Keynote Hanze University

On Tuesday 29 June I was at the conference 'innovate with information' in Groningen (NL). I was being asked to kick-off the conference with a thought-breaking presentation about social media meant for librarians, information professionals and communication staff. Of course, most of them were already using social media extensively. So how to tease them?

I think I conceptualized the whole meaning of 'social' in social media differently, and how to grasp the issue of the information overload. I argued that information overload will only increase due to social media because more and more people are increasingly storing and sharing fragmented information through these media. However, social media can also assist people to make sense of this information overload, as it offers ways to filter the information.

My slides and text are available on SlideShare:

Hanzehogeschool

View more documents from Richard Lalleman.

 

SharePoint vs Personal Learning Environments

VidenDanmark is a network which aims to bring people together who are working or interested in the disciplines of innovation, learning and information and knowledge management.  Every now and then they organize meetings where peers discuss the latest developments within their own organisations. Even though I do not want to label myself as knowledge manager, I attend meetings hosted and participated by knowledge managers. I am very pleased with the opportunity to meet peers in Denmark. However, I am amazed to hear and see which projects/initiatives are being launched in order to promote learning and create innovation. 

One of the recurring initiatives to push and pull new information and knowledge is the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint.  As a result, VidenDanmark launched a SharePoint group in which peers share their experience in designing, maintaining and launching SharePoint. They meet every second month, some are travelling to San Francisco to attend a SharePoint conference and this is all being done to improve the organisational ability to effectively share information and knowledge. It is sad to say, but even though it is good that people meet each other in order to get to know a product/service better, I do think this is not what the experts in innovation, learning and knowledge should focus on.

I believe we should encourage organisations to let every staff member make its own learning environment. This is also known as personal learning environmet. In the next blog post I will explain why I favour personal learning environments more than SharePoint applications.