1. where have all the women CEOs gone?
2. are there any women CEOs?
3. are women leaders in knowledge management?

I received the March 2010 issue in the mail yesterday and was rather excited to read who the latest and greatest companies are in knowledge management, but for some reason i can not get past the front page….I can not get over the fact that there are only 2 women represented on the cover

the article is 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management.

So ask about women in knowledge management…..where are you?

click away and enjoy

Animator vs Animation

which of course tells me about this suicide bomber and that as well as the newest and latest issues with interrogation…it had me thinking  what do usability engineers and interrogators have in common?

the art of developing a question right?

“The objective of any interrogation is to obtain the maximum amount of usable information possible in the least amount of time.”  globalsecurity.org

i know professionally a usability engineer may not want to be grouped into the same category as an interrogator but let us take a minute to break this theory out….

an interrogator is trained in: human psychology and the art of question creation and asking

a usability engineer is trained in: human psychology the art of question creation and asking

i don’t know this but i don’t think an interrogator is trained in the art of brutal intimidation but i could be wrong and this of course would be the glaring difference between the two disciplines….

it is an interesting topic and an interesting debate

i am curious to what people may say….

i add this link to an article put out by boxes and arrows which is about the quick and dirty usability test. when you read this article it becomes clear that the process and the method between interrogation and user testing are VERY VERY different but what i am comparing is the art of creating the question could these two professionals actually help each other define the art of questioning?

I really enjoyed this post about Dunkin Donuts

I have lots of feeling about Dunkin Donuts since they have been on the radar for marketing and branding since the 80’s…..perhaps there marketing campaign is what drove me towards usability…..(another topic for another day)

for Bob Gilbreath’s chit chat about this marketing campaign…….

Dunkin Donuts – Marketing with Meaning

it is great simple explanation on why usability testing is important

please take a minute and check it out….if you have not been sold on why or how to conduct a usability test perhaps this will help

today i am on the hunt of all things taxonomy

i have built taxonomies before. i have built highly structured ones and i have built ones that go with the business model of the organization and i feel that each are relevant for there own purpose.

came across an interesting article the other day in KM World: Folksonomy folktales

i have had several debates with myself on this very subject, txonomy and folksonomy

in the library world many librarians thing folksonomy is dead, just another way to categorize that obviously is not as good as the library of congress subject headings….but the little librarian in me does not agree

let me step back a minute and not totally recite my resume but give a bit of background info…..currently i am a usability engineer with a very long standing record of working in libraries (primarily digital libraries) i am a visual artist with a very strong opinion on how things work and if they don’t work well then i will make it clear as to how it could work better

i have been like this since i was a kid so it was natural to go into user interface design so here i am a user interface designer reading KM world and designing taxonomies.

so here i am designing a taxonomy for a content rich site that is so so super specialized that i am not sure there is any other way of doing this then creating a customized unstructured taxonomy and using folksonomy to help with the search engine optimization

i leave you all with no visuals today…..but i do ask for opinions

we know that knowledge is not data or information

we do know that knowledge is something that sits in ones head until it is released like a flock of birds

we also know that knowledge sharing can save a company millions of dollars or at least a head ache of not repeating the same mistakes made by bebe when she buys her coffee from the guy in the blue hair

anyways that was a side rant

the argument i keep running across is whether capturing and discovery are the same and what the real differance is between content oriented and process oriented tasks.

for one thing it is clear that one task is about the “know what” and the other task is about the “know how”

but do you have to know how before you you know what?

does it really matter?

let us think about a cup of tea

do you have to know how to make a cup of tea before making it? at what point to we include instinct as a process?

and once we have completed a task do we capture it or discover it?

i have created a

knowledge-management pptx of some things knowledge management it does not really delve into these topics with toooo much detail but it does start to define some of the methodologies of KM and KS

i am curious to know what people think, what is the difference and what practices do you use do you capture first than discover? do you identify the process or the content first?

did the chicken or the egg come first?

the fishbone diagram was design in 1960 (because all good things came out of the 60’s right?) by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa. The purpose of the diagram is to analyze the effects and what causes these effects.

in basic terms it is a diagram of cause and effect

which for any usability engineer this is wonderful very very wonderful

usually when we go about addressing an issue we need to ask a series of questions and than ask even more questions once we have gotten to an answer but for the most part we need to answer these basic questions:

• Need to study a problem/issue to determine the root cause?
• Want to study all the possible reasons why a process is beginning to have difficulties, problems, or breakdowns?
• Need to identify areas for data collection?
• Want to study why a process is not performing properly or producing the desired results?

(http://quality.enr.state.nc.us/tools/fishbone.htm)

i have come across a tool that will allow you to create a fishbone diagram on-line and http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fishbone/

anyways before i go off track here there are major categories that are typically used to label each bone of  a fishbone diagram these are suggested but not required:

• The 4 M’s:
  • Methods, Machines, Materials, Manpower
• The 4 P’s:
  • Place, Procedure, People, Policies
• The 4 S’s:
  • Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills

  (http://quality.enr.state.nc.us/tools/fishbone.htm)

so lets start creating diagrams to help bebe figure out how to get coffee without crying
oh last but not least and a subject that will require its own post is the question why
DO NOT forget to ask why at least five times to fully understand what the probelm is…..

for example:
why is the chicken not laying eggs?
because she is too busy
why is the chicken too busy?
because she needs to make a nest
why does she want to build a nest?
because she wants to have chicks
why does she want to have chicks?
because she is a chicken

what did we learn from this a chicken will lay an egg but like all chickens in her own time

odd how one can equate success by how many monitors are up and running. my dream (well one of my dreams) is to be surrounded by monitors….creating a totally sci-fi experience

so my work station does not look like this yet but…….i have three monitors and two video cards…..tomorrow my fingers crossed i will have four monitors
why would anyone need three or even more monitors believe it or not i actually get more work done
i am in the process of implementing cds-invenio
i have two servers going…one as a test and the other soon (fingers crossed) to go live but like with any CMS or DAM it requires a certain amount of customizing in order to make the interface usable for the target audience. with three windows open i am trying to create a cataloging module that can be utilized by two different work flows……
here is an abstract thought for you
how many libraries catalog:
a.) an actual tangible object and
b.) where that object’s photo came from…..
museum libraries are notorious for having this be an issue which is why creating a cataloging module that can make two different set of work flows work is essential (at least for my happiness) that means to make me happy and everyone who has to use the customized modules happy i need lots of monitors!
until next time

and i have to say i did not have great success without going through and renaming my first born to some sort of coding langauge….but i di come across a wonderful alternative

SMI – Begaze