FreePint Newsletter 195 - Knowledge and Extremes
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FreePint
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ISSN 1460-7239 24th November 2005 No.195
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IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
EDITORIAL
By William Hann
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Graham Stewart
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
Research and Information Analyst
Fundraising Database Manager and Researcher
Research Manager (Oxford)
TIPS ARTICLE
"You need to know about what industry?
Paintball & extreme sports industry sources"
By Penny Leidtke
REVIEW
"Buying knowledge - effective acquisition of external knowledge"
Written by Peter Sammons
Reviewed by Olivia Freeman
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Knowledge management for development:
an international organisation's perspective"
By Giulio Quaggiotto
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
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Searching, but not finding, costs your organisation time and money
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EDITORIAL
By William Hann
Putting aside the impact of global warming for a moment, plummeting
temperatures at this time of year signify one thing to me: it's
almost time to get together with thousands of people who are
likeminded in their interest of information and knowledge gathering.
The freezing UK temperatures were in sharp contrast to those in
southern Spain last weekend, where I found myself on a 'stag' weekend
amid hordes of people with information-gathering far from their
minds. Whilst seeking a word to describe the experience, I stumbled
across a wonderful antonym of knowledge: 'benightedness'. Rarely could
a dual-meaning word so compactly describe the 'stag weekend' as being
both 'overtaken by night or darkness' (i.e. being out all night)
whilst also 'in a state of moral or intellectual darkness'. Not a nice
experience. Not for a moderate information person anyway.
So, with memories thankfully starting to fade, I can look forward to
the enjoyable business of being involved with the Online Information
conference and exhibition here in London next week. If you were in any
doubt as to the amount of knowledge you might acquire by attending,
remember that there are 110 (yes, 110) free show floor seminars, 30
conference sessions by 90 industry experts, and 250 exhibitors.
We will be exhibiting as usual on stand 292, and we would love to chat
to you about FreePint, VIP and Jinfo. Full information and free
tickets are available online .
With all these extremes of weather, experience and intellectual
application, today's FreePint continues the knowledge-gathering and
'extremes' theme. We start with two pieces about knowledge management.
Then there are the results of an information research project about
extreme sports. Although one might rightly consider the 'stag weekend'
to be an extreme sport, the article is actually about paintballing.
We hope today's FreePint inspires you to continue your own knowledge
gathering, whilst at the same time limiting your extreme pursuits to
nothing more strenuous than a visit to London next week.
William Hann
Managing Editor and Founder, FreePint
e: william.hann@freepint.com
t: 0870 141 7474
i: +44 870 141 7474
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2005
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This report sets out the principles and practice of specifying
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Graham Stewart
* The weird workings of an interconnected world are well reflected in
the daily collection of stories to be found on
.
* As part of my continuous effort to remain only two steps behind
what's happening in technology I listen to the podcasts served from
.
* There are now a number of 'grassroots' news sources on the Internet.
I find to be the best of them.
* Blogs and blogging are changing the way marketing professionals are
thinking. Hugh Macleod at is a fine
example of a new marketeer.
* Another site that is looking to change the way ideas are spread,
discussed and accepted is .
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Graham Stewart is a freelance writer with a sordid past in IT
development. He has a blog at .
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
.
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FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
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As we pass the milestone of 30,000 postings at the FreePint Bar, VIP
celebrates its second birthday with a scoop review of Euromonitor's
brand new product Country Insight .
Jinfo has also settled nicely into the FreePint Network, with 4,000
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A FreePinter is looking for information about bottled water sales
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Do you know how to find out how people make purchases, both online
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What are the rules for keeping financial records of projects funded
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A query, which has had lots of replies but no definitive answer,
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Have you visited the Student Bar recently? You might be able to help a
student who has to write 5,000 words on 'Corporate Governance' but
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And lastly, can you help someone who needs ...
"... to find films which include people who have got a tin bath in
front of the fire" .
... or the recently appointed 'Lord Bradney of Sealand' who wonders
if he can use his newly purchased title in the UK
.
