de Stricker

But the Locals Know!

On a recent road trip, it struck me how often the provincial and local maps' road number designations did not correlate with physical road signs.  Chalking it up to budgetary constraints hindering the placing of signs, I remembered a phenomenon I call 'but the locals know'.

The map shows we needed to get north onto provincial route 37, transferring in the town of Elmin.  We got to Elmin's major lighted intersection - but no route signs are there.  Ah - a police car happens by and we roll down windows to hear that "route 37, that would be Elmin Shore Road, back 2 blocks to your left".  300 feet down that road, indeed a sign says 'route 37'. 

Later that day, we came to an intersection expecting road number signs.  None to be seen - but I espied by noting their shape the back of such signs kitty corner.  Go straight and make a U turn and so indeed we can see the road number signs.  So ... We believe the locals know ... but they are not sharing their knowledge with non-locals through signs.

Translating road sign experience to organizational work raises many questions.  As an example:  If new people came to do work, would clear road signs be there for them ... or would they have to rely on local knowledge?  Making clear signs and relying on local lore each have a cost - up front or as it happens.  What is the greater cost - making up the sign or dealing with the questions?

As Technology Evolves ... How Do We (Want to) Protect Memory

In my youth, I was a prolific letter writer detailing to family and friends the ins and outs of my studies and work. It was amazing to see the cache of letters my father had collected when I went through his papers in Copenhagen in 2002 - every letter from me since the late 60s up until about 1987 was there, constituting "how I presented to my family". What happened in1987?  Telephone rates from North America to Europe dropped.  When it became possible to go from anxious 3-minute calls to leisurely chats because the per-minute cost fell into a manageable range, there was no further reason to sit at the typewriter.  It never occurred to me to consider any kind of legacy or history aspect - I have told friends tongue in cheek how "historians will be at a loss" as to the details of my work after 1987 ... until the web search tools pick up a different trail about 2004 and on, of course.

Organizations dating from before the web may have a similar experience as they used aging media until the web era. If some evidence of current work in an enterprise is largely contained in, say, documents captured in repositories and featured on its intranet and public website, there are well known methods to keep them.  But what about preserving "how we presented to the public any day in 20XX and how all the underlying discussions fed that look?" The Way Back Machine may not be sufficient.

Questions for information professionals planning organizational vaults to protect memory include:  Beyond legal requirements, what do we want to remember - and what do we want the world to be able to discover about us in the past?  How can we feature the value of what we have kept?  How can we trace the evolution of our presence?  How can we ensure our legacy materials are there to support future research?  How could technology developments affect future access by researchers to our collection?

Let me know what you think!

An IKM Awareness Checklist: Part 10 of 10

Summation:

In the previous nine posts, I have touched briefly on common components in the overall landscape of information and knowledge management within organizations - and I do hope I have achieved my goal of providing food for thought and discussion.  I'll round out the series with a few observations I have found to be true relative to IKM work no matter what the type, size, and sector of the organization:

• The various ingredients of IKM - tools, systems, practices - share a feature with calcium supplements:  Consumption alone does not yield bone density.  The supplements have to be properly absorbed through measures such as weight bearing exercise.  No matter what we purchase and how much we spend on infrastructure, information gadgets, and content, their presence alone is not a predictor of successful outcomes.  Measures need to be taken to incorporate them properly for the overall benefit of the enterprise organism; said another way, the organizational culture has to be accommodating for IKM initiatives to work well.
• Change is sometimes painful ... but stick it out through the initial hurdles, and what was once difficult becomes the norm.  Just as the runners say, "I'm out here in the rain before dawn because I really, really want to race in the marathon" so all those leading change in IKM practices need to keep the prize before their eyes:  We made the business case, we got going, we're going to stick with it through the challenging early days until we get to where the new is normal (unless, of course, unexpected extrinsic factors suddenly dictate otherwise).
• Maintaining enthusiasm over time for "doing the right things right" through carefully devised strategies and practices is a daunting challenge because day to day reality has a habit of intervening in the best laid plans.  Frequent and regular checkups are necessary to be sure we are still "with the program" adopted a year ago.  Here, too, a health analogy applies - well expressed in the adage "what we do between Christmas and New Year's Day does not matter - what we do between New Year's Day and Christmas does!" 

I welcome reactions and suggestions for future posts from readers - comment here, or send me an email!