tfpl blog

Connect: themes and reflections from Berlin

The first tfpl Connect learning and networking event of 2009, took place on the 19th of March, where a panel of ebic 2008 delegates and speakers were invited to reflect on the themes presented at the conference in Berlin last October. The panel was ably chaired by Barbara Linkin (Regional Head of Training and Learning - Kroll).

Reflections on future scenarios for information services

Professor Di Martin - CIO and Dean of Learning and Information Services at the University of Hertfordshire (UoH)

Di's piece focused on the themes of adaptability, business value and people power respectively in a loose reflection of the green, blue and orange world planning scenario sessions from ebic 2008.   

Adaptability: Di related that, in uncertain times, the tendency of management is often precautionary and focuses on maintenance, continuity, consolidation and cost reduction rather than development, change, innovation and investment.  UoH, Di explained, was on a tight rope between these in balancing leadership with innovation and responsiveness.

The importance of focusing on development, change, innovation and investment at a time when we are all under increasing pressure to reduce costs was particularly apt. It is important that we continue to innovate and to develop our people (Melanie Goody, tfpl). (See upgrading talent.)

Business Value: The UoH has exploited learning technologies (virtual desktops) and implemented an e-book strategy (most of the library's collection is now digital) to effectively reach its potential user base.  However, there still remains a great challenge in moving innovative theories and radical thinking into practice.

People Power: staying aware of and accommodating the needs of students and staff was the focus of Di's final theme of people power. Students' first point of call for support are their peers.  This is very different to academic staff who all to often work in a very closed and silo'd fashion.  The challenge here was described as embedding the social networking applications out there into the working routines of staff to create a more open and collaborative culture in line with the new ways in which students work.

Future impact of technology

Iain Simpson - Head of Commercial Insights and Digital Marketing at BDO Stoy Hayward

Iain's slideless and characteristically lively and entertaining presentation touched on the indicators for future trends introduced by Paul Saffo at ebic with an insight into technologies and concepts which he sees as emergent now and tipped for prominence in the future.

1. Iain predicted the death of email from the rise of social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs.  Delegates were sceptical... especially those with some degree of fondess for records!

2. Surface computing and data visualisation (Addictomatic being an example) would come to the fore.  A taster for this in the mainstream would be mobile technology such as the hugely popular iPhone, I can definitely agree here.

3. Virtual worlds would become the norm. Delegates were encouraged to put their fears and scepticism aside and try this out.  Iain showcased BDO's experiment with Second Life which is taking increasing prominence as a cost effective marketing tool for recruiting graduate talent in this recessionary climate.

Enjoyed the event very much, especially Iain's piece.  I have already got our people to look at the Addictomatic as a BD tool.

4. Virtual conferencing has come on leaps and bounds with holographic technology set to take it to new heights.  At the moment, the technology is somewhat restricted in a specially lit/dimmed environment.  All that is needed is a breakthrough in making it more robust and I see no reason why it won't replace long haul business travel.

New business delivery models

Don Roll - Managing Directer of Europe - Alacra

Don delivered, in his own words, a very "practical" and, in mine, a very engaging piece.  He reviewed his three favourite presentations, the themes of which he saw as emerging trends, from ebic 2008:

• A shift to a more networked business to business model
• A demand and realisation for instant, relevant, information
• And a move towards relationship based taxonomy (ontology)

I have to give a speech next week and it was good for me to come and get some presenting tips.

The hardware vendor...which has moved towards a networking and outsourcing business model, presented by Hitachi's Lynn Collier. Don highlighted that business model adopted by organisations such as Hitachi - where everything except the core competency of the business is outsourced - has been quick to catch on among hardware vendors as opposed to the knowledge and information market place. 

I think this kind of model will increasingly be pushed through in other sectors over the coming years given the increasing economic strains almost universally felt by organisations. Hardware vendors have long operated in a highly competitive, low margin environment which has acted as the key driver for managerial and structural innovation.

The information vendor... adding value and competitive edge by moving beyond the search box, presented by Dow Jones/Factiva's Mark Bootherstone.  Don recalled Mark's proposition that information overload has evolved into relevancy overload:  clients and consumers want to know what is important right now. 

Powering tomorrow's instant knowledge.