Thank you to everyone, royalty and commoner alike, who have
taken the trouble to frequent the FreePint Bar.
Penny Hann
Production Editor, FreePint
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The FreePint Bar is where you can get free help with your tricky
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Help with study for information-related courses is available at the
FreePint Student Bar .
Subscribe to the twice-weekly email digests at
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JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
The Jinfo service enables you to search and advertise
information-related job vacancies.
The Jinfo Newsletter is published free every two weeks, and contains a
list of the latest vacancies along with job-seeking advice. The latest
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TIPS ARTICLE
"You need to know about what industry?
Paintball & extreme sports industry sources"
By Penny Leidtke
One of the things that makes being a business information professional
so interesting is that I rarely know what the next project will be.
Over the years, I have been called upon to provide various types of
information on a wide variety of industries. The topic that stands
out, though, is the one I never expected.
A long-standing client in the financial services industry called
because he needed information to help him prepare for a meeting with a
prospective client. The meeting would take place in two days' time. He
wanted as much information as possible, from a wide variety of
sources, and he wanted it drawn primarily from the Internet. It didn't
need to be highly detailed, but it should be as extensive as possible
since he knew nothing about the industry in question. He added that he
didn't think there would be much information anyway. His primary goal
was to show his prospective client that he knew the industry and
understood its unique culture. By this point, my curiosity was piqued
but I was still surprised when he finally named the industry -
Paintball.
Since I didn't know anything about Paintball, I was starting from
scratch. Described below are some of the sites I visited as part of
the project. I've also added sites that didn't necessarily cover
Paintball but that covered other 'extreme sports'.
General Background Sites
------------------------
Several sites are useful when you need a broad overview of the subject
matter and you're not sure where to start. One is About.com. With
coverage of almost every topic imaginable, their sports site can be
found at . You can either choose one of
the many sports listed or you can search by keyword or phrase. The
Paintball site at contains links to
basic information, articles and resources, forums, and a buyers' guide.
Other useful sites are those that focus on a specific industry, in
this case sports. The Virtual Library of Sport at
provides links to sports resources from
around the world for most sports. You might also want to check out
Hickok Sports.com at . The site includes
sections covering history, biography, quotations, rules, directories,
a calendar, and even a glossary. While the history section didn't
cover Paintball, there was a page on extreme sports at
.
Most sports, including 'extreme sports', have sites that are dedicated
specifically to them. The sources listed above, all have links to a
variety of these sites. One of the most valuable sport-specific sites
for the Paintball project was WARPIG (World & Regional Paintball
Information Guide) at . It provides a great
jumping-off point, covering: history, rules, manufacturers,
distributors, news reports, forums, and other resources.
Directories
-----------
Directories can also help get you started when you're looking to
develop a broad base of information. Most people are familiar with the
Google and Yahoo! directories but there are others that work in much
the same way. The Sports section of the Librarians' Index to the
Internet at includes only
high-quality resources with informational content. Links are provided
for general resources as well as for individual sports.
The Sports segment of the 'Best of the Web' directory at
also provides useful links relating to
various individual sports, including paintball. They don't, however,
have a category called Extreme Sports. On the other hand, the 'Open
Directory Project' sports page at has
categories for both Extreme Sports and Paintball.
There are also directory sites that focus specifically on sports,
extreme or otherwise. Sports365.co.uk at
provides links for equipment, news and media, and sports organizations
for individual and 'extreme sports'. The Sports Directories at
lists official
clubs, governing bodies, and organizations, as well as news and
information sites, leagues, etc. Search by keyword or select a sport
to view the relevant listings. GravityFed provides an adventure sports
directory at where you can search by
keyword or use the index itself. Finally, the SportQuest service from
SIRC Sport Research at
allows you to
link to local, national, or international associations, as well as
events, FAQs, magazines, and so on for various sports or sports-
related topics.
