Background

At KM World, I took a class about blogs, so I decided that this is something I should try. I'd welcome any feedback on the information I post here.

I currently manage a KM program for the Awwa Research Foundation. The organization manages approximately $20M/yr research (outsourced) for the drinking water community. We have a staff of 45, but have approx. 350 ongoing projects, with a few thousand people involved with the projects. We report results to 1000 utilities and to multiple people at each utility. Therefore, our KM challenge is not only our staff, but project participants, as well as users of the information.

The main goal of the KM program is to increase customer service by improving the flow of research knowledge among our stakeholders. We've adopted a simple definition of knowledge to be "usable information." What this means could be the subject of numerous papers, however, the thought is that we want to provide research information in a form that facilitates use by water utilities. What this form is, is a subject of continual research.

The program officially started in January of 2003, however, this is just part of the evolution of our research organization. I started work in this area in 1994, with the launch of Research Applications Program. The program goal was to get research applied by utilities. Sounds a lot like to the goal of the KM program, doesn't it? Again think evolution...

In 2003, I took my first course in knowledge management. This year I presented a paper at KM World and am co-leading an international group of research organizations on KM. So I guess I'm now an expert (ha, ha). What I have noticed is that the majority of KM discussion focuses on theory or products, in other words you need to hire a consultant to figure it out. Finding practical knowledge in KM is becoming harder to find. I plan on capturing my experiences in this blog. If it's practical or usable, you need to let me know.

Jeff