SPEAKER: Leslie Owens, Research Director and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

TOPIC: We will be exploring announcements, predictions and commentary heard at the 2012 Enterprise Search Summit (ESS 2012)  in New York (being held earlier in the week of our meeting). This annual meeting is often the site of new product announcements, case studies and analyst discussions on the state of enterprise search and content technologies. Our meeting is the perfect opportunity to learn about the state of the search industry and hear Leslie Owens’ reactions to those highlights of ESS 2012. A highly respected analyst on content and search, Leslie will give us great perspectives on where these technologies are benefiting enterprise knowledge initiatives and share guidance on how to get maximum leverage when implementing them.

BIOGRAPHY: Leslie Owens is Research Director and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research where she leads a team of analysts who provide research and advisory services to Enterprise Architects on emerging technology, application consolidation, information strategy & architecture, data management and content management. Leslie covers information access topics like enterprise search, text analytics and taxonomy. Before joining Forrester, Leslie managed the enterprise search program at Abbott Laboratories. In this role, she developed the enterprise search software strategy and guided the selection of ontology management software. In addition, she advised on the development of file plans for records management and built taxonomies for enterprise digital asset management and web content management systems. Prior to Abbott, Leslie developed metadata schema and retrieval aids as an independent consultant for Fortune 500 clients. Leslie holds a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a focus on cataloging and classification. She holds an undergraduate degree in political science from Duke University.

PLEASE PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. If you then make a decision not to attend, please use the registration link and note in the comments field that you will not attend.

NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Joyce Ward, Manager of Taxonomies and Semantic Enrichment, LexisNexis

TOPIC: We will talk with Joyce about the evolution of her professional career from Digital to subsequent leadership positions at Northern Light and LexisNexis. We will explore the importance of controlled vocabulary (AKA taxonomy) and its relationship to search excellence, and ask why commercial operations with high value content, such as LexisNexis, invest intelligent human resources to deliver intelligent search outcomes. Joyce will also share thoughts on how the commercial content search experience can be replicated in the enterprise and comment on where organizations need to place their resources to achieve high quality search.

BIOGRAPHY: Joyce Ward is Manager of Taxonomies and Semantic Enrichment at LexisNexis where she leads an international team of vocabulary, classification, categorization and search experts. Previously at LexisNexis she was an Executive Custom Solutions Manager for over eight years. Earlier Joyce was a member of the founding team, Chief taxonomist and VP of Editorial Products for Northern Light (web search engine) involved in pioneering work on topical clustering of Web search results. She was also a Senior Manager for applications development of search and library systems and  Corporate Librarian at Digital Equipment Corporation.  Joyce received a BA from Bowdoin College and MLS from Columbia University in the City of New York.

PLEASE PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. If you then make a decision not to attend, please use the registration link and note in the comments field that you will not attend.

NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Panel from SIKM Boston and Boston KM Forum will contribute and lead the discussion.

TOPIC: We’re entering into a world of BYOD — ‘bring your own device,’ as KM leader Jack Vinson puts it — and this is putting strains on the IT and knowledge leaders. At the same time, it is opening the door to easier communications from many locations, and helping extend the digital workplace for many employees needing to work at a factory, from an airport, or from home. BYOD has a sister, BYOA — ‘bring your own app.’ The explosion of applications that are easy to use, almost free, and meet many basic collaboration and knowledge-sharing needs is putting even more pressure on IT and knowledge leaders.

What do BYOD and BYOA mean for your team’s responsibilities, your community’s boundaries, your quality and management, and the engagement of your employees?”

Notes from SIKM Jam Session: Discussion of Topic

Background Content:

BYOD puts pressure on content management, by Adam Riglian, News 3/15/12

From APQC’s 2011 annual mtg. & article from KnowledgeCompass, How Mobile Devices Are Changing Knowledge Management

Synergy: Mobile Devices and Knowledge Management, Kevin M. O’Sullivan 6/2011

Sorting Reality from “Truthiness” Video of the symposium is posted on the Berkman Center’s site.

Kanaracus, Chris. IBM CIO Discusses Big Blue’s BYOD Strategy.  IDG News Service (Boston Bureau), March 26, 2012

Kaneshige, Tom. The BYOD Troubleshoot: Security and Cost-Savings. CIO, Narch 30, 2012. 3p.
Lagunas, Kyle. BYOD or Bust: Survey Results Report. Software Advice, March 28, 2012

BIOGRAPHY: A panel of leaders from SIKM and Boston KM Forum will explore the topic and lead the dialogue about this challenging topic.

PLEASE PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. If you then make a decision not to attend, please use the registration link and note in the comments field that you will not attend.

NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Kathy L Hagen, Principal, K.L. Hagen

TOPIC: With over fourteen years of experience in companies across the world, Kathy Hagen has plenty of stories to share about how companies manage the delicate balance of managing employee expertise and continuing to leverage the value of those who have retired or are about to retire. Her model for managing and leveraging transfer of knowledge will be the top topic for the interview on February 16th. You will have plenty of time to engage this KM “thought-leader,” who is visiting from Minnesota, at the meeting about all of her professional experiences, successes and challenges. [Meeting Notes forthcoming from Moderator Lynda Moulton.]

BIOGRAPHY: Kathy L. Hagen is the Principal of K. L. Hagen, which specializes in Intellectual Capital Strategies.  Kathy Hagen focuses on the areas of knowledge transfer, intellectual capital and intellectual asset management, process improvement and cultural change. Her knowledge management strategies and knowledge transfer methods have been successfully implemented and used extensively by global companies facing the challenges of an aging workforce with the need to capture and transfer knowledge to a new generation of workers. Kathy’s current work concentrates on methods of managing strategic, deeply held, or tacit knowledge; leveraging intellectual assets; and developing collaborative processes across functional, geographic, or cultural boundaries during times of organizational transition.

Kathy has held positions that combined knowledge management, process improvement, change management, and information technology in the life sciences, manufacturing, and retail industries. Kathy worked with Deloitte as a Senior Manager heading the Intellectual Capital Practice and served as the Assistant Director of Exploratory Development Informatics and Knowledge Management at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Groton, Connecticut, and earlier she was the principal leading the Global Knowledge Management Practice for Health Care at Computer Science Corporation. Kathy is also a member of the Twin Cities Knowledge Management Forum. She teaches Knowledge Transfer at the Minnesota State College and University System and is a guest lecturer at St. Thomas University Graduate School of Business.

PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. If you then make a decision not to attend, please use the registration link and note in the comments field that you will not attend.

NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Dr. Otto Ritter, IS Informatics Science Director, R&D Information, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

TOPIC: Dr. Ritter applies his scientific expertise, work as a researcher in the biotech and pharmaceuticals sector, and mathematical training, to address complex problems across R&D at AstraZeneca. A relatively new field with a close relationship to leveraging knowledge, informatics is a growing area of interest in organizations with strong research and development operations. We will interview Otto to learn about his professional path, the roots of informatics at AstraZeneca and how it might be applied in other industries and fields of endeavor. Whether you are interested in stimulating science innovation or trying to find better ways of analyzing and applying your internal knowledge assets, your questions for Dr. Ritter will be welcomed in the audience Q&A portion of the meeting. TRANSCRIPT of INTERVIEW

BIOGRAPHY:  Dr. Otto Ritter has been IS Informatics Science Director, Global Discovery Information, at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. He is responsible for the development and application of tailored decision analytics in R&D, strategy, and business development.  In his work, he evaluates and internalizes innovation in complex systems research and computational sciences. His long-term vision is to leverage information in R&D science, technology, and business by systematically and economically decreasing uncertainty about specific key drug-hunting questions. In his prior work at AstraZeneca, Otto used advanced analysis techniques to frame, solve, and interpret complex decision problems; developed a novel method to quantitatively evaluate intangible R&D assets under imperfect information; and oversaw a number of technical projects in text mining, gene expression analysis, and molecular pathway analysis.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 1999, Otto was a scientist and principal investigator at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY) and at the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg, Germany), where he has been a tenured faculty member since 1995.

Otto’s professional interests include R&D process modeling and decision analysis; the application of mathematics and computation in life sciences and business process modeling; and knowledge representation and reasoning. He has designed and developed large-scale, distributed data and knowledge management systems; dynamic system models and simulations; and CASE tools for automatic generation of parsers, translators, and remote user interfaces.

Otto holds a M.S. in Mathematics with highest honors and a Ph.D. from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Wei Zhang, Associate Professor, College of Management, Univ. of Mass, Boston

TOPIC: We have invited Dr. Wei Zhang back to the Boston KM Forum to be interviewed on his current research and the challenges of teaching KM to management students in higher education. In the summer of 2010, Dr. Zhang shared his experiences while on sabbatical in China where he found wide and interesting disparity in knowledge sharing behaviors when comparing two corporations’ operations. The presentation Knowledge Management in China: A Tale of Two Companies, stimulated great discussion and intense interest and we want to hear more about his research and thoughts on knowledge sharing behaviors. We will interview him to learn more about those experiences and new insights on the topic.