Trade associations
------------------
Trade associations can provide a wealth of information on almost any
industry, including sports. There are several excellent hardcopy
Association directories available, as well as some commercial,
fee-based databases to help in your search. There are also a large
number of association directories available on the Web. One of the
more detailed sites is the 'Associations on the Net' section of the
Internet Public Library site from the University of Michigan School of
Information. The Sports page is found under the Entertainment &
Leisure section at . You can drill down
further to specific sports and also link to magazines or subject
collections. While there isn't a separate category for "extreme
sports", some individual extreme sports can be found under other
categories. Depending on your interests, you may want to check the
industry section of the Business & Economics category as well. You can
also check country-specific Trade Association directories such as the
Trade Association Forum at which claims to
serve as a gateway to UK trade associations and business sectors.
Searching is done by name, by activity, or by browsing an alphabetical
listing.
Links to associations may also be included on a variety of other
sites, including any of those listed elsewhere in this article. In any
event, given that 'Extreme Sports' is such a broad category, it is
impossible to list all of the individual trade associations here. One
broader-based association that was especially useful for the Paintball
assignment was 'The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association' at
. This group represents the sports
product industry worldwide. The Market Reports and Studies section of
their site includes a wealth of information such as the Sports
Participation Topline reports and Superstudy reports, as well as
reports on general industry data, global markets, market segments, and
financial analysis. The Topline charts are free of charge, while the
others are available for purchase. The Press Room section of the site
provides an additional source of information as does their Sports Edge
magazine.
Articles, news, publications
----------------------------
Since sports are an integral part of society, individual sports,
including extreme sports, are written about and reported upon in a
number of media outlets. There are web sites tied in with television
channels, such as those at and
. There are also articles on extreme sports
that appear in mainstream, general sports, and specific sports
publications and on various web sites. If you don't want to search a
fee-based service for these articles, there are several sites that may
provide access to some articles of interest.
One such site is MagPortal.com, which provides a searchable,
browseable directory of magazine articles. Their Sports category at
covers auto racing, basketball,
snowboarding, mountain biking, and a host of other sports. Another
site is Topix.net, which provides over 300,000 news pages from more
than 10,000 sources, focused on a particular subject or locality. Go
to and scroll down the left column for a
complete list of subjects, including 'Extreme Sports'. A similar site
is NewsNow at which bills itself as the
UK's leading online press monitoring company. Select the Sports
newsfeed to see a list of 47 topics, including 'Extreme Sports'. The
company also provides other, fee-based services as well.
Other sites
-----------
In addition to those listed above, there are numerous other sites
which might be useful depending on the type of information you need.
Most governments provide statistical data via the Web so, if you need
to put things into a macro perspective, you might want to check those
out.
Market research reports may also be helpful. In addition to the usual
sources such as Mindbranch or MarketResearch.com, you might also want
to take a look at the Research and Markets site at
. It has thousands of major
research publications covering international and regional markets, key
industries, top companies, etc. Browse industry categories or search
by keyword to find relevant reports.
Conclusion
----------
In the end, I found a surprising amount of information. Whether they
are called 'extreme', 'action', or 'adventure' sports, they are
becoming more and more part of the mainstream. As a result, there is
a vast array of sources available to meet your information needs. I
might have preferred to go to some of the fee-based services such as
Dialog or the others to save time, but the client requested otherwise.
So, in exchange for speed, I was able to pick up a bit of the 'flavor'
of the sport and its participants, which is what my client wanted.
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Penny Leidtke, principal of On-Target Information Services, has over
20 years' experience analyzing, researching, and reporting on
companies, industries, economic conditions, and financing strategies.
On-Target works closely with operating companies, financial services
consultants, and law firms on valuations, M&A activities, product
development, strategic planning, and industry or economic trend
analysis. In addition to extreme sports, recent projects related to
various segments of the automotive, insurance, publishing, organic
chemicals, and healthcare industries. Articles and presentations have
covered: starting an information services business; market research
methods, and automotive industry resources.
