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Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Silicon Snake Oil and Knowledge Management

Increasing popularity of the K-buzzword 'Knowledge Management' is resulting in an unsurpassed 'bandwagon effect' in which many commercial vendors and publishers are trying to sell all kinds of 'silver bullet' solutions and 'certifications' for endowing the more earthly beings with knowledge management capabilities and expertise. How does one go about assessing the legitimacy and credibility of such overhyped initiatives and certifications that often compete for a share of the consumer's wallet? In other words, how does a KM-consumer predict if the promised solutions and certifications will deliver the bang for the buck?

In this world of decreasing half-life of ideas, @BRINT has been one of the cyber-pioneers behind the new thinking at the intersection of business and technology issues including Knowledge Management. Over the learning process of last 4-5 years, we had the fortune of sharing our learning about many of these issues with our global community of peers. We have enjoyed serving the interests of the community while trying to embrace with open arms other alternative initiatives that have later emerged on the Net. We sincerely believe that increasing diversity of viewpoints and perspectives adds to the richness of knowledge that all of us possess -- as well as to the potential of developing new knowledge.

However, despite our all-embracing approach, it is often painful to observe that some very recent initiatives have tried to blatantly plagiarize not only the contents but also the intellectual property of this "melting pot of ideas." The intent of this message is not to point fingers of blame at competing initiatives that are often riding under the garb of "rigorous and scientific research", but to caution the members of the community to beware of such un-original initiatives. Agreed that copying may often be considered the greatest kind of flattery, however, there is expected to be an unwritten code of honor among those professing to lead the world in areas such as 'Knowledge Management'…

Hence, with extreme sadness we need to share with the community that often when we allow a 'thousand flowers to bloom,' some of those flowers may try to sustain themselves -- as parasites -- by living of those who have laid the path. Agreed that sharing is great and knowledge grows by sharing, however, let those aiming to be the leaders of the world beware that they are under constant watch when their actions border on unethical and illegal activities such as plagiarism. How does one detect plagiarism? By remembering where you saw what, and where you see the "exact expression of the idea" [including graphics such as
] later - technically that is called copyright infringement. Similarly, if you observe a certain reserved mark [such as 'knowledge metaportal' (tm)] being used by one owner and you see the same mark being used by a 'new kid on the block,' it suggests an instance of intellectual copyright infringement.

The key object of sharing this message with the stakeholders of the Knowledge Management community is motivated by the questions and communications that you have shared with us online and off-line. Some such communications have often inquired about the legitimacy and validity of some non-profits 'selling' "certifications" for every new management concept that is visible on the horizon. To all those seeking knowledge in terms of similar artifacts, this is time for reiterating the note of caution that we had resonated long ago: "Caveat Emptor." Beware of what you are getting and those delivering the "certifications" of 'whatever' is hot at the moment. Ask yourself a simple question before trusting them with your time and money: "If they have to stoop to blatant infringement of intellectual property and 'expression of ideas' of others… do they have what it takes to deliver 'original knowledge' to you?"

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Knowledge Management and Snake Oil Salesmen

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