Just yesterday Glen and I were talking about what balance to strike between multi-author weblogs and individual weblogs on our intranet. I think that eventually we would evolve our blogs on the intranet to single-author but enable some way to port or otherwise indicate certain of their posts for diffferent teams the writer might be on. We use MovableType and had not yet come up with an elegant way to do this that still met our needs (it is partially a taxonomy challenge, of course!).

The new MT TrackBack might fit the bill:

Multiple “authors” without author accounts

Say you want to have your readers contribute to your blog, but do not want to add them as an author; either because you want to limit the number of authors or you don’t want the work of having to add new people each time someone wants to post something interesting. Or, you may not want their posts to “weigh” as much as your official set of multiple authors.

With TrackBack, you can set up a section of your site to receive pings.

Kristine, one of our beta-testers, used her site, The Red Kitchen, as an example:

“If I had a category named ‘Red Kitchen Guests’ and allowed pings to it… then anyone with an MT blog could post a recipe on their page and ping my guest category. Then it could automatically list a ping link and excerpt on the Guest category page.”

With this we could set up team weblogs that just gather TalkBack pings from team members who are writing klog entries. Ideally I would like for individual writers to set one or more of their categories to auto-ping relevant team klogs when a new entry of that category is posted. I’m not sure that TalkBack supports category auto-pinging right now but maybe we could do it somehow via category templates.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with this.

Phil Wolff:

Klogging vs. the 11 Deadly KM Sins.

How does klogging avoid the quagmire?

1. Not developing a working definition of knowledge

The best exercise is the one you do. The same is true for KM tools and practices.

People klog.

It’s easier to edit than write. The best way to define knowledge is to start from experience; klogging gives you that experience. More data points loosely scattered.

2. Emphasizing knowledge stock to the detriment of knowledge flow

Klogging is all about flow.

Freshness, updates, syndication, aggregation, linking. Part and parcel.

3. Viewing knowledge as existing predominantly outside the heads of individuals

Klogging is conversational. Content-rich klogs help you find the right people to chime in on a question.

4. Not understanding that a fundamental intermediate purpose of managing knowledge is to create shared context

Klogging illuminates context.

Context of time.

Of geography.

Of social connection.

Of topic.

By reading your colleague’s klogs, you crawl inside a little of their day.

Almost as fun as being John Malkovich

5. Paying little heed to the role and importance of tacit knowledge

Klogging creates a tacit source.

I may not be conscious of documenting my knowledge. I may just be telling the story of an encounter with a customer, a staff meeting, a thorny problem.

It is there, or clues to it, just the same.

6. Disentangling knowledge from its uses

Klogging puts knowledge in context. Expose the experience of applying knowledge by klogging your After Action Reviews.

7. Downplaying thinking and reasoning

Klogs’ conversational nature encourages people to share their train of thought and explain their conclusions.

8. Focusing on the past and the present and not on the future

Klogging won’t help, yet. Unless you klog your plans, visions, scenarios, coming events, trends…

9. Failing to recognize the importance of experimentation

Can’t help you there. You either reward the effort so people try new things, or you don’t.

10. Substituting technological contact for human interface

Klogging complements face time. That which can be electronically mediated, is. That which needs real space (decisions, brainstorming, bonding) gets it.

If you are a virtual team, widely dispersed, klogs augment conference calls and email.

11. Seeking to develop direct measures of knowledge

Nike: “Just Do It.”

The U.S.M.M.A motto: “Acta non verba” (action, not talk)

Forest Gump: “Knowledge is as Knowledge does.”

You can measure klogging. Operational health, user activity. Hits, posts, by user, by category.

But klogging is not about chunking knowledge (although “the post” is almost an atomic expression of an idea).

Real knowledge is created by multiple authors, in multiple posts, over time. Klogging tools help you uncover the threads that tie them together.

The indirect measures are most important: Improvement in sales, cost containment, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, speed, quality.

Phil Wolff has some insightful observations on how writing a weblog could benefit your career.