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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF eLEARNING IN SECOND LIFE

2009-04-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

Theory

As rapidly changing world needs new inventions to support learning activities, Second Life is a virtual world, which can offer everything that individual needs: from social networking, visual communication to game-based learning and etc.
According to Tom Werner, thought leaders in the learning profession have described its potential enthusiastically. Although most workplace learning efforts in Second Life are in the early stages, some intriguing early-adopter implementations exist.
Although Second Life was introduced few years ago, it already obtained many opinions in terms of e-learning. Some people support e-learning in Second Life and in their belief this invention will make a significant and beneficial change in the future learning. According to K. Kapp (2009), e-learning in Second Life allows the learner to explore places he or she could not visit in the physical world, also he states that it is easiest way to explore the world that in most cases it’s hard to afford in real life. Moreover, K. Kapp (2009) states, virtual worlds allow learners to be immersed in a learning environment as close to the actual performance environment, which I can’t agree with, as in my opinion there is a big gap between virtual world and real world learning environment, as one of the most important communication elements is missing – face-to-face interaction. Also in K. Kapp (2009) opinion it allows the learner to more effectively encode the learning for future recall and provides the cues needed to apply the experience from the 3D world to actual on-the-job performance (it is learning by doing).
According G. K. Benkwitz (2009), students have fun in 3D environments, especially if they’re designed to include casual games or playful training situations. Also in J. Shepherd (2007) view, academics are finding Second Life can help research, with the right command; anything can be built, from a molecular structure to an animated film to an architect's plan for a town hall. Moreover, in S. Safara (2008) research was explained that Second Life also provides perceptive, cognitively recognizable ways for users to access learning resources in different media.
The IBM case study (2009) has shown that meetings held in Second Life can reduce cost (as you dot not need to travel) and increase productivity. Also S. Safara (2008) agrees that Second Life is easily accessible and available in an extremely low cost.
The research explained by J. Shepherd (2007) shows the importance of learning in Second Life for disable people, who are struggling to communicate or simply lacking of confidence in the classrooms. According S. Safara (2008), by allowing people to create their own identification, Second Life breaks down most of the barriers to creative thinking and frees the imagination, because some people are reluctant to engage in social activities as they are self conscious about the way they look, which inevitably includes the classroom. J. Shepherd (2007) adds that lecturers can very clearly see who is contributing to the discussions and paying attention, and who is not.
People are talking about countless advantages that Second Life has, but there also are some disadvantages. The main problem according that Second Life is a fairly high maintenance program to run. It requires a high speed Internet connection, a quick microprocessor, and a good video/graphics card (Shepherd, 2007 and Safara, 2008). Also according J. Shepherd (2007), before you take part in this parallel universe, your character has to be trained to walk, fly, and even get dressed, even when they have been trained, they can still make mistakes. Since “Second Life is not like anything most users have experienced and there will be resistance to this technology (Safara, 2008). In addition, according to J. Shepherd (2007) research, if you have a class that is functioning perfectly well in a face-to-face environment, there is no need to take the class into Second Life.
To sum up, Second Life is maybe not a perfect environment for all people, as there are quite a few obstacles (technical, or personal), but talking about the future prospects, Second Life will make a big change in education as 3D environment allows students to experience learning visually (visual examples), that makes them to understand the subjects better.

Practice

As I already created an account, I can identify few advantages and disadvantages in terms of learning in Second Life from my own experience.
Having done the research, there is one statement that I cannot agree completely. In most rapports the creation of new identity was explained as an advantage. But in my opinion Second Life becomes as a fake world. As you talk with people, that you do not know, how can you be sure, that you are talking to the right person, and the information or knowledge that the person is sharing with you is correct? Maybe it is easier for people who are lacking of confidence, but I see it as running away from being yourself, although I agree Second Life is a big help for disable people, who are not able to attend the class.
The second thing that I’m concerned is group works in Second Life. By learning certain things in group works in Second Life, people are able to share just the certain type of knowledge (which is related to the learning topic). But learning in real face-to-face communities it allows gathering more knowledge out of context of learning subject. For example, by doing course work 2, it allow me to gain more understanding about KM, also I found out more about other people cultures, activities, hobbies, lifestyles. Moreover, I enjoy the learning outcome more, as we end up celebrating the completion of every task.
I can also identify one advantage, as in my opinion learning in Second Life helps to avoid involvement of emotions when learning or holding business meetings. In a real life, people are tending to involve their moods, emotions, feelings, which affect quality of learning. It is impossible to see in Second Life, how are you feeling (happy, angry, annoyed, sad and etc). The mood and feelings usually affect other people in face-to-face learning environment. Moreover, it is vital not to show any emotions in terms of business interactions, so Second Life is the best environment to avoid these mistakes that can affect you business or learning in the bad way.
To conclude, I see Second Life as a great invention overall. Maybe it is still hard to accept its concept, as there is lack of time in the First Life. But in terms of learning I can see Second Life as convenient 3D environment that will contribute in future. There are so many options and opportunities to learn, and understand the subject from different angles. I just have one concern that it might not work for elder generation. And I am sure, there is nothing to do with technical problems, these people spent their life learning and interacting in face-to-face communities, so they might find Second Life environment unacceptable.

