Is abstract knowledge incompatible with literal memorization?

Knowledge Management Tool needed for small team

• My team is having a problem.: Some of us know how to use our various software tools better then others. Sometimes I figure out how to do something cool, but don’t have the time to gather up my team members and show them (or they are busy or not around when I am). These are things that would be very valuable to them and could save them lots of time in the long run. What makes this a challenge is that everyone is very busy, mostly busy taking care of clients. When we have our meetings, they are already too packed to add anything like a software demo. I am too bust to get a demo together anyway. The biggest problem is that we can’t find good software/hardware tools for doing this kind of basic knowledge management. Not big tools for large enterprises, but a small Knowledge Management product(s) that is simple and priced for small groups like our consulting shop. I suspect such a usefully little utility is out there, and I just need some help in finding it. Here is a summary of what we have tried, why it has failed, and what I have seen or heard of. What we have tried #1: The attempt at an Intranet: We tried setting up a tiny Intranet. We asked everyone to find one cool software thing they figured out or learned, and use MS Word and a screen capture utility to make up a quick cheetsheet. We would take these and export them as web pages (from Word), and dump them all into a folder on our small fileserver. We figured that eventually we could tie them together via a Table of contents web page, and that the thing would be searchable and browseable via a web browser. Why it failed: We were all too busy to put together the cheetsheets. Here is what happened to me: I didn’t have the time to write up some text about what I discovered that day or week. To do it right, I would need to spend some time writing, and then would probably also need to include screen shots, and maybe some URLs inside. Word can do all this, and I know how to do it, and even how to save it all out as a web Page, but to produce such a thing takes time and focus. If someone dropped by my desk, I could just sit at my computer and just show it to them in 5 minutes. I forced myself to do 1 or 2 and they took a long time. Also, we ended up with a folder full of Word file on the local server, but no easy way to browse or search them. If you happen to be out of the office, you could connect to the server and search using the find content part of the Windows search tool, but this was slow, tedious, and didn’t do you any good if you were at a client’s site and wanted to connect via a web browser. It is often at a client’s site that the info would be the most useful. The files were not connected enough to browse using IE, even when you were in our office. - CONCLUSTION: The knowledge was too time-consuming to capture. It was also too awkward to find later. But if you did find it, it was easy to recall the knowledge captured. What we have tried #2: Sharing Time at the end of meetings We tried taking 15 minutes at the end of our meetings to go to the Starbucks next door, grab a quick coffee, and one person would bring a laptop and do a quick demo. They have Wi-Fi internet access there, so we could even demo web based stuff. We did a few, and they went OK but in the end the experiment was only a moderate success. What it failed: - The person doing the demo didn’t have to prep a presentation, so no one wanted to present much. - Only 2-3 people can crowd around a laptop’s small monitor. Even 2-3 is hard if you are all sitting around a square table or on Starbuck’s plush chairs. - Later on, when people could really use the tips they had been shown, they already forgot how to do them. There was no video of the event that they could quickly find and watch that they could reference at the moment they needed it. - CONCLUSTION: The knowledge was easy to transmit, but was very hard to capture. It was still too awkward to find and recall the knowledge later. The Raw Elements of our Knowledge: In thinking about how to deal with this problem I started to think about what the raw elements were that we were trying to capture, transmit, and recall. The types of knowledge that we had to share were made up of the follow tangible elements that can, for the most part, all be easily stored on a computer: - Verbal background info (sound files) - URLs (IE Bookmarks) - Screen shots (JPEGs) - Step by Step directions (Word file with numbered steps) - A software example (folder full of files) - Someone combing the above into a step by step presentation (???) Knowledge Management Tools that I saw on the web I looked on the web, and there are many Knowledge Management tools out there (see listing below). The problem is that they are geared towards enterprise-level organizations. I didn’t have time to look at each one, but they seemed like they would be too expensive, complicated, or big in scope for us to use. People Go - Knowledge Stays http://www.fastcompany.com/online/17/wyp17.html Sharing is Daring (Review of eRoom and Intraspect) http://www.networkcomputing.com/1304/1304f2.html Google Directory - Reference Knowledge Management Software http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Knowledge_Management/Software/ Collaboration and Knowledge management - Virtual office and conferencing Tools http://www.collaboration-tools.com/conferencing.htm Knowledge Management Just-in-Time http://workingknowledge.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3049&sid=0&pid=0&t=knowledge How Ray Ozzie Got His Groove Back http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/10/24/ozzie_interview.html Adobe DesignTeam http://studio.adobe.com/about/designteam.html Knowledge Base software from NovaSolutions http://knowledgebase.novosolutions.com/products.html Net-It Central (Intranet Publishing Solution for Collaboration of Documents) http://www.net-it.com/ Research-Desk http://www.winferno.com/p/pcworld3/ zavabntasa http://www.dqsnet.com/knowledgemanagement.html The solution that we need: We need a small Knowledge Management product(s) that is simple and scaled to a group our size. Here are some of the requirements that I suspect such a usefully little utility would need to have: - Have a 4 to 8 seat licensee (or pricing plan), not be geared for 100+ users. - Be a hosted service (like an email provider, or other ISP), or an easy to install program that runs on a simple small office server. We do not have a fancy high end server and related IT skills to configure one or secure such a beast from hackers. - Be simple to use (i.e. somewhat intuitive). We don’t have time to go take a class or learn a significant new software package. - Not require lots of typing (i.e. writing more then 1 or 2 paragraphs). Maybe there is a tool that can capture spoken audio. - Not require lots of preplanning - Built in search function - Ability to search and recall from a PDA or on-line (via a web browser). Most vendors seem to think that Knowledge Management tools are just for the Enterprise. I think that even small group have need to share things like: best practices, tips, raw knowledge. Help!