In addressing this relevancy challenge, Dow Jones/Factiva has developed techniques and technology to aggregate and present content in such a way that requires minimum effort from the consumer (e.g. visualised information as opposed to text) to interpret.

The semantic software vendor... proposing a solution to the ever amassing search problem using a technique of content 'ontology', presented by SmartLogic's Jeremy Bentley.

Don touched on Jeremy's supermarket analogy where coporate content was compared to tin cans on supermarket shelves, sorted into broad categories except without any labels (meta data) on the individual tins (content). Smartlogic has developed middleware (Semaphore) which embeds into the corporate information search engine. It autotags and identifies content from faceted navigation, disambiguation, and broader-than and narrower-than searches in addition to bringing mainstream search engine functionality.

Some interesting resources and information suggested by Don:

• AlacraPulse (information aggregator) which interestingly has its own Twitter account
• Kosmix - an ontology based search engine
• comScore report on the usage of mobile internet

In addition to the rich and entertaining presentations, the delegates were presented with an opportunity, customery at tfpl events, to grow and renew their networks.  Our MD, Darron Chapman, had this to say:

We were delighted that the new format for TFPL Connect proved so successful. The presentations highlighted and developed a number of the themes which emerged at our conference (ebic).

The formal sessions were thought-provoking and stimulating and I really enjoyed revisiting the topics to test whether the predictions made in October were becoming reality.  I’m looking forward to the death of e-mail but can’t quite see it happening yet! 

I am also very pleased that the majority of participants stayed on to socialise – both old and new contacts networked energetically and it’s clear that the move to evening meetings makes it easier for our members to come along.

Reinventing management with Julian Birkinshaw at ebic

Our second keynote speaker did not disappoint. Julian Birkinshaw delivered an inspirational presentation on the evolution of management. However, before Julian's eagerly anticipated contribution, we gained a valuable insight into the KIM supplier and media market from:

• Mark Bootherstone, European marketing director of Dow Jones, who gave a fascinating insight into how his organisation is moving forward and beyond the search box in researching and delivering news relevant to its subscribers. 
• Jeremy Bentley, the managing director of Smartlogic, outlined the indexing challenge which unstructured corporate data poses to organisations today and a look into the innovative techniques vendors must address that challenge with.
• Lynn Collier, director of archive and compliance solutions at Hitachi, gave an overview of how her organisation has adapted its R&D to meet the new global challenges it faces.  The separate business unit R&D functions of this transnational corporation have been networked to link and apply innovation across its seemingly unrelated areas of business.

The premise of Julian’s speech was that management should be reinvented before it consumes managers.

Julian described variety as the lifeblood of progress yet management is very limited in the variety of practice it applies. To illsutrate, Julian gave some interesting and different management models which go against the grain of convention:

• TopCoder, a software development organisation which tenders projects through its global network of freelance developers. The best solution is then selected and the successful developer is rewarded financially and additionally gains repute and recognition from his peers.

• Happy Computers for its unique management and recruitment policies in which CVs were completely disregarded in favour of bringing applicants in to participate in training sessions.  Applicants are selected on the basis of their performance during these sessions.

Julian then proposed his framework for the rethinking of management in light of the technological and human drivers of today and the foreseeable future where:

• Objectives would move from being goal-driven to oblique, a move described as the cornerstone of long term profitability.  Oblique goals give the organisation a direction in which to work as opposed to an outcome based vision - so what happens if you achieve your goal? Two contrasting mission statement examples were provided:

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Exxon Mobil	IKEA
“We must continuously achieve superior financial and operating results while simultaneously adhering to high ethical standards."	“To create a better everyday life for the many people.”

• Individual motivation would be managed intrinsically instead of extrinsically where the discretionary human attributes initiative, creativity and passion would be accommodated.  This is contrary to sole reliance on the contract-able (outsource-able) attributes of employees such as obedience, competence and diligence which are associated with high staff turnover.  To illustrate, Julian emphasised two factors which are and will increasingly impact on the management environment.  One is the widespread expectation of generation Y that the workplace should be less restrictive of social activity and the other focuses on the new challenges to KIM that new “Web 2.0” technologies will pose.  Julian further highlighted that the most committed employees also tend to be the ones whom spend the most time on non-work related social matters, using W2O media, during work hours.