IT ROLE FOR KM SUPPORT

2009-04-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Theory

Information technologies take a big place in discussions about knowledge management. As I mentioned earlier, some companies are based on IT solutions more than people’s best practices. Before writing this post, I did small interview in one of the most reputable company in Lithuania, about IT role for KM support that allowed me to gain clear understanding how IT could help or hinder knowledge sharing.
Many companies are investing lots of money for IT to support daily activities. According to P. Gilbert, R. Morse and M. Lee (2007), IT allow users to access knowledge content in context of the situation and process where they need it — to promote fast and easy retrieval. By introducing the IT as KM support, the benefits can extend to:
• Lowered cost of interaction by deflecting phone support calls to the web support channel.
• Users are able to obtain immediate assistance, in the form of knowledge base content, at all times. (Gilbert, Morse and Lee, 2007).
According to U. W. Borghoff and R. Pareschi (1997), information technologies are as much about creating direct connections among people through such applications as electronic mail, chat-rooms, video-conferencing and other types of groupware as they are about storing information in databases and other types of repositories. Moreover, they state that information databases can also be fruitfully re-thought, in a knowledge management perspective, as resources for the sharing of best practices and for preserving the intellectual capital of organizations (Borghoff, Pareschi, 1997).
To improve knowledge sharing among the employees, forums and blogs are introduced within the companies, as IT solution for better knowledge sharing (especially in multinational organizations). As long as knowledge is stored into maps, analyses, lessons learned and other forms of content, it becomes information for other people. But According R. McDermott (2000), knowing involves thinking about the field full of information, so storing knowledge is IT role, but involving forums for thinking allows to share and interpret ideas. The forums, whether face-to-face, telephone, electronic or written, need to spark collaborative thinking not just make static presentation of ideas (McDermott, 2007).
To summarize these concepts, IT is very important tool to support knowledge management in the companies. By using IT companies saves time (you can solve the problem faster, as you have quick access) also it saves money (this is very crucial for big companies that are using phones as a main tool for communication, integrating intranet messenger would save lots of money). IT could help for people to share their experiences and best practices too, as there is a possibility to post their views and stories in forums or blogs on the daily basis. But usually this activity tends not to be successful, as people are not allowed or encouraged to reflect on articles. In many cases blogs and forums are used as announcement board to inform employees about new rules and regulations, tasks, and brief information about organization’s news and etc. Employees are strictly prohibited from commenting on management body’s posts. This leads to autocratic working environment, where people’s unique and valued experiences are rejected. To avoid this mistake, employees should reflect on posts also hold regular meetings, to discuss the information they gather from forums or blogs, in order to innovate solutions for problems. Otherwise, IT loses its value, as a supportive tool for knowledge management problems.