BIOGRAPHY: Wei Zhang earned his doctorate in management information systems from Boston University. His research interests include knowledge management, cultural issues in Information Systems, and Information Systems Education. Dr. Zhang has published in journals such as Journal of Association for Information Systems, Social Work, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Behavior and Information Technology, and Journal of Information Systems Education. Dr. Zhang earned his ME at Renmin University of China and BE in computer science at University of Science and Technology of China.
PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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SPEAKER: Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Harvard Library at Harvard University

TOPIC: The topics we will explore with Mary Lee will include:

• How her professional track and experiences formed her professional philosophy
• The competencies, expertise and business aptitudes required for  information professionals to excel in a knowledge-centric enterprise
• What is needed to create  alignment between higher education and enterprise knowledge/information work
• Goals for her new position at Harvard to influence education to better educate the  21st century workforce

BIOGRAPHY: Mary Lee Kennedy has arrived at her  Senior Associate Provost for the Harvard Library after almost seven years as Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services at Harvard Business School. She has global experience in multi-national corporations and international organizations including Microsoft Corporation where she was Director, Knowledge Network Group, and Digital Equipment Corporation where she led the Information Research Services and Corporate Library Group after working as an Information Scientist at Sherritt Inc. in Edmonton, Alberta. She began her professional career at  Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan as Deputy Director, Library and Information Services.

More about Mary Lee Kennedy

PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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There were even more responses that were enthusiastic about past topics and meetings. However, the most consistent comment and lament was the timing of meetings and the desire to attend at a different time. These breakfast meetings have been staged to be very informal, at a regular time and location that requires no special logistics or parking arrangements. The leaders settled on the 1st Friday of every month to avoid the end of business quarters and take advantage of the arrangements many have to work remotely on Friday’s.

Only a hand-full of people were willing to lead a discussion and none in the short term; others were enthusiastic about attending in the past and future but not as leaders.

Given the focus on practices, methods and processes that stimulate, encourage, and foster knowledge exchange (the mission of our community of practice), who is going to pick the topics and lead the discussions?

This is about providing a forum for like-minded professionals to have informal discussions, or as practiced elsewhere in the world, meet-ups. Should breakfast meetings continue, or not?

Here is the dilemma we face: can we change the time, format (new leaders), and pick topics to attract a regular critical mass? Six to 12 people is a good number for discussion to flourish.

We established this blog to enable an exchange of ideas. Please read the suggestions and add your own through the comments to this posting. Based on responses, we’ll revisit the resumption in early 2012.

Meanwhile, 3rd Thursday of the month afternoon meetings with featured guests will continue at the Microsoft facility in Waltham.

TOPIC: We are currently evaluating comments from members and trying to assess the options for topics, topic leaders, and a possible time change. This is as a result of responses from our questionnaire sent on Tuesday, October 25.

If you did not see the message please respond to info@kmforum.org with comments for these questions:

1.    What is a compelling knowledge management related topic that would inspire you to come to a breakfast roundtable discussion?

2.    Would you like to choose a “1st Friday” of some month in the future to lead the discussion? Tell us when.

We have decided to table discussions for the present and come back later to you with a new agenda, new leaders, and perhaps a new schedule. In the meantime, please share your inspirations and thoughts on whether breakfast meetings should continue.

Moderator: Lynda Moulton, Senior Analyst and Consultant at Outsell’s Gilbane Services

TOPIC: KM World and the Enterprise Search Summit are coming up Nov. 1 - 3 in Washington, D. C. and one of the topics on the program is an interactive session to be lead by Moulton, Who Owns (Or Should Own) Search in Your Enterprise? It was launched with a LinkedIn topic on that theme on the Enterprise Search Engine Professionals group. The discussion has been constant for several months and surfaces a lot of issues we need to talk about. Join the group (requires registration) if you want to follow it, and join us for the expansion of the topic on October 20th to include all content related technology projects. We need to know where to position this stuff in our own organizations. The options are endless but not always clear. This will be a highly interactive session - bring your comments and questions.

BIOGRAPHY: Lynda Moulton is Senior Analyst for Enterprise Search Outsell’s Gilbane services. She is also principal at LWM Technology Services. Her professional accomplishments include implementing search related technologies, and designing systems for managing enterprise content, beginning with the release of BiblioTech software in 1980.  Lynda also blogs and writes on knowledge management. Her commentary on search can be seen at: http://gilbane.com/search_blog/. Other projects and writings on knowledge and information management are at http://www.lwmtechnology.com. In 2008 she played a lead role in producing the Gilbane report: Enterprise Search Markets and Applications; Capitalizing on Emerging Demand. She was the principal writer for the July 2010 study, Semantic Software Technologies; Landscape of High Value Applications for the Enterprise. In addition to analyst work, Lynda consults to enterprises on search and content strategies, taxonomy development and management, and product evaluations and implementations.

PLEASE Register even if you are not certain you can attend so we have an accurate estimate of attendees for handouts. NOTE: The registration page has changed and you will be directed to another site where the registration form resides. It is now hosted by lwmtechnology.com and is legitimate.

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