Archive for category Personal knowledge management
How do you know?
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Self improvement on March 3rd, 2010
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
My wife and I have just attended a prep grade information session which explained how reading, writing and maths are being taught to our youngest daughter. The teachers suggested we help by pointing out shapes in the home and asking what they are then follow up with, “How do you know?”. For a triangle we should be told 3 sides and 3 points and so on.
It struck me how useful it would be to have this question in the workplace. I see too many decisions and actions taken on the basis of what someone believes to be true very often without any substantial basis other than it’s what they believe.
People who speak in generalities but can’t provide or offer to provide real evidence need to have this question asked of them directly. It will be confronting, even if asked sincerely. Yet it should not be something you have to apologise for. Some people will have the guts to say, “You know what? I don’t really know”. Then you have a basis to move forward.
Using Dropbox with PersonalBrain
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Using technology on June 20th, 2009
Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes
I’ve been using Dropbox to sync my PersonalBrain between multiple computers for a few weeks now. Dropbox copies files via the internet. As long as you follow the rule of ensuring you’re not running two copies of PB simultaneously — in other words, let the sync finish before firing up PersonalBrain— it’s robust. Keep up the practice of regular brainzips just in case.
For your initial load I suggest you try:
- Leaving a comment below requesting that I refer you to Dropbox. The company provides an inital 2GB of space plus and additional 250mb for each referral for each party (up to an addition 3.0gb). So if I refer you then you will have 2.25gb to start with and I’ll gain as well. Enter your email address in the appropriate field. It’s not publically displayed and you’ll receive an invitation from my personal address.
- Register and install Dropbox on Computer A and Computer B.
- Practice with some non-brain files until you’re happy and understand the mechanics.
- Turn off Dropbox on Computer B.
- Copy (not move) your brain to the My Dropbox folder on Computer A.
- Let the sync finish — could be hours depending on bandwidth and size.
- Copy the same files to Computer B — or in other words, pre-load the files. This saves bandwidth and time.
- Start Dropbox on Computer B.
- Wait for the sync to finish before starting PB — it will be quicker because many of the files are already there.
Usual disclaimers about you being responsible for your data and adequate backups apply. Keep original copies until you’re sure and then keep them anyway. I’d hate for you to lose your brain. Yesterday I setup a new PC and thought it was right using the above method. Somehow I’d missed something but was able to recover by reloading a brainzip over the Computer B files.
You can have Dropbox running while you are using PersonalBrain. It will be able to update most files but not all. These will update as soon as you close out of PB (usually within a minute or two). If you shut down your PC before checking at the end of the day you risk getting out of sync so be diligent. It will take only a moment.
How being in love with Google led to a long-term relationship
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Using technology on June 20th, 2009
Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes
Google, you can have the lot. And I give it willingly.
First you helped me with a simple and fast search engine. This was followed up by the wonder of Google Earth and then Google Maps. Some other bits and pieces with Feedburner and Webmaster tools, then Google Reader last week took over from Feeddemon. Google Sketchup is in there as well. Now I’m giving to your care 5 years of emails and my calendar data as well. I trust you to do the right thing. For now Flickr can keep my photos.
I still don’t understand why Microsoft has such a thing about Internet Explorer. It’s the browser —it’s the data. An Google provides a standard, no-frills, simple and fast way to access it from anywhere.
Four days ago I started a new role with a different employer. By far the biggest hindrance to my productivity this first week has been the inability to access my existing knowledge, be that emails, calendar, contacts, newsfeeds or my PersonalBrain (the latter needing permission to install the software first). I have a Blackberry to carry some of that around but if you’ve ever been the victim of split-syncing (multiple data sources) then you’ll know it’s not so easy to fix.
Truthfully I don’t know what pointed me towards Gmail. I’ve had a Google Account for sometime and it may have simply been a byproduct of tidying things up. As I dug deeper and began to bring my existing email into Gmail I found instructions on how to Use Gmail IMAP in Microsoft Outlook 2007. With this I can access all of my mail from anywhere and still retain local copies. That works for me. No longer do I have to say, “I’ll dig that out and send you a copy when I get home/elsewhere”. The Blackberry client is great as well.