Practice

The interview based research was done in the leading merchandising company for building supplies in Lithuania that widely collaborates with foreign companies also has many branches across the country. I interview few employees from the head office about IT role in supporting daily activities in terms of knowledge sharing and problem solving.
This company use internet as well as intranet, where every employee gets their weekly task lists and main objectives. The intranet operates like a internal database, where all the contact details, terms and conditions, regulations and etc can be found, also there are forums (which operates as announcement board). E-mail (outlook) system and phones are the only tools provided for communication.
There was quite interesting conversation about how this IT system affects daily work activities and people as an asset of organization.
The usage of internet is strictly observed by IT department, as it is forbidden to use internet for the personal benefit, so if the employee checks his personal mail, he is tracked within few minutes and receives a punishment.
According to respondents mail system is not fast enough, and it experiences overload quite frequently, also as people get busy, they are not tend to check their mail often, so it leads to time waste to get an answer or solve a problem. So in this case, they have to use a (mobile) phone to reach the person when the situation is urgent (that means waste of money). By having asked why this leading company does not integrate messaging option within intranet system, respondents told, it is not in their power to tell the executives what to do, and the reasons why they don’t do this are not known. But all of them agreed that it does affect company in a bad way, also sometimes it is quite frustrating for an employee to deal with daily activities as a response of inefficient IT support for communication.
The other issue within the company is forum. The forum is mainly used as announcement board to inform the employees about some changed tasks, problems, events, and others. Also management bodies are posting articles on different issues, telling their experience and best practices to solve certain problems. By having asked the question if staff (low level) can comment on their articles, or even post their own articles, the question was straight forward – NO. According to the respondents, managers are avoiding criticism; also it is the way to show their power. All this information gathered from forums are not discussed in meeting (which are not regular) either. So as the employees have no opportunity to reflect on their views, majority of them are not even bothered to read this post anymore, in their opinion: It is just a waste of time, no one cares anyway. There is no sign of organizational learning, no interest in company’s success matters, people know their closest colleagues, although IT database exist within the company, there is no collaboration happening among staff from different branches.
To conclude, in my opinion, company is guiding autocratic leadership, when employees are not allowed to speak up their minds. They are sacrificing the individual talents of employees for the accomplishment of a highly defined goal that can often only be achieved through heavy workload. The role of IT loses its value, as it is used inappropriately in terms of forum issues. According to respondents, there are so many IT usage issues to get changed, but it is not in their power to ask for those changes to happen. The leadership is ignoring ideas of the staff, as a result this company is experiencing high staff turnover every year, although their business profit is still rising.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION IN X ORGANIZATION

2009-04-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

Theory

The second KMS assignment gave me the idea, to create Knowledge management system in my working environment, as I can identify quite a few problems related with knowledge problems.
The learning outcome form KMS workshops, helped to built my opinion that knowledge management is all about people, as they are the main asset in an organization, and IT is needed for mainly communication support and knowledge storage.
But by doing the research for scholars, I was quite surprised, that in most cases it was focused on IT more than people. For example according Wikipedia, knowledge management system refers to a (generally IT based) system for managing knowledge in organizations, supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information. Although, according R. McDermott (2000), technology can provide organizations with vast electronic libraries that end up acting as storehouse of information, but these repositories are often limited in their ability to enable organizations to truly share knowledge.
Sometimes it is so confusing to understand the purpose of KMS, as different scholars define knowledge management system on different aspects. Few of them concentrating on technologies more than social and cultural aspects, and some think that IT is not important aspect for knowledge sharing, so they concepts are mainly based on organizational culture (open door policy, etc).
According by E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine, J. A. Slusher (2000), business success is always created and shared by informal groups of individuals with common work practices and interests. In their view communities consist of three components: people, places and things, which creates overall concept, that people should be encourage to join the communities. In addition, these relationships between employees should be maintained in order to improve communities’ effectiveness. Places are vital for individual to gather (conference room, local restaurants and others, where workers meet to discuss). Things are defined as tools such as rules, norms, tools, procedures and other artefacts that communities use to accomplish their tasks. Individuals within a community relate to these common objects and use them as vehicles for expanding the collective knowledge of the group (Lesser, Fontaine, Slusher, 2000).
According to M. Muntean, A. Butuza, I. Hauer (2008), knowledge management systems are important components of the overall knowledge strategy, as they are the vehicle through which knowledge sharing and applications are accomplished. These systems are complex, as they evolve and adapt to many demands.
I do agree with this concept, as in my opinion KM system should be complex system which involves, social capital, IT, organizational culture. So to keep the healthy balance for KM system, it’s crucial to focus on people first (as they are able to share their experiences, best practices, and innovate solutions for problems), but also it is important not to forget IT as a tool, especially for communication purposes, and knowledge storage (i.e. forums, blogs). In addition, I think knowledge storage gets value when there is a reflection on what was stored. For example, if the company will post their blogs every day, but people are not allowed to post any comments, or reflect on their views, IT (which cost lots of money) as a support for KM loses its importance and KM system leads to the failure. (I’ve seen this case quite a few times in Lithuania, and in my belief, executives fear to lose power, as they don’t allow people to speak their minds and no one of the staff can reflect on their views.
To conclude, I think every part of KM system should be maintained properly. The main concern is people collaboration and satisfaction, which can be improved by introducing open plan policy, incentives, communities of practice in order to make them share their experiences and ideas that leads to innovative solutions. Also it is crucial to pay attention for IT as supportive tool that saves time and money in communication issues also helps to store the knowledge (i.e. best practices, experience). To avoid the stored knowledge to become just the information for employees in organization, it is vital to allow people reflect on articles posted in forums or blogs, which helps to gather more knowledge.

