enabling Knowledge Creation: how to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the power of innovation, Nonaka et al. (2000)


We have learned a lot about Nonaka in this semester. What he talks about in this book are mainly five knowledge creation steps and five knowledge enablers. Actually this book is like the follow-up to Nonaka’s another book, The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. It is our strong conviction that knowledge can not be managed, only enabled. Since the publication of The Knowledge-Creating Company by Nonaka and Takeuchi in 1995, the concept of knowledge as competitive advantage of a firm has been drawing considerable attention from the corporate world and management academics. (Gallen & Tokyo, 1999)

In his previous book, the five enablers for knowledge creation within a company are vision, strategy, structure, system, and staff. In the new book, the enablers developed into instill a vision, manage conversations, mobilize activists, create the right context, and globalize local knowledge, which I think are more concrete and practical. As he discussed in the book, there are three pitfalls in the knowledge management process: rely on easily detectable, quantifiable information; devote to the manufacture of tools; and depend on a knowledge officer. So he is moving from knowledge management to knowledge enabling and knowledge creation, which includes facilitation relationships and conversations as well as sharing local knowledge across and organization. (Nonaka, Von Krogh, & Ichijo, 2000)


  • Conclusion


Personal knowledge management skill is very helpful in workplace or in society. It will help workers make sense of, and learn from, the constant stream of information that they encounter from social channels both inside and outside the organization. People with better PKM skills, an ability to create higher value information, and a willingness to share it, will become more valued members in their professional networks.




  • Bibliography


Gelepithis P. A. M. & Parillon N. (2002). Knowledge Management: Analysis and some Consequences. In Knowledge Management and Business Process Reengineering, pp 68-81, Hlupic, V. (ed.). Idea Book Publishers. 

Harold J. (2010). Curation, Just Like PKM, Is About Adding Value To Help Sense-Making.


Jason, D. (2012). Campaigns Embrace Big Data, Algorithms, Mobile Tech…They Know Who You Are.


Lévy, P. (2013). Class Powerpoints. http://www.ieml.org/UOKM/UOKM1.pdf

Nonaka, I., Von Krogh, G., & Ichijo, K. (2000), Enabling knowledge creation: how to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the power of innovation. Oxford UP.

Pedro, H. (2013). IBM Storage Targets Big Data and the Cloud.


Taylor, H. (2012). 5 Ways 'Big Data' Is Changing the World.




  • Appendices


Books

Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press.

Videos

Sasha Issenberg Discusses His New Book, 'The Victory Lab'.


Websites



http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=883821&show=html

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195126167.001.0001/acprof-9780195126167

http://cic.evolutionarynexus.org/node/288

http://blog.bearing-consulting.com/2012/09/11/the-innovators-dilemma/

http://socialmediatoday.com/stevenvanbelleghem/1213571/10-most-frequently-asked-questions-about-social-media-conversation-manage

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630101000590