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From: JTS - MCDLXXXVI <jts1486@theworld.com>
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Subject: Re: NYTimes.com Article: Why We're So Nice: We're Wired to Cooperate
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Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 16:42:33 -0400

From: Win Treese <treese@acm.org>
> And Owen replied:
> > Well, IMNHO, its because companies do not reward knowledge sharers.
>
> I don't work in this area, but I have a suspicion that many people
> suspect projects for "knowledge management" and "knowledge sharing" as
> attempts to eliminate their jobs, or at least their importance. If "the
> organization" knows all the things I know, why does it need me?

I agree wholeheartedly.  It is easier to sit on knowledge than to
continually acquire more on the frontiers.

> This should actually be easy to test experimentally: compare the results
> of having someone call up and say, "Can you show us how to do X for this
> project we're working on?" with those of having someone summoned by a
> knowledge management project to explain how to do X for the knowledge
> archives.

This is in fact very true.  People hate doing this for several reasons in
my experience:
1) "Software changes.   Why waste time writing a FAQ now that will be out
of date at the next release in 3 months?"
2) "This knowledge is specialized.  Only 4 people need to know this, and
they already do.  If anyone else needs to know it they know who they can
call."
The same engineers who give these excuses will spend eternities on the
phone discussing this arcana and sharing the knowledge with anyone who has
the patience to ask.

The strongest contributors freely share everything they know whenever
asked (or whenever they see the need for the information in the company)
and who at the same time continue to generate new knowledge.

Personal evaluation: my worth comes slightly lower on the scale in that I
synthesize the knowledge from various personal sharing exercises into
usable documents and messages for the company to employ.  This would seem
like a marketing exercise except that Marketing is useless.   Useful
knowledge sharing comes (IMHO) from engineering and sales.

	JTS

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