Practice

As I am working in the small company for nearly a year, finally I am capable to identify some problems within working environment, which could be identified as knowledge management problems.
As the world is suffering from world financial crisis, I can already see that our company’s business is more or less affected. By introducing KMS in our company, would improve company’s performance overall, it would boost sales also collaboration among staff.
KMS could be used to:
1. Decrease staff turnover.
2. Improve communication among branches.
The first problem is staff turnover which has been formed by:
· Inappropriate recruitment policies that leads to hiring wrong people.
· Lack in trainings that leads to unqualified staff.
The directors of the company usually hire people that they know. In most cases, new people do not have enough experience, so you can see a steep decline in sales numbers. In addition, regular customers tend to speak with sales people that they already know, so if someone is on holiday, they are losing sale, because of lack of knowledge and experience in customer care. The employees of the company, who have been working for the past 20 years in this company, usually are not happy with their performance. Therefore, they start gossiping behind their back instead of supporting and helping new staff get used to the environment. Moreover, new people are not provided with trainings, so usually they are not keen on staying in the company, so usually they leave in a very short period. Moreover,
As the company is very small, they are not using IT to support their tasks on a daily basis. Especially in a sales department, I realized a big problem, as we don’t know what type of goods we have left in another store. For example, sometimes we have customers that they are interested in particular purchase, but we do not have a right size in a store, they are referred to another branch. Usually they ask to check in the database (which we do not have) if the item is there, because they do not want to waist their time by going to another area and ending up empty handed. Because we do not have a database we lose sales, also some costumers tend to think that they have been ignored.
By introducing KM system in the company the first thing to focus on are people. For recruitment process is vital to avoid hiring people that are recommended by family members or friends. The company is collaborating with few recruitment agencies, but they never accept their offers, as they do not trust people they don’t know, but they do not evaluate, that they are losing people with experience in the field, which could be profitable for the company. Even though if the person without experience was hired, he should be provided with trainings. But it is not enough. To avoid this problem staff meetings should be hold on a regular basis. And it is crucial to attend for every person in the company, where they can discuss problems, ideas and best practices. The new people can learn many things from sales people that have been working for a long time. All these activities should be supported with good incentive system. The best way is to introduce team commissions that help to create healthy work environment, where people are supporting each other and giving advices in order to make more sales, which is good for a company.
IT as a tool to support KMS, should be introduced in order to improve communication among branches. IT database would help them know more about our stock. So whenever customer inquires about the specific product, they can easily access to the database and find out if they have it in other branches or not. Also messenger installed along database, would help to reach the person in other branch, if there are any questions. Creating a database would save time, as everything can be found there, also having any questions, the messages can be sent directly (as phone line is usually busy). Moreover, it helps not to lose sale, as customers inquires are responded fast and information needed is provided.
All these KM problems are aligned with business problems. By implementing Knowledge Management System in the organization, would improve company’s performance overall. IT as a supportive tool helps to deal with communication between branches, also it helps the sales people to know what stock they have overall, to be able to offer the best solution for the customer. Gathering into community, forming a strong team, which is supported with incentives, allows the company to gain more sales that means there is a possibility for expansion and progression.

Get This NOW!

2009-03-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

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Knowledge Management (II)

2009-02-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

THEORY

Knowledge management is a very wide topic, and there is no right and wrong. I come across so many different statements that claim is a definition of KM, although I couldn’t find exactly the same definition all these definition delivers the same message – KM objective is to improve organizational performance and gain competitive advantage in fast changing business market by managing knowledge! (Wiig 1993; Debowski 2006; Tiwana 2003). Also, according A. Tiwana (2003) KM is crucial for all type of businesses and different departments of organization.

Although, all authors agree about KM importance for organization, they define KM differently. According S. Debowski (2006), KM is a process of identifying, capturing, organizing and disseminating the intellectual assets that are critical to the organization’s long-term performance. Also in his opinion, KM reflects a concern for developing a well-expressed and logical long-term plan for the intellectual assets of the organization. Interpreting S. Debowski KM definition, I think he explained KM from a practical point of view, which I see as a strategy, to improve organization’s long time performance, which could be achieved by managing intellectual assets through KM process!

In addition, I found the other opinion that KM is an emerging, interdisciplinary business model (Gupta, and Sharma 2004). In my opinion business model is a representation of how an organization makes money. In this case, in the aspect of KM, I can interpret, that knowledge is like fundamental motive power in organization.

Talking about importance of intellectual capital within organization, according S. Debowski (2006) KM is based on the recognition that the knowledge held by individuals is a valuable commodity in an organization. Which I think is the main point we have to understand about Knowledge Management. People are precious treasure in an organization. However, some companies still tend to focus on information, workflow, systems and procedures, than capability to think about problems, work efficiency from a knowledge perspective. Therefore, I think one of the KM problem is how to connect people, how to encourage them to share their knowledge!

