Just-in- Time Delivery Comes to Knwledge Management

In this article Dr. Goldszer is faced with the common problems most physicians have to face around the world. He has a over abundance of knowledge he must retain in such a small ample amount of time and inefficient means of doing it. As a primary care physician, he must know something like a million facts, and those are constantly changing. This problem with having to know thousands of diseases, patient specifics, medications, and laboratory test can mean a matter of life and death if not dealt with properly.

The Partner's Project took a ambitious dive into linking massive amounts of constantly updated clinical knowledge to the IT systems that supported doctor's workplaces.They decided to focus on order entry of for tests and medications because this is where a lot of errors can occur. Developing a system like this is very difficult. There are very few software packages out there now that allow users to input their own knowledge into the system. As hard as developing this system was aeven harder task of convincing knowledge workers to use the system no matter what environment or field they're in.

Knowledge Management's Social Dimension

I recently read a article that takes a look at the company Nucor, a large steel company started in the late 60's when the steel company first started facing tough economic times because of substitution from other materials, foreign competition, and strained labor relations. Despite these obstacles Nucor has risen above the troubled industry and has enjoyed a annual compound sales growth of 17% all generated internally without Nucor making any acquisitions. Nucor acheived its success by excelling at a single task: becoming and remaining the most efficient steel producer in the world. It did so by developing and constantly upgrading competencies that were both strategic and proprietary: plant construction and start up know how, manufacturuing-process expertise and the ability to adopt breakthrough technologies earlier and more effectively than competitors.

The authors in this article talk about building a social ecology - that is, the social environment within which people operate - is a crucial requirement for effective knowledge management. Nucor was and still is a prime example of a compnay that took this to heart and ran with it. Nucor's social ecology was one that can be modeled for any company wanting to reach higher success and a more productive and happier workforce. The determinants of social ecology are culture, structure, information systems, incentives, structure, people, and strong leadership. To gain a sustainable advantage over competition Nucor had a workforce that was very smart at using the technology they were supplied with and all in part of the social ecology of the organization

Network Effect

When talking about business or economics, the term network effect is described as the result or effect of a good such as the Iphone or a service such as Facebook has on the value of that product or service on other people. In other words how that product betters the life and kind of makes them reliant in a way of that good or service.

I just had to get a Iphone when they first came out and was super excited about it and now Im so reliant on it because so many of my friends have one as well and we stay in such close contact with one another with them that we might go crazy without it. The same applies to Facebook. The more people that join the more connections and happenings I get connected to. Its almost a fade in a way that you get sucked in to through popularity of the masses. The more people that join the more valuable this commodity becomes to me.

The Wisdom of Crowds

In this book titled "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki the question is answered of "Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdoms shapes bussiness, economies, societies, and nations."

The books goes into detail about how group decisions are often always better and more decisive than any decision that could be made by a single member of that entire group. You have to agree and its not rocket science that two heads are better than one so just think about a group of 8, 9, 10 or more heads working as one. For example, think about the popular television show "Who wants to be a Millionare". There comes a point in the game where the sole contestant is unsure of the answer to a question and the rules allow a "lifeline" so they call it for he or she to call on the audience for help. There is usually a overwhelmingly large agreement on one answer and almost always that answer is correct.

The book breaks down crowd wisdom into three different ways: Cognition, coordination and cooperation. These all tie together to make the best of crowd wisdom. Without one or the other the crowd will not make the best of decisions and will suffer to poor results. Who knows? You could be that contestant on Who wants to be a Millionare one day. Wouldn't you want a crowd with the greatest amount of wisdom possible? I sure as hell would.

Knowledge Economy

So are we a economy of knowledge or are we a knowledge-based economy? These sound very similar and one might think they are one in the same but these actually vary slightly in terms of a knowledege economy.

According to Wikipedia a economy of knowledge is focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints vs. the knowledge based economy where the use of knowledge technologies produce economic benifits as well as job creation. It further states that in knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, in knowledge-based economy, knowledge is a tool.

So which one are we? Well to be honest we are both, evolving more and more each day and swaying back and forth between the two.

I really like how this citing goes on to state that a key concept of the knowledge economy is that education and knowledge can be refered to as "human capital." It makes complete sense in the fact when you scrape everything away from the surface, knowledge and education are two major factors for success and is really what gets you the most out of what you want in life and society.

To better yourself after highschool you go on to college to build-up your "human capital" by gaining knowledge assets with every chapter in a book you read, every exam you take, every powerpoint slide you review, and every class you pass.

Gaining knowledge assets builds your "human capital" and makes you more of a "human commodity."

my first blog and school...

So school is back in session and I'm taking 18 hours this semester. Because of this I will graduate in December so hooray for that but boo on no social life for the year 2010.

I made this blog site for my Knowledge Management Systems class and have always kind of deep down inside wanted a blog but never actually wanted to put forth the effort of doing one so this class made me do it.

I will be posting a lot of happenings of life and school in this blog because for the remainder of this year school will be my life.