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Related FreePint links:
* 'Sports and Fitness' articles in the FreePint Portal
* Post a message to the author, Penny Leidtke, or suggest further
resources at the FreePint Bar
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
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Meet the Sue Hill Recruitment Team - Stand 232 @ Online 2005
Put yourself in safe hands when seeking staff or job searching. The
Sue Hill Recruitment team are knowledgeable on all information and
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time to recruit or time to move, it is time to talk to one of the Sue
Hill team. Experts in Information Recruitment.
Call: 020 7378 7068 e: jobs@suehill.com see:
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REVIEW
"Buying knowledge - effective acquisition of external knowledge"
Written by Peter Sammons
Reviewed by Olivia Freeman
Peter Sammons is a purchasing professional, who sees knowledge buying
as a subset of knowledge management. The book is aimed at managers in
business, as he says that at some point in their career, most
managers will by responsible for a project to buy new knowledge.
There are introductory chapters which explain the recent worldwide
growth of R&D and knowledge. There is a useful chapter on intellectual
property rights, which defines copyright, the patent of invention, the
rights of employed inventors, trade secrecy and design rights.
The chapter entitled 'Why buy knowledge?' is very valuable reading for
anyone who has to buy information or knowledge for business. Sammons
lays considerable emphasis on the decision as to whether knowledge
should be created internally or bought in, and the comparative costs
associated with both approaches. I find this interesting, as at
present many organisations are dispensing with the services of
internal knowledge creators. However, later on in the book, he
described Microsoft's recent strategy, which was to buy the owners of
the knowledge, in other words to recruit the top researchers in the
field on to the permanent staff. The researchers were given freedom to
follow their own agenda and in this way to advance the 'state of the
art' in software. Sammons works on the premise that the driver for
knowledge acquisition is to move into new areas and that little
knowledge is needed for operational requirements.
Sammons uses various yardsticks to indicate the value of particular
types of knowledge to an organisation. One measurement is the
closeness or proximity of the knowledge owner to your organisation.
Therefore, knowledge obtained from industry trade associations is much
closer than central government. He has also developed a ranking of the
value of knowledge obtained via various knowledge-acquisition
strategies. For example, hiring employees with specific knowledge or
acquiring knowledge-rich firms is ranked higher than knowledge
purchase. Knowledge scanning is seen as the lowest of the strategies,
partly because it is the least integrated. Integration is defined as
the closeness of formal contractual links. Similarly, he describes
knowledge transfer models: these start with latent knowledge, for
example, a law book, which can be used for reference when required;
moving on to knowledge transfer with skills enhancement; and then to
extremely active knowledge transfer, which will effect a strategic
change.
The book contains some extremely useful acquisition-planning
information: how to assess vendors throughout the contract;
advantages and disadvantages of competitive tendering or negotiation;
specifying the work and project management: contract costing. The
yardstick for return on investment should be a minimum payback of 3:1
and if this target cannot be reached, then the organisation should
look for another way to acquire the new knowledge.
The book finishes with chapters on acquiring knowledge from
consultants, contract research organisations and universities. It
offers insight into some procurement techniques and how organisations
perceive the value of acquired knowledge.
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Olivia Freeman works on freelance basis, as a trainer, researcher and
information management specialist. She was previously Head of
Business Information at HSBC Bank, where she started the global
service. She was responsible for planning and development plus the
procurement and exploitation of electronic resources.
Olivia specialises in training on the selection of e-resources and
vendor management. She also runs tailored workshops for individuals
and companies. She is a judge for the 2005 International Information
Industry Awards 'FreePint Award for Best Customer Service
Team' .
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Related FreePint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
or Amazon.com
* "Buying Knowledge: Effective Acquisition of External Knowledge"
ISBN 0566086352, published by Gower Publishing Limited.
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the FreePint
Bookshelf at
* Read about other Internet Strategy books on the FreePint Bookshelf
To propose an information-related book for review, send details
to .
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Knowledge management for development:
an international organisation's perspective"
By Giulio Quaggiotto
How do you go about helping a rural tribe in Senegal preserve their
oral knowledge so that they can cure their children using local herbs
rather than expensive imported medicines? How can you replicate a
community-based forest management model that was successful in
Colombia in an Indonesian context? What lessons can you draw from the
failure of the introduction of a new waste management technology in
Dhaka so that you won't repeat the same mistakes in Manila? These are
just a few examples of the challenges that knowledge management (KM)
practitioners face in development organisations.