I came across so many articles where IT, best practices and organizational routines or business processes were mentioned as tools to connect people who posses knowledge with those who do not, and help them share, apply, generate the knowledge they have (Gupta, and Sharma 2004; Anantatmula 2005; Wiig 1993). Nevertheless, according V. Anantatmula (2005), culture is also an important element that connects people for successful collaboration. Culture is a wide topic that consist traditions, shared or learned behavior, values, rules, ideas. However, I don’t agree with this statement. In my opinion sometimes, culture could be a barrier in successful knowledge sharing. Because, it is impossible to agree with all ideas, understand and tolerate different rules, traditions, values and etc. Therefore, compromise can be made, but it does not work all the time.

Having analyzed KM definitions, I realized that by sharing knowledge we create new knowledge as well. According to G. Jatinder and S. K. Sharma (2004), KM includes learning and innovations, which I understand when implementing knowledge usually involves some adaptation (learning), and in the process of adaptation, new knowledge is created (innovation). Communities of practice are the way to gather people for a purpose to share intellectual assets, learn from each other and best practices in other to create new knowledge (Wenger, McDermott, Snyder 2002), which are the competitive advantage for every organization!

In addition, we should not forget that KM is all about people! There are no people, there is no knowledge, so then KM can’t exist. According K. Wiig (1993), "business under IT-dominant perspective proved to be least successful." Therefore, the most important source in the organization is intellectual capital, which is not possible without human beings. Individual experience and knowledge when is shared, used and recreated gains competitiveness of their organization in a fast changing business environment. Therefore, I think, KM helps with employee motivation, as people start to understand they are not just workers that carry day-to-day tasks, but they become proud being a part of intellectual capital in organization! (However, this is just my opinion).

PRACTICE

I think lack of knowledge sharing between different levels is the main problem in my organization. Everyone knows what are the organization’s objectives and strategies, but I noticed our managers for some reasons tend not to share the knowledge they have, and employees are just not bothered to improve company’s efficiency either. So saying this I can identify a need for Knowledge Management in the company. There are few people in my company are working more than 20 years, and I believe their knowledge is very useful and beneficial for people like me. I would like to learn from their experience (best practices), because making mistakes cost money and time for the company.

KM IS NOT JUST A TOOL to achieve goals or get competitive advantage, as I stated previously, KM is a social aspect, which would help to improve employee’s collaboration and communication between different company’s branches. Moreover, interpreting S. Debowski KM definition, by recognizing that the knowledge held by individuals will encourage employees to understand that everyone is a valuable commodity in our organization, as I noticed they lack of initiative to carry daily tasks in the company and share experience with others!

The other question is how to share the knowledge in my organization? In my opinion, information technologies (including networking, e-mails, intranet, and videoconference) is more useful for companies with branches worldwide where distance is the problem, but regarding the company I work for, it is not necessary to launch an intranet or other IT system in order to achieve a better collaboration in knowledge sharing. I think the best method of knowledge sharing would be to hold staff meetings regularly (which I could name as community of practice) where we could discuss all the business problems, share ideas, information and knowledge in order to find solutions, promote organizational learning and innovation. IT as a component might be useful for a company, for example, to store and process knowledge, but in my opinion once knowledge is stored it becomes information so it looses the value of experience. In addition, I think it would be beneficial to acquire valuable knowledge form outside sources too, for example training for fashion buying, marketing (in company’s expenses). It will enable people to connect with other communities of practice, therefore interacting and socializing with people from outside the company, would gain more knowledge, which implemented, gets invaluable advantage!

References:
Debowski, S. (2006). Knowledge Management.
Gupta Jatinder, N. D., Sharma, S. K. (2004), Creating Knowledge Based Organizations.
Stankovsky, M. (2005), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management. Anantatmula, V.(2005), CCE, Knowledge Management Criteria.
Tiwana, A. (2003), The Knowledge management Toolkit.
Wiig, K. M. (1993), Knowledge management Foundations: Thinking About Thinking – How People and Organizations Create, Represent, and Use Knowledge, Arlington, TX: Schema Press.
Wenger E., McDermott R. and Snyder W. M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice.

Data, Information, Knowledge (KID)

2009-01-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

THEORY

Knowledge Management is a new subject, which is not fully implemented in all organizations yet, although the concept of KM is understood by every person (it is all about knowledge), but mostly people tend to misuse data, information and knowledge.
The first time I came across this issue I was doing my degree back home. That time I had a different understanding for these elements (data, information, knowledge). Regarding data, I agree with majority of people’s opinion, it is just symbols, with no meaning. I think there is nothing much to say about data. Information is a tricky one!