• Management will shift from a bureaucratic to an emergent focus which would simplify co-ordination and processes by allowing them to shape themselves into models which work best for a given organisation.

• And decision making would draw increasingly from collective wisdom which is more reliable than individual wisdom alone. An argument anecdotally supported by reference to Who wants to be a Millionaire? where the expert (call a friend) was right only 65% as opposed to 91% of the time when the audience was consulted.

The message that I got from Julian's presentation is that despite what the management FAD of the day is - the principles of an organisation's management structure and processes should be formed as a result of an iterative process - and one size does not fit all. 

The Social Impact Award at the Schloss-Charlottenburg

Thursday gave delegates and facilitators alike a chance to unwind following a rigorous two days of content and activity packed conference proceedings. After a prompt one hour site seeing coach tour through the vibrant and beautiful streets of Berlin - during which our lovely guide inadvertently highlighted the difference in German and Anglo-Saxon humour several times (to our amusement) - the evening took off with the conference dinner and entertainment at the magnificent Schloss-Charlottenburg.

As well as the fantastic food, delegates enjoyed and took advantage of this opportunity, with the aid of alcohol, to find out a little more about each other.

Richard Kellett-Clarke and Roger James then took stage to announce the winner of the ebic 2008 Social Impact Award. 

Deaf Parenting UK’s Asif Iqbal won the award for his two-person organisation in recognition of their extraordinary KIM achievement by delegates. 

Echoing popular regret among delegates that the other Fellows would leave empty-handed despite their fantastic achievements, Richard Kellett-Clarke, in a surprise announcement, awarded each of the runners up a €500 consolation prize courtesy of Idox Group.

Delegates were then whisked back to the Kempinski Hotel where networking continued... in some cases (myself and some prominent colleagues who shall remain nameless included) to the very early hours of Friday morning.

The Green, the Blue and the Orange

The schedule for Thursday 2nd of October saw ebic 2008 depart from the kind of conference proceedings you would normally expect with the introduction of an eagerly awaited and innovative scenario session.  But first, Tony Sheehan, Di Martin and Jessica Frankel gave us their take on current and future issues around KIM in large organisations. 

• Tony Sheehan presented 10 challenges, using Arup as a case study, which affect KIM in organisations today;
• Di Martin stressed a proactive KIM policy as paramount to maintain the relevance and efficiency of today’s higher education library services;
• and Jessica Frankel predicted the demise of the corporate library with the commoditisation of information and the continued drive to outsourcing, which she stressed is not always the solution despite what management may think.

After lunch, the scenario sessions kicked off and we got down to the business of the day with delegates breaking up into groups to take turns debating in each of the three worlds. Just to recap:

The Green World: Companies Care

• Social responsibility dominates the corporate agenda and
• concerns about demographic changes, climate and sustainability become the key business drivers.

The Blue World: Corporate is King

• Big company capitalism rules as
• organisations continue to grow and
• individual preferences trump beliefs about corporate social responsibility.

The Orange World: Small is Beautiful

• Companies begin to breakdown into collaborative networks of smaller organisations and
• specialisation dominates the world economy.

The Green World – Companies Care

The discussion commenced with some initial confusion as to whether we were actually in the Green world.  Before getting round to debating the question at hand delegates spent some time reinforcing their understanding of the world by running through some of the political, economic, social and technological drivers that would bring such a world to being, those were:

                                       

Political	Economic	Social	Technological
Green   legislation	Increasing oil prices	Popular   demand	Technology   which masters the physical interactions of human beings such as Halo.
Non-compliance   penalties	Energy savings	More significant culture shift to green	Availability of green fuel
Taxation	Customer/client   pressure	Trust only in green co.s
	Damage   to Reputation

The significant developments/events/trends that will impact on KIM activity that delegates in this session came up with follow:

• Local human resourcing to cut out the travel involved in global expertise sourcing.

• A push towards remote collaboration/interaction to negate business travel

         o    Which may give rise for a need to archive e-conversations
         o    And a greater difficulty in justifying business trips to management

• Green information legislation

         o    “Open source green knowledge” along the lines of FoI
         o    which would perhaps require a knowledge “gatekeeper” or facilitating officer
         o    to implement consistency in green practice throughout the organisation.