KM and development practitioners: an enduring appeal
----------------------------------------------------
Interestingly, whilst the knowledge management fad seems to have
passed its peak in the private sector (as was noted in a previous
FreePint article by Sheena Thompson, "Knowledge Management Does Not
Grow On Bonsai Trees", ),
in the context of international development organisations, the appeal
of the discipline seems to endure. This is due to a number of
different factors, including, perhaps, the stronger motivation for
development practitioners - when compared with their counterparts in
private companies - to analyse and eventually overcome barriers to
knowledge-sharing across organisations, communities or even
governments in order to maximise their impact on the ground. The
urgent need to tackle humanitarian and environmental crises -- such as
the Asian tsunami, the HIV/AIDS epidemics, or the rescuing of refugees
in Sudan, to name but a few examples -- puts organisations under
pressure to share know-how quickly and effectively in order to make
the latest scientific research findings as well as lessons learnt
from previous projects readily available to experts on the ground.
It is not a coincidence that the 2005 World Disasters Report
(from the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) focused on the role
of information in disasters.
Another element that may explain the continued interest in knowledge
management in the development context -- this time externally driven
-- is the increased call for transparency and accountability. Rightly,
development organisations face increasing demands from donors and the
general public to provide detailed information on how effectively they
spend their funds and what mechanism they put in place to avoid
repeating mistakes that can often have a high cost in financial and
also humanitarian terms. For this reason, in the development context,
the practice of capturing and disseminating lessons learned and best
practices is often connected to monitoring and evaluation and/or
fundraising purposes.
Challenges for KM in a development context
------------------------------------------
The private sector and international development organisations
obviously face many similar dilemmas when it comes to implementing
knowledge management strategies, such as, for example: how to
encourage information flow between headquarters and regional offices;
how to develop metrics to evaluate the impact of knowledge management
activities; how to engage with time-starved experts on the ground to
persuade them to share their (often) tacit knowledge with their
colleagues. And there has undoubtedly been a significant level of
cross-fertilisation between the two sectors, as exemplified by the
work of Geoff Parcell, a senior knowledge management professional from
BP and co-author of the influential book 'Learning to Fly', on the
AIDS Competency Model for UNAIDS/UNITAR
.
Having said that, there are challenges in the area of knowledge
management that are probably quite specific to the domain of
non-for-profit organisations. I am listing below a few based on
my experience without any claim to exhaustiveness:
1. Definition of boundaries: what are the boundaries of a knowledge
management initiative in the context of a development organisation?
Can the scope be confined to employees, as would often be the case
in the private sector? But what would be the purpose of
accumulating expertise internally on, say, poverty reduction, if
that know-how is not ultimately shared with the communities it is
meant to affect? This tension often pushes development
practitioners to question organisational silos in a rather radical
way (see, for example, the work on organisational learning at
ActionAid as documented in R. David and A. Mancini, 2004, Going
Against the Flow: Making Organisational Systems Part of the
Solution Rather Than the Problem, Lessons for Change in Policy &
Organisations, No. 8, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies
).
2. Staff engagement: typically, employees in development organisations
are driven by a strong commitment to the mission. This can turn out
to be a double-edged sword when it comes to engaging them in KM
initiatives. On the one hand, if it can be proved that adopting KM
best practices enhances the impact on the ground, then they are
likely to be embraced with a passion that perhaps would be
difficult to encounter in a private sector context. On the other
hand, staff are unlikely to buy into a knowledge-sharing initiative
thanks to incentives based on material rewards alone, as may be the
case in a for-profit enterprise. Furthermore, the internal culture
is such that every single penny that is not spent in concrete
projects on the ground is often perceived as a waste of money. As a
result, somewhat arcanely worded initiatives such as 'capturing
tacit knowledge' - that can often be perceived as having a remote
connection with the development mission - are unlikely to find a
favourable reception and get off the ground.