Sometimes information could be mistaken for data, even sometimes I find myself confused with those two definitions. However, according to Business Dictionary information is a raw data that has been verified to be accurate and timely, it is specific and organized for a purpose, it is presented within a context that gives it a meaning and relevance, and which leads to increase in understanding and decrease in uncertainty. Therefore, data becomes information when it is organized and understood for the purpose. Information has a meaning.

Although information and knowledge from the first instance seem to have the same meaning, but by analyzing different scholar’s definitions I found out that the main difference between information and knowledge is that information becomes knowledge when the individual experience is involved (Tiwana, 2003; Debowski, 2006; Evans, 2003; Krogh, Ichijo, Nonaka, 2000).

According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), information becomes knowledge when is compared with other information and connected with other pieces of knowledge. In addition, consequences (what implications does this information have for decisions and actions) and conversations (what others think about this information) are very important for information transformation to knowledge.

So what is knowledge? Knowledge is one of those concepts that are difficult to explain hence, the scholars could not agree on one definition for knowledge. Knowledge was defined as a process of translating information and past experience into meaningful set of relationships which are understood and applied by individual (Debowski, 2006) Also knowledge was defined as a fluid mix of frames experience, values contextual information, expert insight, and intuition that provides an environment and framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information (Tiwana, 2003). According Ch. Evans (2003), knowledge is invisible or intangible asset. In addition, knowledge was described as dynamic, relational and based on human actions: it depends on the situation and people involved rather than on absolute truth or hard facts (Krogh, Ichijo, Nonaka, 2000).

In conclusion, sometimes it is quite complicated to understand a difference between information and knowledge, but having analyzed some scholars, I understand that information as a fact, have a meaning but lack the element of experience, so therefore it can not be passed as knowledge. Knowledge applied with experience can create new information (which in my opinion can create a backward trend, knowledge can then turn to information). Finally yet importantly, knowledge, information and data depend on their content. This explained below.

PRACTICE

In my working environment, I have a very good example to explain the relation between data, information and knowledge. I work for Retail Company, and every item in the shop has a tag, that contains the following details:

1. Storing Code (item code + storage place number)
2. The Supplier’s Company name (e.g. Roy Robson, Theory, Odemark, Paco Milano etc).
3. Size
4. Description of the item’s material (e.g. cashmere, wool, cotton, leather end etc).

For example:
1. 7022_G2
2. Mister Doc
3. 42 / 8
4. Upper Leather; Leather lining, Rubber sole.

When customers look at a tag, Storing Code looks as a data to them. It is just numbers, letters, and other symbols, which is meaningless to them. In my case, Storing Code gives information where those items are stored in the stockroom, it is not knowledge, as I do not know how to store and why these items are stored in a particular order. A person whose job is to store all these items needs to have the knowledge to produce data such a storage number on a tag.

The second element is Supplier’s Company name. In costumer’s case, I think it is information. As we are not selling famous brands, majority of customers are not familiar with these brands, they don’t know what sort of clothing or footwear they make, when were they established, where are they from, how respectable the company is? In my case I see it as knowledge as working for the company I had to learn about the whole range and process of production. They are all different, although they carry the same system of sizing, fitting varies, so my job is to know, which products are suitable for the customers.

The third element is Size. For a customer it could be knowledge, also it could be information. As we have customers from all over the world, the sizing is different in Europe, America, England, etc. Although there is a continental sizing, some people just don’t know about. Therefore, the size in a tag is information for them. For other customers, who are not confused with their sizes, it is knowledge, as they already have an experience in buying clothing or footwear. In my case, I see it as knowledge. My job is to know all types of sizing, and I know that there are different fittings, shapings and cuts that makes size variable. Therefore, I am ready to advice customers to choose the right product from my knowledge perspective.

The last element is description of material that I would like to discuss. It is also the same situation. For a customer it could be information or knowledge. For example, some customer have no clue what are the differences between materials, how to look after them, why some similar products are more expensive than the others (e.g. woollen scarf and cashmere scarf or polyester shirts and easy care cotton shirts). The others have knowledge about different materials, usually those customers are looking for better quality products, and they are not interested in less quality products. In my case, it is also knowledge, as I had to study about different materials. Approaching a customer my job is to highlight the benefits of quality products. In addition, different materials have impact on fitting.

Moreover, I would like to talk about regular costumers. From the first visit, they compared products they bought with other brands (they already knew), found out more information about the label, maybe had a conversation with other people who had experience in purchasing goods form us, or supplying company. In addition, they tried those items themselves, and if they were happy about the purchase, those customers tend to come back. When they come, they know what they want, as they experienced this, information turned to knowledge.

