Last night I was invited to contribute to a new business brain storming session. I was sourced due to my understanding of the new economy and the technology associated with it. The product if it does go to market is intended to revolutionise the medical profession giving power back to the patient by keeping them informed. It's a simple product and I was happy to say it ticked all the right Wikinomics boxes. The group's main dilemma during this initial session was who would pay to have it developed and what would the pricing model be. I was disappointed to see that most initially felt we should go to the big Corporates who stood to gain from future statistical information on stake holders, to ask for funding.

Two things needed to be made clear from the outset to the group in relation to Wikinomics.

Firstly the NetGeneration can see internet exploitation from afar and can qualify an internet scam at lightening speed. Its practically part of there genetic makeup. In the recent Olympic ticked scam what percentage of those caught out do you think were NetGeneration. Practically none!

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Scholarly thinking has nearly always preceded the definitions tailored by the software industry. Definition's on terminology are important but will differ depending on what side of the balance sheet the definition now sits. KM is now being defined by the people making money from it and who are being paid to evangelize. The crux of KM comes down to how my company can be more effective and efficient and pay higher dividends to share holders. Staff attrition costs companies millions and is far more prevalent now than it was 30 years ago. That's a paradigm shift! You lose your people you lose your knowledge and often to your competitor. Companies have to get their heads around this and technology has helped. Corporate knowledge attrition is only one aspect of the KM field but I want to relate this comment to it.

By capturing the "deltas" of argument / discussion / creation on a daily weekly monthly basis in systems which relate to the particular "environment" in which they are being captured and then aggregating these, provides a knowledge pool. Web2.0 helps capture the "deltas" as well as creating tools which relate and appeal to the "environment" in which they are used. Systems can then aggregate and provide the ability to search and share experiences to prevent reinventing the wheel and slowing the operations down. The skill will be to present the knowledge pool back to the employees in a way that works for everyone. Dr Martin Porter at Cambridge University helped develop some very interesting Natural Language search algorithms back in the late 90's which disappointingly have still not been incorporated into our favourite search engines.

Aside: Your knowledge is often in the minds of others and this is your extended knowledge pool. Not to be forgotten and Web2.0's ability to maintain and tap ex-colleague relationships extends this and prolongs its useful life. In the future our employers will judge us on the quality/depth/proximity and not quantity of this extended Collaborative/Social Business Network

The more I think about it the more I feel that mass confusion is entering Facebook. The term "Social Networking" in my mind conjures up a concept of friends getting together. Correct me please if you don't feel the same? I still feel that in order to reduce confusion we should split this phrase into two:

Friendly Social Networking        and     

Collaborative Business Networking 

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So we have decided as an organisation that we have to address the concept of Collaborative Business Networking. Be it Facebook, Linkedin or Instant messaging not to mention the other Web2.0 tools out there. We have been convinced that this new business principal will save us money and improve our bottom line.

Who in the company will take ownership ? Where does this responsibility lie?