Calendar data has been a problem this past week. My new firm uses Outlook appointments extensively as they should. All my existing appointments were in my old system and synced to my Blackberry. Two diaries! Manually copying data from one to another works to a point and that point is when something changes. Again Google had the answer with Google Calendar. This one however took a while to work out.
I thought the flow of information was Work PC <-> Google Calendar <-> Blackberry <->Home PC. That lead to some nasty sync software (nasty defined as “I still had to think about it”), including Google’s Blackberry sync which fails horribly because it doesn’t sync all data. All I can say here is read before you decide. There is a risk of deleting calendar data from Outlook. On the other hand Google’s Outlook Calendar sync is fantastic. The order of Work PC <-> Google Calendar <-> Home PC <-> Blackberry works a dream. It transfers all data fast and keeps things in sync.
Google Reader for RSS feeds. Again, every computer has a browser.
And so on. Love with a search engine and mapping (one of the world’s great contributions) has led to a long term relationship.
Do I dare look at Picasa and Chrome?
Thanks to Google my computer is working again
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Using technology on February 19th, 2006
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
My laptop has been in a dive. If it wasn’t rented I would probably have kicked it before now. Everything would be fine after a reboot but within a couple of hours things would stop working properly. Most annoying was email, and an intermittent loss of network connectivity. Having to reboot each time you want to check or send emails is a little annoying to say the least.
This morning I was trying to stop some processes and noticed that ccApp.exe was hogging about 500mb of memory and still growing. Finally I had a way forward. Thanks to google helping me find a relevant forum post on the topic I was able narrow down the problem.
Three days ago I updated the Retrospect Client (used for backing up my laptop). Nortons Internet Security rightly determined the executable had changed but completely failed to prompt me to do anything about it. Instead ccApp which is the core of Norton’s firewall and antivirus kept 1) opening windows in the background that I couldn’t see, or 2) just leaking memory every few minutes that Retrospect tried to connect to the network.
If it weren’t for Google I would not have solved this problem so easily. My recourse was heading towards a complete reinstall. What fun, and a waste of time, that would have been.
Beware of Google Desktop caching passwords
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Using technology on January 19th, 2006
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
I installed Google Desktop Search at the weekend despite my pledge not to install any new software this year. In reading The Google Story by David Vise I became aware of just how reliant upon Google I am. If the desktop version works as well it will be very useful indeed.
Googe Desktop exceeds my expectations. It is fast and returns more accurate results than MSN Desktop Search does. But there are some caveats to be aware of. They probably applied to MSN Desktop Search as well yet I’m not sure that it stored cached results of deleted items.
If you receive a password confirmation via email and Google gets to it before you do, it will create a copy of the email in your cache (assuming you index your emails). Delete the email and the cached version remains. That’s a bit dangerous. I just searched for “password” on my machine and turned up 103 hits amongst 10 emails and 93 files. I have some culling from the cache to do. I’m sure it’s worth you doing the same.
Update: Click “Remove From Index” on the search page to be able to check items to remove from the cache.
Strategy to clear a backlog of RSS news feed or blogging items
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management on October 15th, 2005
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
Ton Zylstra has outlined his strategy for managing the wealth of information he is subscribed to. I particularly liked the way he puts actions against items.
- put in delicious [account] [url] (account being my own, my company’s delicious account or that of a community I partake in)
- comment at [name]’s about [topic] [url]
- follow up reading [entry] at [url] (meaning go check out the links in that posting: I read off-line remember)
- file [quote] from [url]
- mail [name] about [topic] [url]
I immediately thought something similar would be good for me to approach. With about 100 unread items in my aggregator I printed them all out and marked them off with a pen (I think Ton types his up as he goes). In the future I may set up contexts in ResultsManager. Some required comment, others to be forwarded and only one or two are requiring of a post. Though my practice is not as detailed as Ton’s (I didn’t have a copy with me), I managed to process the items within about 10-15 minutes (excluding time to followup links on the web).
