Far Wise in Knowledge Management

A concept game about future ways of working

My former colleagues at Novay (was: Telematica Instituut) have developed a "concept game" on future work. I read that it came online in May'09, but I missed the launch and saw it today. The game consists of 59 cards that each describes a concept on working in the future. Participants (you, it's all in English!) can choose the 3 concepts they support most and the 3 concepts they support least.

59 Cards to read is a lot (too much maybe) and to choose is not easy. There are many good ideas among the cards and there are ideas that I think are alreay implemented in some form. Some concepts just don't have my interest (but may be a good idea). What I find a good idea now may be related to problems I recognize in my current job. I recognise concepts from our study on information overload, collaborative work. Some ideas will not work in a work environment as I have now, with cubbicles. We have a lot of discussions here about disruptions, since the way the cubicles are set up, it's almost impossible not to disrupt neighbouring colleagues when you talk with someone else.

The cards in the game look nice and I like that you can move them, which helped me in selecting the 3 ideas I like most and least. The concepts I liked least were easiest to pick:

• (5) Gesture interface: Control your computer with arm, hand and finger movement
• (33) SpotMe: Device that helps you to contact others
• (58) Wake-up Calendar: Best time of waking up, taking your activities into account

The best are much harder to select. Here is my choice, though not a convinced choice:

• (28) Flow workspace: A virtual workspace that helps block distractions
• (35) My home is my castle: Work concentrated at home and use office for the collaborative, social part
• (56) Social search: Don't find information but people, the person with the expertise

It is called a "game", I think it's a nice-looking information gathering (survey) tool!

I want a world-wide view

I don't know how Google search works, but apparently Google knows I am located in Canada (or in the past in France and the Netherlands). Although I never choose the option 'pages from Canada' but 'the web', the hits on the first page mostly come from the country of location. The results I get from the same input in Canada is different from when I am in France or in the Netherlands. It really annoys me. I want a broad perspective, a world-wide view! And not 'please give me everything that is close-by, because I don't care what's there in the rest of the world'.

50 Green energy gadgets

Everybody is on holidays, work is becoming quiet, so time for some fun. Here is a list of 50 green energy gadgets (found in Wired Gadget Lab).  I love the Wind-Helmet Power Generator, it's hilarious!  [But I should add that most are pretty serious and I support any suggestion to save energy]

"The Wind-Helmet has a windmill in your helmet. Wind flows over the helmet, through the propeller in the rear, and stores energy in a set of rechargeable batteries for later use. Although there are a lot of power chargers out there, the Wind-Helmet allows for you generate power with something you will already be using."

Lost in knowledge translation

One of the tasks of the new team in which I'm now involved in my new job, is to accelerate knowledge from research into use. The terms they use for this is knowledge translation and transfer. In good tradition of government where there is an acronym for everything, it is called KTT. Knowledge transfer is a concept I'm familiar with, knowledge translation is something I have a vague perception of what it means, but not more than that. To better understand the topic, I looked in some sources.