3. Dealing with oral knowledge and the cultural dimension: it's
already challenging enough to talk about knowledge capturing and
dissemination, or, say, storytelling, in a context when everybody
is an office worker. But what about the challenge of getting
isolated communities of mostly illiterate campesinos in Paraguay to
share their techniques for growing manioca (as in the case study
presented in the SDC's Guide to Using Story and Narrative Tools in
Development Co-operation, )? Or persuading
park rangers, poachers and local communities to engage in a
constructive debate on how to preserve wildlife while at the same
time improving their living conditions? What techniques can be used
in this context, and what ethical dilemmas do they raise?
4. North-to-South, South-to-North knowledge flows: traditionally, aid
has flown from developed countries in the North to developing
economies in the South. The flow of financial resources has often
been accompanied by the presumption that knowledge about the best
recipe for development resides in donor economies. The recognition
that local stakeholders hold crucial knowledge that can inform the
policy and strategic decisions taken in the North has prompted
organisations to question whether they are equipped to support
South-to-North and, increasingly, South-to-South knowledge flows.
It is only through the exchange of experiences and a continuous
process of mutual learning that the KM community in development
organisations will be able to address these challenges, equipped with
the awareness that there is no such thing as a unique recipe to
achieve development. And perhaps the experience of dealing with
extreme situations such as humanitarian crises, or the radical
questioning of organisational boundaries, will foster the introduction
of tools and techniques that might be relevant also to the private
sector.
Useful reading
--------------
Below I am providing a quick overview of some of my favourite
resources, hoping that they might help orientate those who are
interested in finding out more about the applications of knowledge
management in development organisations.
* A bibliographical overview of the literature in this area can be
found in Pasteur, K., 2004, Learning for Development: A Literature
Review, Lessons for Change in Policy and Organisations, No. 6,
Brighton, Sussex: Institute of Development Studies
and Hovland, I., 2003, Knowledge
Management and Organisational Learning, An International Development
Perspective: An Annotated Bibliography, ODI (Overseas Development
Institute) Working Paper No. 224, London .
* A current overview of strategies to promote knowledge-sharing in
international development organisations, including the WHO
, the ADB and UNDP
is provided in the second issue of the
peer-reviewed online journal Knowledge Management for Development
(of which I am a member of the Editorial Board) at
.
* An evaluation of knowledge management efforts in the development
sector has been provided in Ben Ramlingham's paper Implementing
Knowledge Strategies: Lessons from International Development
Agencies, 2005, ODI Working Paper No. 244 ,
and King and McGrath's book Knowledge for Development? Comparing
British, Japanese, Swedish and World Bank Aid, Zed Books, London,
2004. A review of the above mentioned AIDS Competency programme at
UNAIDS/UNITAR can be found at .
* The World Bank is often credited for being the first international
development organisation to have made a concerted effort to embrace
knowledge management in its operations. For this reason, the
independent evaluation of their effort in this area, available at
, makes for
particularly interesting reading. Apart from the World Bank, a
number of development agencies have made their knowledge management
strategies publicly available, including, among others, USAID
and UNFPA .
* The IISD has published a number of extremely interesting research
papers on knowledge networks as a tool for civil society
organisations to achieve their development goals. They can be
downloaded at .
* Finally, many of the issues that I mentioned in this article are
hotly debated in the KM4dev mailing list (accessible via
), which I would strongly recommend to anyone
who's got a genuine interest in this subject
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Gulio Quaggiotto is the Programme Officer for Knowledge and Innovation
at the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, based in Washington, DC.
His interest in knowledge management for development stems from his
work as Knowledge Manager for WWF International, based in Gland,
Switzerland and subsequently as online dissemination coordinator for
the United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies in
Yokohama, Japan. Giulio is a member of the Editorial Board of the
Knowledge Management for Development Journal.
Giulio welcomes comments to this piece and is eager to share views on
knowledge management for development with other FreePint readers. He
can be reached at .
Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are the author's own
and do not necessarily reflect those of the IFC.
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