RE: Knowledge Management

["Robert Milkovich" <RMilkovich -at- ADVANCEDUTILITY -dot- com>]

Unfortunately, the wordcount limitation on this article got in the way of clear communication and sidetracked many of us into an entirely different discussion. And as much as Teri is frustrated that we did not discuss knowledge management or knowledge bases, I believe that the discussion of the sentence has been valid and useful, despite Teri's feelings about it. It shows what happens when we write in buzzwords, clichés and motherhood statements, and not in plain, clear language - the reader gets caught up in something else, and we miss the point of the message. If someone can't write a clear sentence, how can we have confidence that they can design an intuitive, well-organized knowledge base that makes it easy for users to find what they need? And what is the point of organizing something so well if the content is hard to understand, like that sentence?

Teri, I really don't understand how "leverages knowledge both within and outside the organization" translates as single sourcing. I thought it meant "he applies what he learns at work and in daily life", which I thought was a rather strange thing to say in an article - of course he would do that, who wouldn't? If you meant single sourcing, why not just say single sourcing?

You also assumed that we would all understand this sentence just because you do: "Fostering good communication isn't difficult to comprehend if you're a TC :-)." This belief does not lead to clear communication - it leads to confusion and resentment in the audience. As you can now see, a very many people were confused by this sentence. And the knowledge level in this group is quite high. If we didn't understand it, who will? It was simply a bad sentence that should never have been published. Please send me your editor's email address! I have some excellent resources on writing and editing in plain language that might be helpful.

Roberto in Toronto

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Well, feel free to ask my editor what it means! Suffice it to say we have some ardent editors here! Thank you for your feedback. I didn't think that implementing a knowledge base was too difficult to understand :-) Fostering good communication isn't difficult to comprehend if you're a TC :-) 

Leveraging information means not reinventing the wheel but using content that is already developed. The entire article had a maximum word count. If you need more clarification (or on the article, in particular), however, feel free to e-mail me directly. I will be happy to respond.

My intent was to share a bit of information I have learned on KM with my peers :-) Please feel free to send a link of an article you have written, or post it here, as well :-) Perhaps others could benefit from your extensive knowledge and writing skills.

Yours,

Teri

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