Author: Vince Kimball

Transaction costs, flat firms, and K-Logs.  There is a concept in economics called transaction costs.  These costs are mainly associated with information discovery (I don't know what is in your head, and you don't know what is in mine).  The impact of transaction costs on corporate structure was developed by the economist Ronald Coase in 1937 (see a synopsis of his… Continue reading The Nature of the Firm

Fortune: Don't Go There. Michael Schrage. Substituting bandwidth for presence misunderstands both technology and human nature. People will always travel; people will always telecommunicate. The question is, How well are travel and telecommunications coordinated and integrated? [Tomalak's Realm]

Zeus rips platform to splatter Apache. Version 4, Zeus' first major release since 1997, is 45 per cent faster than Apache in delivering dynamic content such as PHP and “roughly equivalent” in Java performance, executives from Zeus told us today. [The Register]

LiNE Zine: Our Shared Playground. Q&A with Michael Schrage. Looking at the arc of my work, if I have a single “Big Idea” it's the idea of shared space and the media that people use to collaborate, invent, and innovate. Shared spaces were at the core of my first book, Shared Minds, which is about… Continue reading Our Shared Playground

New London Tube map: The traditional, copyrighted London Tube map is a wonder of information design, one that shows the relationship of the lines clearly and concisely. But it's a conceptual map, more about navigating the Tube than about understanding the geographical relationship between the stations. This new Tube map from QuickMap explores both the… Continue reading New London Tube map

APQC: Building and Sustaining Communities of Practice. Quote: “Vestal, who serves as a senior KM consultant and trainer at APQC, said that forcing people to be part of a community would probably not work well in an organization. However, harnessing a common theme will draw people together” [Serious Instructional Technology]

21st Century Knowledge Management: Continuing the thread that Kevin Werbach started. There are three main structures you can hang knowledge off (knowledge is the new word for content). A calendar, a search engine, and a taxonomy (which is a fancy word for directory). He's right that getting people to use special tools to gather knowledge… Continue reading 21st Century Knowledge Management:

Why K-Logs and e-mail integration: What does e-mail integration with K-Logs mean?   Here are some thoughts on how e-mail would work as a: 1) K-Log authoring tool.  E-mail can be used to publish to a K-Log. E-mail systems typically have spell checkers (most K-Log publishing tools do not) and the ability to format HTML through a simple… Continue reading Why K-Logs and e-mail integration:
What does e-mail integration with K-Logs mean?   Here are some thoughts on how e-mail would work as a:

1) K-Log authoring tool.  E-mail can be used to publish to a K-Log. E-mail systems typically have spell checkers (most K-Log publishing tools do not) and the ability to format HTML through a simple point and click interface. It also has nearly ubiquitous (including PDAs and phones) availability. The downside is that it doesn't have the full feature functionality available in a K-Log publishing system: editing and deleting of posts, posting annotated news, the ability to rearrange posts, categorization, etc. At best e-mail K-Log authoring is merely an ad-hoc publishing extension for mobile K-Loggers.

2) Source of content for K-Logs.  E-mail often contains great conversations and content that can gain value through use in a K-Log.  The challenge is to get it to the K-Log tool so that it can be organized and published. Three options exist: a) forward the e-mail by hand, b) manually build rules that forward specific e-mails, or c) use automated systems that generate rules that forward related conent (I haven't seen many of these systems even though they are needed). Once published in a K-Log e-mail conversations and content gain value. They can now be searched by workgroup members via keywords in a semi-public archive, categorized and routed to specific user groups, and organized via an outliner.

3) Mechanism for K-Log alerts or to initiate K-Log workflow.  E-mail, as well as instant messaging, can prompt subscribed workgroup members to visit newly posted content or participate in K-Log workflow. Also since most e-mail systems now support HTML and K-Logs are at core a Web publishing tool, it is possible for individuals to send HTML e-mails that initiate interaction with polls, surveys, ratings, forms (that populates a table or interactive database), image libraries (and resource directories of all sorts), etc. Within a permissive environment, like a corporate or university LAN, all two-way interaction (data entry) can be done directly with a desktop K-Log client via HTTP. In a non-permissive environment with firewalls, the recipient should be able to interact locally with their K-Log client software and relay data to the publisher via the K-Log cloud or P2P. Regardless of the mechanism, two-way interaction with a K-Log, initiated by e-mail, will be a useful addition to K-Logging. [John Robb's Radio Weblog