Argh! Someone in my blog reading list came up with a list of knowledge worker tools / social networking technologies and was asking if s/he had covered all the bases, but I can't find the article. Why? Because I came across a related list that I wanted to share. And in looking for that list, I came across another.
So, yet another entry from the November 2007 Communications of the ACM was a piece on Making Knowledge Work in Virtual Teams by Dominic M. Thomas, Robert P. Bostrum and Marianne Gouge. The article describes a model process by which team leaders approach technology-related interventions and suggests that, with this model in mind, guidance be provided to those team leaders on how and when to make those interventions.
But the relevant thing here is the list of information and communication technologies (ICT's) that were uncovered in the survey, listed in order of prevalence of use
- audio conferencing
- phone
- fax
- project management tool
- calendar
- development support tool (IDE)
- chat (many-to-many)
- document versioning tool
- instant messaging 91-to-1)
- file servers
- groupware / teamspace (asynchronous)
- postal mail
- knowledge portal
- virtual meeting tool (synchronous)
- desktop sharing
- threaded discussion
- web pages (static / informational)
- videoconferencing
- group decision tool
And the other article is from Eric Mack's KMWorld notes of Dave Pollard on Social Tools and Knowledge Sharing. Pollard, of course, is responsible for a lot of knowledge management and related thinking at How to Save the World. Along with running commentary about the talk, Eric's post lists a variety of tools in the vein of social networking and communications, which Pollard breaks down into four categories. I've recreated those here:
- People-Connectors
- People finders (Linked-in)
- Social Network Mappers (InFLow orgnet.com)
- Proximity locators (DodgeBall)
- Affinity Detectors (NTag)
- Social publishing and information sharing
- Journals (blogs, Podcasts)
- Social Bookmarks
- Meme Diggers (what is important)
- Collaboration and Communication
- Wikis (FluWiki)
- Forums (Yahoo Groups)
- Project Collaboration (BaseCamp is a good example)
- Document Collaboration (Google Docs)
- MindMaps (Freemind)
- VOIP/Virtual Presence (Skype, GoToMeeting)
- OpenSpace/Peer Production
- SNA/Sensor/GIS Mashups
- example: tracking Disease outbreaks
- Home monitoring
- Travelogues
Of course, along with all these technical items, there are the basics of getting people together:
- Watercooler
- Coffee pot!
- Lunch / dinner