This week – David Gurteen, 3eep and talking Web 2.0 with accountants

Aside from seeing my new Intranet 2.0 article in print, this week has been interesting for a couple of reasons.

I’ve spent most of today with David Gurteen, who started the day by presenting and then running one of his famous Knowledge Cafe sessions for the NSW KM Forum. I had the chance, along with a couple of others from the KM Forum, to talk more informally with him over lunch and then we finished the day with a one-on-one chat I managed to arrange between David and someone with a particular interest in the Knowledge Cafe process. I’ve used the cafe approach a few times myself and like it – but its always interesting to listen to someone like David who has using the technique all around the world. Its also a good reminder of how KM can work without technology and how an apparently simply KM process can have a powerful effect.

In between David, I also had the chance to chat with Nick Gonios about 3eep (pronounced “threep”) and their latest development, SportsPassion. Considering I normally spend my time talking to companies and organisations about knowledge and information issues inside the firewall, it was interesting to hear about a company that is focused on supporting the social networking needs of another fundamental human endeavour – sport! What impressed me about Nick was that he clearly has a good appreciation of both the technology and social aspects of what he is trying to achieve. Anyway, if you’re in a sports team of any kind, check it out.

Finally, back on Wednesday night I had the chance to present to a National Institute of Accountants professional development group in Burwood about Web 2.0. I had a very warm welcome and they were interested to learn, engage and even challenge some of the trends. However, bearing in mind the age of my audience, it was also a good reminder for me that many aspects of Web 2.0 still aren’t common knowledge across the whole of the community. For example, most people have heard of Facebook but have limited exposure to anything else. Also, one of the key concerns was people saying they don’t have time to engage with social media…. and I think there is a point that you shouldn’t be adding to your information workload with social computing, but replacing and improving existing work practices. However, I think that maybe the old 9X challenge is also at work here?

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