The Past 48 Hrs...

What have I been doing these days…Well, nothing major…Let me give you a run down of my last two days…

I was in Houston for APQC’s 12th Annual Knowledge Management Conference and Training: Knowledge Management and Innovation (www.apqc.org). On the evening of the 9th, I had dinner with Robert (Bob) H. Buckman [Retired Chairman of the Board, Bulab Holdings] and his daughter Katherine Buckman Gibson [Chairman of the Board, Bulab Holdings]. I have known Bob for about 2 years now. The two of us get excited about two topics– knowledge management and organizational innovation. This was my first meeting with Kathy. Kathy is a delightful person. She is guiding Buckman Labs into an exciting future. During dinner, we discussed a number of issues ranging from organizational innovation issues, to information disconnects and organizational fragmentation, cross-cultural issues, and the School of Information of the University of Washington.

[P.S. the Olivette restaurant at the Houstonian is wonderful…if you get a chance, go by and have a meal…delightful!]

After dinner ended, I met up with Roberto Evaristo, a long-time colleague, collaborator, and friend. Roberto is playing an active role in the KM Program Office of 3M. We indulged in a few choice liquids, and spent the time getting caught up on various happenings in our lives.

May 10: I got on a conference call at 6 AM, and barely had chance to check my emails. Then, it was breakfast with Roberto. During breakfast we had a chance to discuss business, and get ready for our talk. After breakfast, we headed to the conference. I got a chance to catch up with several colleagues (there are too many to name but here are a few…Gerry Swift, Darcy Lemons, Carla O’Dell, Marisa Brown, Louis Archuleta, Ann Majchrzak…).

I then attended a talk given by Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia.org, and chairman, Wikia.com. Jimmy talk was engaging, thoughtful, and creative. The talk focused on the development of Wikipedia, its current state, the future plans. I learnt a lot from the talk. One of the things that I will use in my classes is the concept of designing technology by thinking about how one would design a restaurant. Jimmy went on to talk about how students are using Wikipedia for their term papers. To all my student readers: do not use Wikipedia as a reference, just like you would not use Encyclopedia Britannica. Wikipedia should be used to help you gain deeper knowledge about a topic and also to identify primary and secondary sources for further consultation.

The next item on the agenda - Organizational Innovation Processes: The case of 3M, a presentation by Kevin C. Desouza and J Roberto Evaristo. I opened the presentation by setting the stage for the innovation process framework. Roberto then examined each stage of the process and cited practices in place at 3M for conducting activities in each stage. An engaging Q&A session followed (we ran over our allotted time!).

Then, my taxi was waiting, and I headed back to the Airport to fly back to Seattle…

All in all, a fairly calm and uneventful two days…

P.S. I am writing this Blog entry while on my flight back to Seattle…A good way to spend time…currently we are at 30,000 feet and beginning our descent into SEATAC…