Building the Knowledge
Management Network
Building the Knowledge Management Network Best
Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Putting Conversation to Work Cliff Figallo
Nancy Rhine
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
Part One Cave Walls to CRTs:
The Landscape of Knowledge Networking 1
Chapter 1 Knowledge, History, and the Industrial
Organization 3
Our Ancestral Heritage 3
Stories, Rituals, Trust, and Culture 9
The First Mass Medium 16
The Dawn of the Info Age 21
Summary 27
Chapter 2 Using the Net to Share What People Know 29
Managing Knowledge 29
Roots of the Knowledge Network 32
A Knowledge-Swapping Community 40
Organizational Knowledge Networking 45
Summary 59
Chapter 3 Strategy and Planning for the Knowledge
Network 61
Strategy and Change 62
Planning and Cost Issues 74
Summary 81
Contents
Part Two Matching Culture with Technology 83
Chapter 4 The Role of IT in the Effective Knowledge
Network 85
IT and Knowledge Exchange 86
Technical Approaches to Managing Knowledge 97
Basic Tools of the Knowledge Network 103
Online Environments for Knowledge Sharing 107
Summary 111
Chapter 5 Fostering a Knowledge-Sharing Culture 113
Creating the Ideal Conditions 114
Analyzing an Organization’s Culture 116
Tapping the Mind Pool 125
Leadership: Energy from the Top 127
Self-Organizing Subcultures 131
The Challenge of Change 134
Summary 135
Chapter 6 Taking Culture Online 137
The Medium Is Part of the Message 138
Tools and Their Configuration 146
Three Dimensions of Collaboration 153
Knowing the People and the Policies 159
External Collaborative Communities 161
Summary 162
Chapter 7 Choosing and Using Technology 165
Tools for Every Purpose 166
Tools, Their Features, and Their Applications 176
Instant Messaging and Presence 191
Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Nets 192
Building Environments for Collaboration 195
Tools for Transitory Conversational Events 199
Summary 202
Part Three Practical Applications of Knowledge
Networking 205
Chapter 8 Initiating and Supporting Internal
Conversation 207
Cultural Preconditions 208
Where Consultants Come In 209
Selling the Idea 211
Engaging the Stakeholders 215
Incentives to Participate 216
Learning to Tell Stories 220
The Practice of Online Conversation 224
Organizing the Community 227
Spontaneous Conversational Communities 229
Transitory Conversation for Immediate Solutions 239
Planning to Reinforce Knowledge-Sharing Culture 242
Summary 244
iv Contents
Contents v
Chapter 9 Conversing with External Stakeholders 247
Building External Relationships 248
Learning about (and from) Your Customers 254
Customer-to-Customer Knowledge Exchange 262
Hosting the Customer Conversation 274
Where Customers Gather on Their Own 281
Summary 286
Chapter 10 The Path Ahead 287
Interdependence and Infoglut 288
Conversation Proliferation 290
The Sustainable Organization 294
The New Skill Set 312
Future Technical Paths 316
Summary 321
Appendix A Resources 323
Notes 327