• The need to embed a green corporate culture, necessitating employee training

The Blue World – Corporate is King

The conversation, similarly to the green world, initiated with a contextual discussion on how corporations would operate.  Would the company swallow up smaller players or would it primarily operate through subcontracting?  Who would hold the balance of power, employees or the corporation? Would there be room for individual innovation in the latter case and as such should the knowledge manager become the “crucible for innovation”, an innovation broker?

In discussing what KIM activity would ensure success in this world, delegates posited:

• the ability to capture the value of KM successes and present them in a language that makes them understood and appreciated by management and accountants;

• the development and maintenance of a mechanism within a potentially strict hierarchical environment which would ensure a voice for marginal employees and departments;

• the promotion of clear corporate vocabulary within the framework of - what would likely be - a tightly structured information strategy;

• ensuring the effective delivery of relevant business intelligence from information vendors (which may be the primary source for data as in-house equivalents become a redundant expense)

• supporting the proliferation of initiatives which would most likely be top-down from an apolitical/non-partisan stand point;

• and that the management of networks, supporting technology and best use of available human resources - for the encouragement of innovation in a potentially rigid corporate environment - would be key.

The Orange World – Small is Beautiful

Given the networked and thus naturally KM aligned nature of this world, we got straight down to business here.  The question required us to discuss the KM roles and skills which would be most valued by organisations in such a scenario.

• It was immediately decided that knowledge managers would be more integral to the daily operations in such a world, perhaps as brokers between disparate professional and commercial networks.
• It was then proposed that in an environment where organisations are small and resources limited, that most workers would require training in the basic tenets of knowledge management so the role for experts may perhaps lie in consultation and training.
• The KM function would additionally be essential to project managers in locating and recruiting the human resources they require.
• Knowledge managers as experts would be additionally required to stay in tune with skill locations and information within the right networks (as knowledge harvesters).
• Such a scenario may give rise to a KM guild, or multiple knowledge agencies which would compete for the custom of the many small organisations. 

Our diligent facilitators and reporters were on hand in each of the three worlds to stimulate and record the debate in each world covering all three questions.  The outputs are being consolidated as I write and will be with us at the end of October - and will definitely make for interesting reading.

Tomorrow’s talent, citizens of the future, tomorrow’s content and tomorrow’s enabling technology

Bill Parsons, Ewan McIntosh, Melanie Goody and David LeCore shared their insight on tomorrow’s talent, citizens of the future, tomorrow’s content and tomorrow’s enabling technology during the second half of day one at TFPL's ebic 2008 conference in Berlin last week.   

Bill Parsons argued that organisations would have to align with issues relevant to the future work force, such as the environment, to attract new talent. This new talent would also demand new technology which will enable it to operate and interact with others beyond what is seen today as the normal work environment. Another trend identified by Bill was that the future’s talented workers would largely determine their job prospects by location rather than vocation. Finally, Bill argued that there is a correlation between how enjoyable and fun a workplace is and its attractiveness to new talent.

The crux of Ewan McIntosh’s lively presentation centred on understanding “generation Y” and the technology with which they operate as essential to facilitate their presence better in society. Ewan spoke contrary to popular belief of gen. Y as lazy and self absorbed. He argued that generation Y are passionate about the issues which affect them. He illustrated this point with youth action which saw a demonstration of 500 mobilised, through Bebo, against planned school closures in Scotland, which largely led to the scrapping of the plans. 

TFPL's eminent KM guru, Melanie Goody, then took the stage and focused on the content of tomorrow. Using the “rear view mirror” in her forecasting, Melanie examined the themes of ebic in 1998, 2005 and 2008. In doing so, Melanie highlighted the trend in the KIM space where content sources have moved from structured and externally published material, to the ungoverned and unstructured digital universe. As such the content management problem for the foreseeable future relates to how new content can be governed and managed efficiently especially with the increase in storage costs that the exponential growth in content will incur. Nothing highlights this better than the fact that aggregated global electronic information is growing 60% a year of which 70% is created by individuals but corporations are accountable for 85%.   

In dealing with this complexity corporations should learn from past mistakes of enforcing the use of rigid systems and focus on implementation issues rather than technology in itself.

Tying in with Melanie’s closing remarks, David LeCore, outlined a seven step guide in implementing new technology in your organisation:

1. What is the problem that the technology will solve (what is the business case)?
2. Will the technology solve that problem? Pilot it and find out.
3. How long might it take for the technology to become obsolete?
4. Take advice and manage expectations.
5. Understand your own organisation in terms of its culture and ensure support from the very top.
6. The technology is just one component in solving the identified problem, consider other components such as employees, management, culture, process, content and budget.
7. And finally measure the benefits, set bench marks and compare the success of implementation, user participation and satisfaction and the impact of the technology on such things as KPI.
   

Alun Davies followed with many points which can be related to and echoed David Lecore’s seven steps. He encourages us to focus on the opportunities that technologies such as those encompassed by Web 2.0 offerand that there should be tolerance for the way people want to work.

The day’s conference proceedings closed with informal and simultaneous pitches by the ebic fellows (introduced last week) into the work and systems which had earned them their place as finalists. Delegates moved between 10 minute presentations designed to further inform delegates of their work. Delegates were given until Thursday, 5pm, to submit their votes. 

As a voter, it was a very difficult decision for me. All of the ebic Fellows were deserving of the prize as far as I and others could observe and it seemed unfair that three would ultimately lose out. Initially I opted to vote for the candidate to whose cause I could most relate. However, I decided that doing so would be unfair given that the finalists were chosen on the merit of what they had achieved rather than the worthiness of their cause but that hardly made the decision any easier as all had achieved remarkable results with the very limited resources that they have.

Paul Saffo's vision of the future at ebic

Uncertainties, hindsight, contradictions and technology failures were cornerstones of eminent futurologist Paul Saffo's riveting keynote speech, at TFPL's ebic conference in Berlin, as key indicators of what looms on the horizon: 

• When predicting what the future holds, look back twice as far as you’re looking forward in order to identify trends and analogues. 
• Never diminish uncertainties when looking into the future – they are key indicators. People tend to see uncertainties as risks and we are all generally risk averse and often neglect their consideration in our forecasts often resulting in inaccurate predictions.
• Big change is hard to see, technology pundits are often wrong twice: when a new technology they champion fails and when it succeeds a number of years later after they’ve discounted it.
• The information revolution is over and the personal media revolution has dawned. 
• When a technology becomes successful it transforms into a medium of entertainment with the mobile phone as a prime example with 10% of the online music industry being comprised of ring-tone sales for consumer entertainment. 

It takes 20 years for a technology to take off after its inception and this often happens with the introduction of complementary components, for example: 

• TV took off 20 years after the introduction of widespread broadcasting technology in the 1950s.
• The internet and email became ubiquitous in the late 1990s with the inception of the WWW, the client-server and peer to peer vehicles.
• Habitat: a failed 1980s virtual world precursor to the thriving 2000s Second Life.

There has been a shift from mass media to personal media. Personal media is what is now driving online technology. Paul underlined this point with reference to the fact that David Letterman's rant  about John McCain's interview cancellation was viewed many millions of times more on youtube than the TV broadcast on CBS.

The Characteristics of Mass and Personal Media

                                   

	Mass Media	Personal Media
Medium	TV	The Web
Location	Living room	Anywhere
Interaction	Watch/consume	Consume, participate, create
Broadcasted by	Few Mass Media Outlets	Many millions of individuals
Model	Product/Service	Subscription

Personal media has some way to go before maturing in the same way that mass media has, the vast majority of the world' population doesn't even have an internet connection.  At the moment, personal media as such is at the stage of experimentation equivalent to that of TV in the 1950s.  Paul illustrated this with an analogy between Winky Dink (1950s) and weird applications of personal media such as Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

As a result of the personal media revolution we are now moving from the service/consumer economy to, what Paul terms, the creator economy where consumers are also producers (e.g. bloggers, youtubers).

Google has been a success because it's managed to monetise the smallest quantum in a search string; the next industry mover and shaker will be one who successfully monetises single clicks on the internet, as the next smallest quantum.

