The Internet has changed our lifes in many respects, among other things how we search for information. In my childhood most information was sought and shared in closed human communties, and by looking at printed documents. When I observe the information seraching behaviour of my 18 year son a total different pattern is evident.  When he need some information he consults a communities of practices of various kinds. By logging into various webpages he is able to ask questions on his car, software problems, how to make a video and so on. And in most cases his search is highly successful, indeed more successful than a close human community would ever be. It is only if he dosen’t receive help in CoP that he cousult us the parents. This is an amasing example of the potential of CoP.

I have just finished teaching a master couse on KM and HRM at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. In my teaching I have tried to mix lectures, group discussions on the topic, and showing some short videos. To my surprise there are a lot of videos and good material on the web. Much more, actually, than I had anticipated. My students loved these short videos that enhance the teaching and learning environment.  Here is a good example on sharing culture at Caterpillar.

I saw an interesting qualitative research on knowledge sharing among Chinese and American employees of an international company. The results seem interesting and show some cultural differences in knowledge shareing. See the paper in International journal of knowlegde management.

Recently I got a suggestion to look at Public Knowledge Project.  It is a research and development initiative directed toward improving the scholarly and public quality of academic research through the development of innovative online publishing and knowledge-sharing environments. This is truly a knolwedge sharing initative and is based on open source software. I am impressed. Please see the weblink.

IC has been used as a term, among other, to explain the difference between book value and market values of firms. Also the term has been used to explain the competitiveness of an enterprise. Now after the crash were the market value of most firms have been halved or more, what does this mean for the IC concept? I know that IC measuring of market values was but one aspect of IC, while other are more or less similar to some kind of IC reporting similar to Balanced Scorecard. So what is your opinion on IC at this moment?

According to my research on KM in Icelandic SMEs the results show that KM is not loosing ground. But rather few firms are using KM. Those who are using KM report various benefits for their operations. See my paper in KMRP-journal.

Quite intresting article on this ever important topic of KM. See a fresh Journal of Knowlede Managment. The paper compares Germany and Hong Kong.

My Italian friend Giovanni Schiuma was a guest editor for the journal Knowledge Managment Research & Practice and wrote an interesting article on The managerial foundations of knowledge assets dynamics. The article is free as it should be in order to spread the knowledge.

In the latest issue of Journal of knowledge managent there are many interesting articles as usual. One of the is of special interest. It is about an indian study on the Role of leadership in knowledge management. See http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=7DAC9603BBDC7C3C1CAAE569F4641BCA?contentType=Article&contentId=1733094

Is KM a fad? Is it losing ground among mangers? Often the management fads takes about five years from start to finish. Publications in academic journals indicate that KM is still going strong. But what about utilisation in firms and governmental bodies? What is your opinion? Shortly I will present findings from a 2007 survey among SMEs in Iceland.