• Answer:

  sherpaj, Thanks for contacting Google Answers! I think I have just the right tool for your needs. It is free, available on multiple operating systems, highly flexible, web-based, and can with a little effort support your voice capture needs. First, I want to emphasize that the comments other researchers have provided are excellent and right on point. Groove, Lotus Notes, and some Windows-based products serve your need very well. Internally at my company, we use a tool called Wiki for knowledge management. It is gaining a lot of use throughout the web, in many corporations, and some variants can be adapted easily to many different needs. Essentially, Wiki is a straight-text based system, but most variants support attaching files, change control, and threaded commentary. Authentication and strong encryption can be deployed to protect your data. The data is stored in straight text files and can be accessed by any web browser. By recording your meetings or discussions and attaching the files to a Wiki topic with a simple description or commentary, you can capture your voice needs. You can also attach word documents or any other form. It allows you to have a database while, not hierarchical, is full-text searchable and very extensible (look and feel can be highly customized). Some information on Wiki can be found at: TWiki - by Peter Thoeny and company http://twiki.org/ C2 Wiki - the original Wiki http://c2.com/cgi/wiki Different Wiki variants: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines There are also some tools out there to visualize this type of data. I have used these tools at several groups - especially software dev houses - with amazing results. It takes very little effort to learn and since all your editing is done with a web browser the learning curve is very shallow. Just a few quick syntax pointers and you'll be set! For reference, let me talk briefly about the other tools the other researchers have come up with: Lotus Notes is a pretty complex system, but highly flexible. It is designed to be a single source for your information but still remain flexible enough to program specifically to your needs. Think of it as a "heavy" document management database. It also supports threaded discussions, e-mail conversations, and things of that nature. It is not that easy to get external data into automatically, though, which makes it a little limited in smaller knowledge organizations. It also has some cost associated with it. Groove is desktop collaboration software that is designed to draw several disparate sources of information into one desktop. It has specific impact to widely geographically disparate, varied workforces who have a need to collaborate easily and simply. Each project can have its own space, where information is collected. It is fairly easy to use, but is still in its infancy. The Windows tools below are all fairly good. Without knowing more about your type of information in addition to what you have said (specifically, your "working style"), it is hard to judge whether these tools will be valuable for you. I would also advise you check out The Brain (http://www.thebrain.com), Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com), and Mindjet's offerings (http://www.mindjet.com). These are all tools used in many corporate knowledge management initiatives. Also consider something like a "networked" version of sticky notes, there are several out there. Good luck in your search. Knowledge management is becoming increasingly important in today's economy and making an investment in some of this effort will probably save your organization a lot of trouble. I hope I have provided what you looked for, if not drop a request for clarification and i'll provide more. Thanks, arimathea-ga Search methodology: I have done a lot of work in this area, previously using Google to conduct many of my searches. Terms used (in various combinations): knowledge management tracking free-form text voice "attached files" "attach files"