Posted by Denham on November 01, 1999 at 17:12:20:

In Reply to: Still, why? posted by Reilly Atkinson on November 01, 1999 at 16:11:56:

Well Reilly,

I'm not seeing much outsourcing of KM in the marketplace, where this is mostly taking place is around helpdesks. What happens most often, is that KM migrates away from IM within the firm. Sometimes this is due to IM / IT having their hands full trying to install or tame their architecture and apps, mostly it is because the KM leaders and champions come from other departments and IT just does not get the people side of collabortion and sharing. Perhaps it is an interest / motivation thing, traditional IT folk IMO just do not seem to get very excited about organizational learning, sharing, making meaning, supporting identities, gathering and taking intellectual capital and other intangibles to the market.

I agree there are IT shops that have made the transition and shift to KM, but they are few and far between (mainly Notes driven) and their focus remains technology, application programming and document or multimedia centric.

Why make a distinction, (not a separation!) between KM & IT?, for me the focus is different, the issues and opportunities are not the same, the interventions are dissimilar, the goals and reasons behind the work (drivers) come from separate planets, the skills, sensitivities, competencies and motivations needed, show a wide divergence and IM / IT folk just have a hard time with KM, it is not an easy, natural or wished for, transition for the staff. Simply it also makes pratical sense in terms of my consulting business and how company leadership sees things.

Seems there is ample evidence the market believes these are different animals too, judging by the number of KM, LO and OD conferences, books and training courses. I think it is hard to deny there is something in the wind, is some of it market hype?, you bet, is there some artificial niche creation and segmentation?, sure thing, is there a fundamental underlying shift underway?, I believe so.

---

Follow Ups:

• Re: Still, why? Ron de Weijze 19:30:02 11/11/99 (0)

---

Click Here to Post Follow Up in New Forums

    Knowledge Management Think Tank (New)

  

 Subject: 

Message: