Conversation Cafe: Is there a Knowledge Dimension to Government 2.0? – June 30

WHAT

Government 2.0 is the use of social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies to create a more collaborative, efficient and effective government. It also has strong links with other progressive government movements, such as open government and participatory democracy.

Just as the appearance of social computing has caused us to consider if Enterprise 2.0 represents the next generation of Knowledge Management, what is the relationship between Government 2.0 and KM?

* Is there a Knowledge Management dimension to Government 2.0?
* What can Knowledge Management teach the Government 2.0 movement?

These questions will be the focus of a Conversation Cafe at this month’s KM forum meeting.

What is a Conversation Cafe? A Conversation Cafe, sometimes called a Knowledge Cafe, is simple semi-structured meeting process that allows everyone to participate. Its a lot of fun and better than death by PowerPoint!

WHO

James Dellow is a former chair of the NSW KM Forum and experienced information and knowledge management practitioner and consultant.

James joined Headshift in March this year, a specialist online social media and social computing consulting and development company, which is rapidly emerging as the UK market leader in this sector and has now extended its global reach to Australia.

Headshift has significant experience with the government and non-profit sectors, including ground breaking and innovative Government 2.0 projects such as the NHS Patient Opinion initiative. James himself has worked in the Health and Federal Government sectors in Australia and also holds qualifications in public sector administration (from the UK).

WHAT NEXT? If you plan to attend please RSVP before noon Monday June 29 by e-mail to: nswkmforum<at>(hint: replace the <at>gmail.com with a normal @ to complete the email address and please include the date and/or title of the event in the subject line).

WHERE

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Darling Park
201 Sussex Street

Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall. Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW KM forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Tuesday 30 June.

HOW MUCH: Gold coin donation.

Crossing Cultures & Making Decisions – Tuesday 26 May

We have not one but 2 topics & speakers this month.

1. Crossing Cultures – Helena Heizmann

What are the challenges of sharing knowledge at cross-cultural interfaces (e.g. functional, regional, national) and how do we meet them?? This session will be drawing on examples from empirical fieldwork within a Sydney-based multinational corporation. The research offers interesting preliminary findings on the socio-cultural dynamics of knowledge sharing. It will be of particular interest to practitioners who work across different organisational groups and will draw attention to the strategic aspects of knowledge sharing.

Helena Heizmann is a PhD Candidate at the Centre of International Communication at Macquarie University and teaches at the department of Information and Knowledge Management at UTS. Her research interests directly concern aspects of professional practice such as knowledge sharing, communication and collaboration across cultural and discursive boundaries within organisations.

2. Making Decisions – Eugene Dubossarsky

How do we make decision makers more accountable for their decision?
How do we objectively assess the decision making value of individuals?
How can orgainsations make better collective decisions?
How do we identify our human stores of the most valuable tacit data?
How do we depoliticise decision making, giving the meeker and more cautious a stronger voice?

Eugene is a partner in Presciient Pty Ltd and has developed a number of novel methodologies, including Forecasting Performance Management, Decision Performance Management and Tacit Data Mining. He is also a partner in Presciient Online, developers of System II, an online collective intelligence business. Eugene is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the School of Mathematics at the University of New South Wales, and an Industry Fellow with the Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Compex Systems (MASCOS).

WHAT NEXT? If you plan to attend please RSVP before noon Monday May 25 by e-mail to: nswkmforum{at} gmail.com (hint: replace the {at} with a normal @ to complete the email address and please include the date and/or title of the event in the subject line).

WHERE

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Darling Park
201 Sussex Street

Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall. Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW KM forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Tuesday 26 May.

HOW MUCH: Gold coin donation.

Future of Conferences Redux

Many thanks to everyone who attended and presented – and to Oscar Nicholson who was there with his handheld camera. Here are some materials from the sessions:

Stephen Lead’s slides

Jye Smiths’s slides & video

Jodie Miners slides

Matt Moore’s slides (& his notes)

John Allsopp’s slides

Geoff Bowers’ slides

Beth Etling’s slides

Katie Chatfield’s slides

Cultural Whispers Special Offer for NSW KM Forum Members

The Ark Group have given us another special offer for the Cultural Whispers: Managing Indigenous Knowledge conference to be held in Sydney on 22-23 June. The line-up of speakers includes our very own John Dumay.

NSW KM Forum members are entitled to a $200 discount to the event on application.

We also have one free pass to give away. If you would like it, then please email nswkmforum <at> gmail.com with your contact details & your organisation. We’ll expect a blog write-up in exchange for the free pass. Please put “cultural whispers” in the subject line of your email. The offer is not applicable to KM vendors.

KM Australia Special Offer for NSW KM Forum Members

The Ark Group have kindly offered NSW KM Forum members the following special offer for KM Australia 2009 (featuring such luminaries as Dave Snowden and Patrick Lambe and speakers from NASA and 3M). Any Forum attendee can get a 15% discount if they apply before 10 July.

More on the event on the KM Australia website.

We also have 1 free pass to give away (unfortunately this is not open to KM vendors). In return we would like you to write a review of the event for the NSW KM Forum blog. If you’d like to apply please send your name, organisation & contact details to: nswkmforum <at> gmail.com (hint: replace the <at> with an @)

The Future of Conferences (Tuesday 28 April)

WHAT

Conferences have played a major role in professional development for many of us. However the traditional conference format of presentations has been challenged from a variety of angles. Firstly, there has been a proliferation of “unconferences” – from tech-focused BarCamps, World Cafes to communal Open Space events. Secondly, communication technologies such as online community tools, web conferencing, virtual worlds and microblogs offer new ways of interacting beyond face-to-face. Finally, rising travel costs and declining discretionary spend are impacting the economics of meeting. What does this all mean for the future?

This session will be a mix of short, sharp blast of conference future from our presenters below and then discussion & debate by participants.

WHO

Ralph Kerle is Chairman of the Creative Leadership Forum. He is a failed stand-up comedian, an Associate Director of the Sydney Theatre Company and the founder of an events company , Eventures, that over 14 years created and produced major events for Walt Disney, The Royal Melbourne Show, Foxtel & Toyota.

Stephen Lead attends a lot of conferences and seminars – most of which are pretty boring. After one particularly bad technical session he decided to do something about it, and started the first Ignite sessions in Sydney. Stephen believes that conferences of the future will consist of 5 minute presentations, and is willing to show you how.

Alex North has unorganised his way through the co-founding of two Sydney-based startups and into a job as a software engineer at Google. Along the way he’s helped herd cats at the BarCamp Sydney unconference and learned a lot about the power (and fun) of ad-hoc collaboration.

Lucy James is Content Manager with DMG World Media, working on the strategy, speaker faculty and program content for ad:tech, the iMedia Brand Summit and Evanta in Australia. With 5 years experience delivering successful B2B conferences across multiple industries, Lucy is passionate about growing events to their best possible potential.

Jye Smith is Social Media Strategist, Switched On Media. Previously the National Events Manager for AIMIA, held over 45 national events. Likes: digital, social, communities, pretty pictures, music. Dislikes: caffeine abstinence.

John Allsopp is a co-founder of the Web Directions conference series. As a software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and self proclaimed expert, he’s spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web.

Janine Cahill is an innovation consultant,futurist and founder of Future Journeys which runs foresight events and festivals to engage the public in creating the kind of futures they want. She presents internationally on deepening experiences of the future and designs business simulations and serious games to shift paradigms and to innovate from this new mindset.

Steven Oesterreich developed Loyalty Programmes for Arts organisation such as the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Opera and Canadian Stage Company. He then moved to Australia to developed Loyalty Programmes that have won awards with ADMA, with our work with Subaru and Flower Power. He now leads a team for Ark Group Australia and Singapore.

Katie Chatfield is Creative Strategist for Jack Morton and for the last 12 years she’s worked in creative strategy: the science and chaos of idea generation and subsequent planning and mapping of experiences that change perceptions, habits and behaviours. She uses technology as a bridge for curiosity, love of conversation and making stuff happen.

Matt Moore will reveal what nude videos from Canada have to do with Twitter.

Jodie Miners started in the construction industry and moved further and further into the IT side of the business. Over a conversation on Twitter with some like minded construction industry professionals in London, Be2Camp was born. Be2Camp is an unconference that focuses on the use of IT in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries.

Geoffrey Bowers is the CEO and application architect for Daemon Internet Consultants. He is the father of WebDU.

Beth Etling is the CEO of The Insight Exchange.  With over 15 years of corporate, non-profit, and special event management experience, Beth has launched, managed and marketed events successfully in Australia, Singapore and the USA.  She has worked with clients such as Intel, Amdocs, and Polycom and looks to build The Insight Exchange into a globally recognized event company.

WHAT NEXT? If you plan to attend please RSVP before COB Friday April 24 by e-mail to: nswkmforum<at>gmail.com (hint: replace the <at> with a normal @ to complete the email address and please include the date and/or title of the event in the subject line).

WHERE PricewaterhouseCoopers Darling Park 201 Sussex Street Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall. Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW KM forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Tuesday 28 April.

HOW MUCH: Gold coin donation.

Blended Facilitation – Update

Many thanks to everyone who turned up last night and to Ed Mitchell for a groovy session. Here are Ed’s slides:

People can find some notes on Ning on wikipedia.

Ed Mitchell – Blending Facilitation Online & Offline (Thursday 12 March)

WHAT

It’s not enough to deal with just the online or physical worlds today, we have to find novel ways of combining both. This session will discuss community-building online & offline in the context of Ed’s own recent experiences. These include:

• The Media Sandbox
• Transition Towns
• Making Music
• Royal Society of Arts 
• British Council 
• HedgeMedia 
• Fashioning an Ethical Industry 
• Interesting Games Festival

WHO

Ed Mitchell is a UK-based network & community designer/facilitator.

He has recently started as the Web Projects Manager for the Transition Towns network – with the aim of increasing the resilience of local communities to climate change & peak oil.

From 2004-2006 he was the editor of KnowledgeBoard and in 2002 he was the Production Manager for UpMyStreet.com. There is a rumour that Ed used to run a pirate radio station during the 90s but we don’t believe that.

WHAT NEXT? If you plan to attend please RSVP before COB Tuesday 10 March by e-mail to: nswkmforum<at>gmail.com (hint: replace the <at> with a normal @ to complete the email address and please include the date and/or title of the event in the subject line). We cannot accept RSVPs after March 10.

WHERE

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Darling Park
201 Sussex Street

Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall. Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW KM forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Thursday 12 March.

HOW MUCH: Gold coin donation.

Feb Online Community Session – Images, Presentations & Twitter

Mark Pollard has posted his presentation on his site (with added commentary – which he wants you to add to).

Jye Smith’s photos can be found on Flickr - including the drawings by Simon & Chia.

The event’s Twitter feed.

Angela Beesley’s presentation is now on slideshare (N.B. She has provided it under a CC-BY license).

Christy McCarthy’s presentation is also now on Slideshare.

Ross Dawson’s Enterprise 2.0 session

Ross has kindly shared his presentation from 3 Feb 2009. Read more on his blog.