Sensor technology will be the next step in evolving and further personalising consumer products and is presently embedded on a small scale in a number of retail products, an example being the Nike Plus training shoe. It detects, as an example, whether your pace is fading and subsequently instructs your iPod to switch to a more motivating song. 

The increased reliance on sensor technology will ultimately give rise to the widespread introduction of robotics in our daily lives, which Paul described as a complex series of sensors. He illustrated the potential popularity of robots with anecdotes about people giving their robotic domestic vacuum cleaner, Roomba , names and even taking it on holiday with them!  Moreover, Paul's most revolutionary prediction (as far as I am concerned) is that in 20 years, 50% of all US traffic will be robot driven.  The technology exists: Paul made reference to the Urban Challenge robot car race.

Connecting with the Future at ebic

Final preparations are complete and we're almost there: TFPL’s ebic is ready as the platform for thought leaders in the knowledge and information management space to share their thoughts and predictions with us. Ebic is additionally an exciting opportunity for delegates to extend their networks with peers from a wide range of organisations. 

The conference officially starts Wednesday 1^st of October at 14:00 with keynote speaker, Paul Saffo, providing his insight into deciphering the future course of technology.  A panel discussion will then focus on the current and future implications of technology on organisations. Panellists Bill Parsons, Ewan McIntosh, Melanie Goody and David Lecore will draw on their extensive experience and expertise in debating the expectations, role and challenges of tomorrow's talent, the citizens of the future, tomorrow's content and tomorrow's enabling technology.  Alun Davies will conclude the formal sessions with his thoughts on the impact of KIM.

The Social Impact Awards later in the evening will showcase the innovative application of knowledge and information management in the charity and voluntary sectors.  Four finalists (ebic fellows) from a competition run as part of the preparations for ebic will discuss their initiatives with delegates at a welcome reception.

The finalists are:

1. Deaf Parenting UK: a charity run by deaf parents for deaf parents which has met the challenge of aiding its key stakeholders by providing a central resource of information and facilitating educational events to inform debate and raise issues of interest at the highest levels in government.
2. The Hub: a unique enterprise which provides a space and medium for a global membership (currently 3000) of social innovators to do what they do: innovate.
3. Practical Action: a charity which provides information and knowledge on technology which can reduce poverty in developing countries. The majority of Practical Action's users (currently 500,000) are in 13 countries of direct operation though in total users span the globe.
4. Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP): a thriving global network of 5000 people, the GVEP works to proliferate sustainable energy sources in developing countries.  The key challenge addressed by this organisation has been to connect its diverse network, enabling its members to discover each other and share their knowledge and experience effectively.

After the Thursday morning contributions, case studies from speakers Tony Sheehan, Di Martin and Jessica Frankel, the conference will switch to an innovative scenario planning session.  Delegates will form groups discussing three possible scenarios of the future corporate world within a KIM framework.  These scenario worlds were developed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers in partnership with the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation, Oxford:

The Blue World: Corporate is King

• Big company capitalism rules as
• organisations continue to grow and
• individual preferences trump beliefs about corporate social responsibility.

The Green World: Companies Care

• Social responsibility dominates the corporate agenda and
• concerns about demographic changes, climate and sustainability become the key business drivers.

The Orange World: Small is Beautiful

• Companies begin to breakdown into collaborative networks of smaller organisations and
• specialisation dominates the world economy.

Delegates will consider and discuss the following questions in each of the three worlds:

1. What significant developments/events/trends that will impact on KIM (knowledge and information management) activity can we expect/anticipate across the forecasting time-line in this world?
2. What KIM activity would ensure success in this world?
3. What KIM roles and skills would be of value to organisations in this world?

The outputs from these discussions will be recorded and consolidated and the conclusions for each of the worlds will be reported shortly after the conference ends.

On Thursday evening we'll be taking a tour of Berlin before the conference dinner at the orangerie in the Schloss Charlottenburg.

On Friday we will consider the new business and delivery models with Mark Bootherstone, Jeremy Bentley and Lynne Collier.  Keynote speaker, Julian Birkenshaw, of the London Business School, will complete the ebic programme with reinventing management. 

Stay tuned next week for a daily update of proceeding highlights.

Speaker and facilitator bios can be viewed here and a detailed event programme is available here.