With all personal knowledge management approaches I advocate finding what works for you. Take Ton’s practice and throw in a dash of your own. It’s a good place to start.
How to share knowledge like a librarian
Posted by David C. Buchan in Community knowledge management, Personal knowledge management on September 28th, 2005
Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes
Last week my business partner was lamenting the fact that I had thrown out some hard copy printouts of articles that he’d found valuable (no, he doesn’t normally go through the recycling but this time he was looking for something which had been tossed out by his P.A.). A lengthy discussion ensued about the processes we could undertake to make such valuable knowledge visible and shared by all. The premise was, “If it was all available centrally, we would all have access to the knowledge”.
Nothing was being deliberately withheld, but it wasn’t always put forward either.
In answer to the requests that were made, I’ve started “pushing” relevant articles to the others in the business and guess what? They don’t have time to read them.
The following considerations are not taken into account by a centralised system.
- We categorise things differently
- The depth of topic understanding and subsequent learning needs differs between individuals
- My personal knowledge management system works for me with my workflow and available technologies. It may not work for others
- You never know when a knowledge resource may, if ever, be needed
And so the idea of becomming librarians was born.
To research a topic I ask an librarian who will direct me to the most appropriate resources within their knowledge management system. Just because it is publically accessible does not mean it is my knowledge management system. We can do the same in the office.
Some interesting things will happen.
- I no longer have to determine if material is relevant to others, only if it is relevant to me. Perhaps something will get lost. That’s balanced against the time of sharing centrally.
- I no longer clutter other’s in trays with something which may not be relevant to them. At best, it interrupts their train of thought as they decide if they have to read it or not. And vice-versa.
- I have to request information. That means I have identified a gap and know what I’m after. That saves time on behalf of the recipient of my request.
- I have to respond to requests for information in a considered manner. People get better quality results.
- My personal knowledge management system can be 100% adapted to fit my needs, without compromise.
- I can make my catalogue system public for others to access when I’m not around or a general search is required — just like a library’s. (Aside: I don’t have a full solution to this, but del.icio.us helps.)
The only standing promise is one that we will help each other when asked.
As soon as the idea was mooted, a weight lifted from everyone’s shoulders. That’s always a good sign of a winner.
Quantum Gardener posts are now being tagged in delicious
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Quantum Gardener, Using technology on September 27th, 2005
Reading time: < 1 minute
When this post was first written it said,
I’m now tagging quantumgardener posts in del.icio.us using a quantumgardener tag no less! This gives me a richer way to tag items that movabletype’s category system. It’s faster and posts integrate with the rest of my sourced content. It will take some time to tag all my archived posts. I have to assess the value of doing so first.
That was true at the time. Now that I’m using WordPress which has it’s own tagging system everything is being tagged in-situ. The delicious tags (for only 17/400+) items have been removed to avoid confusion.
Some side-benefits of opening up your personal knowledge management system
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Using technology on September 27th, 2005
Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes
I’ve just taken my business partner through the in’s and out’s of how I join my blog, del.icio.us and newsgator into a personal knowledge management system. I hadn’t recognised the complexity and power of what is on offer and how easily I can now share that information with others. It has created a greater sense of value in what I am doing, and an incentive to improve my processes.
The conversation brought me deeply in touch with the people whose blogs I read on a regular basis. We are an informal and unstructured learning community, travelling in and out of topics as we see fit, as if we’re kids in a shopping mall, running ahead of each other saying, “Hey, look at this!”.
I should probably reinstate comments on my website. I see others receiving valuable comments and feel a sense of loss at missing out. The decision to remove them was due to too much time being wasted on SPAM management. Maybe it’s better now (lol). [This was done a few days later].
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Charter for Compassion
Comment and trackback reinstated to improve knowledge management
Posted by David C. Buchan in Personal knowledge management, Quantum Gardener on September 29th, 2005
Reading time: < 1 minute
In reference to my post on some side benefits of opening up your personal knowledge management system, and comment from Terry Frazier, I’ve decided to reinstate both comment and trackback functionality on Quantum Gardener.
blogging, comments, trackback
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