Personal Knowledge Management

1. Personal Knowledge Management • Let’s increase our blog use • PKM Discussion • Research Paper drafts due next week

2. Blogging • Everyone should be using the blog more • Class participation grade • General sharing of ideas & resources • External memory or reminder for sources later • Using a feed reader is key (it seems) • Keep ideas/posts in a text file, then log on & upload • Features on the blog • Learn how WordPress works - read the docs • Suggest any changes to our configuration, topics or interface

3. What do you use for PKM? • Not just information management, but knowledge management • Digital Files, but with annotations • Paper Documents, but with handwritten notes • Journal entries, class notes, ideas, lists • Adding your thoughts & ideas to external information sources • Metadata about notes (when, who, why) • Something, someplace, some object(s) that you refer back to, rely on for reference, use to pick up old work again or to remind yourself of ideas? • Do you add value to your information? • How does the Web or any IT system(s) you use fit into a PKM process?

4. As We May Think • Set of ideas based on research areas at that time: • The value of sharing information (science) • Stored, extended, consulted • Peer review (by inclusion & commentary) • How far thinking was it? • What technologies we have now are in the memex? • Dynamic access is proposed (over sequential) • Indexing & aliasing • Less time formatting & distributing, more time learning & sharing • Information use becomes (more about) multitasking • It’s about Associations • Joining items, trails, comments for personal context, full notes

5. What’s missing in Memex? • Collaboration • Updating dynamic information (links) • Encyclopedias, Patents are acknowledged, but no mechanism is designed out • Speed is relative • In learning, annotating & retrieval • Personal interfaces • Eyes & ears, but not mechanisms • Is this how knowledge workers work now? • Complex civilization • Records

6. My Life Bits • Updating Memex • Aggregated collections • Searching functionality • Query by Story, Story by Query? • Drag and drop = “more like this”? • Advanced visualization? • Too much of a good thing? • Understanding viz & info at once? • My annotations, your annotations, our annotations

7. PIKII • Web-enabled, knowledge manager • Uses standard formats and protocols • Builds on hypertext theory • Works with new internet-based info formats • RSS, XML, XML-RPC, URIs, Trackbacks • Can weblogs be adapted for other functions such as PIM and PKM? • How can you share with levels of security & privacy? • Local (personal) & Global (organizational) • Creation, retrieval & sharing all in the same interface

8. PIKII & Hypertext • Nodes: • Encapsulated units of content in any MIME type format identifiable by W3C compliant protocols and data structures. • Transclusion: • XML RSS based syndication distributes content anywhere • Link types: • Static & dynamic URIs for tracking & addressing comments; posts & news with time/date stamps; & associative properties identifiable using info retrieval methods. • Backlinks: • Trackback & HTTP-referrer linking provides bi-directional links. • Annotation: • A core attribute of many blog posts & the syndication format is a link, often directly connectable to a parent node.

9. Is PIKII already here? • All operating systems since 2001 include Web servers • Broadband keeps up connection (almost) continuously • Blogs, Wikis, Semantic Web tools & Web 2.0 • Desktop search & Web search • Personalized interfaces • Portals (but no annotations) • Group, collaborative tools vs. Personal tools • Open formats, open extensions, strong networked infrastructure (URIs), MIME types

10. PIKII Pickiness • Does the average knowledge worker become a Web developer? • Is is better to have a networked, distributed system with personalization than your own server? • Are your works individual enough to be shared? • What would you NOT want to share with others? • Is doing everything in the same interface a good design? • Reading vs. Participating? • Tagging vs. Annotating?

11. Stuff I’ve Seen • Is there a difference between local and global information (storage & access)? • All in one interface or distributed per application or function? • One, big index or many smaller ones? • What are the best contextual cues? • Link colors • History views • Piles and timelines?

12. Finding files & extending history • What if everything was tracked with history? • How would navigation change among information & documents? • How would recalls and reminding work?

13. Other systems, other devices? • Haystack • Dashboard • Mobile devices • MS digital camera recordings • PDAphones • Wearable computing

14. How do knowledge workers work? • On the Web? • Too big to keep in memory • Tools, tasks & conventions are used to help • Too much of a good thing? • Never stop researching & (re)finding • Everything or just a few things?

15. KM Activities • Finding • Information gathering • Browsing • Transacting • Communicating • Housekeeping • You: most or least? • Web only? Mostly on the Web?

16. KM Web Activities spectrum • How did you initiate this activity? • Was it a work or non-work activity? • Was there a goal? (If yes, did you achieve it?) • Was there a specific question (and if so what was it)? • Was the activity initiated, executed and completed in one sitting, or was it spread out over time? • Was this a routine activity or unique event? • Was there any collaborative aspect to the activity? • Was anything printed out? • What were the good or bad aspects of the way the Web supported this activity?

17. Using Web browsers for PKM • Bookmarks, history, link colors, toolbars • Browser add ons • Firefox extensions • Toolbars • RSS readers • How can a browser support these tasks? • Should it? • It could be better • Manage old, duplicate and updated links • Show pages in context (& support annotations)

18. Kaasten & Greenberg’s system • See the page thumbnail • Filters • Sliders for features • Marking (dog ears) • Color • “Domain” - grouping

19. Research Paper • A scholarly work, approximately 17 pages in length (no more than 20, including bibliography), that could be suitable for publication. • Papers might discuss: • Historical review of the topic, including origin, inspirations and intentions • Evolution of a KMS topic (a system, a phenomenon, a setting) and its application to Knowledge Management • Review of current state of the art for this topic and its relation to KMS (in relation to our course readings)

20. Research Paper Content • Impact of the KMS technology in use and possible changes in: • knowledge work • organizational architecture • management • collaboration • communication • trust • privacy • reputation • Future of the KMS technology including lifecycle, new developments and integration with other technologies • Adoption • Use