adoption curve dot net

You know when in an idle moment you say ‘oh go on’ to a mad idea, and it suddenly takes on a life of it’s own?

Erm. Didn’t quite expect this.

Mike Gotta – technology analyst with Meta Group – gives his/their views on social software trends:

Bottom Line: Innovative decision makers and early adopters will avoid the mistakes of the past (underestimating the impact of the Web) by allocating discretionary funding in 2004 for blog pilots as part of an iterative effort to construct a broader business case for social computing.

Business Impact: Sharing personal knowledge and enabling connections across peer groups are important best practices that improve workplace performance and innovation.

Analyst firms have a mixed record on predictions made in the past (weren’t we all supposed to be living in caves by now as a result of Y2K?), but these seem pretty uncontroversial conclusions…

Knowledge management is one of the hottest business topics around at the moment, not least because organisations increasingly realise that the store of knowledge held by their employees is one of the main ways in which they can differentiate themselves from their competition. Phrases like “our people are our greatest asset” are proof that organisations are beginning to realise that capturing knowledge, and using it to add value, is one of the most important problems that they face.

One of the well-established models of knowledge differentiates between “tactit” and “explicit” knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the formally-expressed knowledge that’s found in books, manuals, data and formulae and the like; while tacit knowledge is the highly-personal “what we know” – insights and intuitions. The problem for organisations is that it’s often tacit knowledge that’s the most vital – but at the same time, it’s the most difficult to capture and classify.

The creation of knowledge within an organisation occurs as a result of the interactions of explicit and tacit knowledge, in the process of knowledge conversion. This is where both types of knowledge increases in both quality and quantity. One useful model of this process is the SECI process – which stands for socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation. In this post I’ll explain the SECI process and explain where wikis and weblogs can help.
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