As we always ask if customers are happy with a purchase, we find out a lot of additional information about the product, although we have knowledge about a product, but costumer’s opinion is just information to us. In addition, we have to study about these issues, in order to deepen our knowledge.

To conclude, I think data, information and knowledge has different meanings in different content. As you can see from my example, some elements are data for a customer, and information for me, or information for a customer and knowledge for me, or knowledge for both of us.
Finally yet importantly, I think there is no linear connection between data, information and knowledge, as knowledge can create new information, and you need to have knowledge to come to data.

References:
Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L. (1998), Working Knowledge – How Organizations Manage What They Know. Harvard Business School Press.
Debowski, S. (2006) Knowledge Management.
Evans, C. (2003) Managing for Knowledge. HR’s strategic role.
Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation.
Krogh, V.G., Ichijo, K. and Nonaka, I (2000) Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock The Mystery of Tacit
Tiwana, A. (2003), The Knowledge management Toolkit.
Business Dictionary.com

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/information.html (accessed January 28, 2009).

STRATEGY

2009-01-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

Usually they say business strategy is the foundation of successful business. What is a strategy?
I think strategy is the method used to execute a plan and achieve main objectives. Also strategy is a direction of an organization which illustrates a company's ability to identify what they want to accomplish, when and how it will be done.

Rarely strategies are long-term as external, environmental factors affect the business.

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

2009-01-22T02:27:00.000-08:00

THEORY

Social capital and organizational learning create communities of practice. I came across many articles about CoP benefits within organization. But it’s important to highlight that communities of practice exist everywhere and all of us belong at least to one or few communities of practice (e.g. at work, school, hobbies etc). So what is community of practice (CoP)?

Having analyzed the theory, communities of practice is defined as a group of people bound by informal relationships, who share a concern, a passion about a topic, similar work roles, common context and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002; Lesser, Fontaine and Slusher 2000). E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine and J. A. Slusher (2000) claim that community highlights the personal basis upon which relationships were formed. Practice implies “knowledge in action”. The term practice refers to the dynamic process through which individuals learn how to do their jobs by actually performing tasks and interacting with others performing similar tasks.

According to E. Wenger, R. McDermott and W. M. Snyder (2002), people do not necessarily work together every day, but they meet because they find value in their interactions. As they spend time together, they typically share information, insight and advice. They ponder common issues and explore ideas.

Communities of practice were introduced. According to E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine, J. A. Slusher (2000), communities of practice exists within all organizations. They are formed over time by individuals with a need to associate themselves with others facing similar issues and challenges within an organization. According to E. Wenger (1998), communities of practice fulfill a number of functions of knowledge in an organization. First, communities of practice have a sense of identity, which helps to sort out what they pay attention to, what they participate in, and what they avoid. Second, within communities of practice people tend to exchange and interpret knowledge, spread throughout an organization. In addition, in communities of practice the tacit aspects of knowledge are preserved. This makes it easier to initiate newcomers into a practice, which brings everyone up to the highest standards.

Although, some communities grow fast while others needs more time to establish properly. In E. Wenger, R. McDermott and W. M. Snyder (2002) opinion, yet in both cases, organizations can do a lot to create an environment in which they can prosper: valuing the learning, they do, making time and other resources available for their work, encouraging participation and removing barriers. Otherwise, communities of practice will still exist, but there are unlikely to achieve their full potential. Therefore, organizational (e.g. face-to-face regular meetings), and technological (e.g. web-based) infrastructures are created to support collaboration, interaction, learning within community and creation of new knowledge.

According to E. Wenger (1998), new technologies such as the Internet have extended the reach of our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities. In fact, it expands the possibilities for community and calls for new kinds of communities based on shared practice.

In addition, it is important to highlight that in so many cases, social networks are mistaken with communities of practice. Therefore, as social networks helps communities to link globally with loads of people for companionship, knowledge sharing, learning, and social support from their homes and workstations, social networks are tools to support communities of practice.

To provide an example what social networks are about, checked few websites in the internet, and I came across are so many different types of social networks. Classical examples are Facebook and MySpace (everyone knows those two), Ecademy and LinkedIn is used for business purpose, Italki is created for those who are learning languages and willing to help others to learn, LibraryThing is mainly for book lovers. Social networks are also created to support communities form specific countries (e.g. Sweden, Hungary, England, Lithuania, etc) or communities which are practicing chosen religion (e.g. social network – Muxlim, a Muslim portal site).

