More on Persistent Chat & Knowledge Management
Steve Benton in his book The Wisdom Network alternately expands on and repudiates the stereotypical characterizations of knowledge management. He and his co-author Melissa Giovagnoli put forth a framework for tapping into the hidden knowledge and intellectual capital within a firm’s employees. Even more importantly I think, however, is that they make a case for an entirely network-centric value system. IE, they make a specific and strident point to not become overly enamored with technology, losing sight of the real goal.
They do, however, make a nod to chat, or instant messaging. They describe a spectrum of “people networking” forms, with low-structure and loose expectations at one end, and high structure, high expectations at the other end. Across this range is a variety of common organizational communities. Persistent group chat channels figure prominently at the low-structure, ad-hoc end of the spectrum. For my part, I have seen chat used, for example, to great effect in support of special interest groups or communities of interest.
Steve and Melissa sum up the power of persistent chat very well:
“… The ability to access information quickly, to create online chat rooms, and bulletin boards that invite diverse participation, and to link internal and external communities all contribute to innovation and effective idea generation …”
Cheers,
Eric
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