To conclude, I think communities of practice are beneficial not just for organizations, but also for individual self-improvement, especially if it is supported within social networks. Face-to-face meetings makes interactions easier, as the bond between community members are strengthen. But social networks helps you to connect with so many different communities at the same time, so you don’t have to travel, or sacrifice your time to attend to all those face-to-face meetings, which is not possible anyway. Community of practice within organization should be supported, in order to improve organizational performance to the highest standards. By removing the barriers for organizational learning, knowledge sharing and analyzes of best practices organization ensures competitive advantage among those who do not.

PRACTICE

My example is based on personal experience (as we do not have any communities of practice within working environment). The example is about community of practice that became an organization.

Around 7 years ago, there was a group of people, with different levels of education, from different organizations. They used to meet on regular basis, as all of them had a passion for deep house music, which was not popular in Lithuania. The purpose of community of practice was to exchange knowledge about specific music genres or disc jockeying (as some of them had a hobby for experimenting with music), share information about new releases, exchange vinyls, etc. As they lacked time to meet more often, usually they used social networks (such as MySpace, messengers etc.) in order to make interaction easier among the members of community. Also occasionally, they organized musical events to gather all members and enjoy the music.

As they did their events in different bars, that everyone could attend, this community of practice started to expand, as newcomers were impressed with the genuine interest to deep house music among members and their way of partying left unforgettable impression. Newcomers start joining the community of practice. Social Network such a MySpace helped them tighten bonds between old members and newcomers. It made them easier to send invitations for upcoming Events, and get the information about who is attending and who is not and share their musical knowledge.

After a while they created their own website, that everyone could find information about their community of practice, all newest updates, information about new releases and events without being a member of a social network (because some people do not have time to maintain their profiles within social network).

As events became very successful, they started taking symbolic fee for entrance in order to rent a better venue for next event. After a while, these people realized that community of practice takes over their life (work, other hobbies, personal life). Moreover, community was still expanding, there was more and more people coming to their events. Few of them decided to quit their jobs, and turn community of practice to an organization, as they identified a demand for specific events, that plays deep house music.

The organization now has boundaries and main goal (to open their own venue for specific audience that demands deep house music) and every person is assigned with specific tasks. To create an organization was a very risky decision, because no one of them had enough experience how to run organization. Although, every person in this organization had different education and experience from different work environments (e.g. one of them was working in the marketing sector, the other – with arts, third used to be a lawyer, and fourth – social worker). Form the beginning they indentified the need to learn form each other as well as to acquire new knowledge from outside sources. They started to hold regular staff meetings to solve problems, discuss the situation, apply best practices, learn from experience etc. In addition, all of them belong to different communities of practice outside the organization. As all of them individually acquire new knowledge from other communities of practice, they implement that knowledge within their organization trough regular staff meeting.

Social Networks became a tool to support the communities of practice they belong to, also it is a tool to support their business as well. For example, social networks help them with marketing for specific category. Although, they advertise their events on TV, magazines etc, social networks helps them inform all people who are definitely interested in their parties (to send them invitations, update with the newest information, available dates and tickets. also to get a feedback of who’s attending and who’s not). It is completely free and guarantees successful revenue.

To conclude this example, communities of practice can turn to organizations. It does not matter how big or small the organizations, communities of practice are crucial, as they improve organizational problem solving, decision making and knowledge sharing between employees. In addition, social networks helps people to become a member of loads of communities of practice, also to gain more knowledge that could be shared within their organizations (which is very beneficial). Moreover, social network can be used for marketing purpose as well as a tool to support community of practice.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

2009-01-18T13:14:00.000-08:00

Trying to explain Knowledge Management I should start with the meaning of Data, Information and Knowledge.
In my opinion data can exist in any form and it doesn't have any meaning. It could be the raw of different symbols, numbers and facts.

In my opinion knowledge is information and experience when shared. In other words knowledge is not just information or facts we know, but is also knowing how and having an ability to do certain things.

So, generally speaking, KM can't exist if knowledge is not shared! KM is more social aspect, when people share the knowledge, learn form each other, they capture what they know, use it, reuse it and etc.
Successful KM can improve organization performance and efficienty.

A BIT INFO ABOUT ME

2009-01-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hey! My name is Vaida! I am 24 year old from a beautiful country - Lithuania! I'm very ambitious person, so that's how I end up doing my masters in Middlesex University, I believe is an amazing opportunity to gain new skills, meet different people from around the world and get the experience nescessary!

I'm currently working in the retail sector, which is not really my cup of tea! I decided to do MSc in Business information systems management because I believe the skills and knowledge I'm going to get are crucial for my present and future.