The Obama Affect - KM Systems

This will be my final entry (for now) concerning President Obama's use of Knowledge Management. This post will focus on the Obama campaign and administration's continued use of Knowledge Management in particular Knowledge Management (KM) Systems. KM Systems can come in various forms. Its use however is very specific. The KM System is put in place to facilitate knowledge sharing (tacit and explicit), collaboration, creating new knowledge through eLearning as well as Knowledge transfer activities that can be distributed across the organization. Barack's team instituted a series of technologies under the web 2.0 umbrella. These technologies include: blogging, Ajax and other new technologies, Google Based and other free Web Services, social networking, mash-ups, wikis and other collaborative applications, dynamic as opposed to static site content, as well as interactive encyclopedias and dictionaries.

These technologies leveraged the Internet as its community or organization in which to distribute its message and create an environment of knowledge sharing (tacit and explicit), and collaboration. Obama's KM strategy served as the catalyst for the new generation of Knowledge Management. Incorporating the use of blogs, YouTube, and other social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin) the Obama team was able to push out the latest news, information and knowledge about every aspect of the campaign and now many aspects of his administrations' policies and initiatives.

In understanding the general view of the composition of a KM System you must consider that a Knowledge Management System (KMS) addresses the needs of an organization (in this case the Obama Team) that desires not to re-invent knowledge, spend excess time locating difficult to find knowledge, unsuccessfully absorbing and using the growing volumes of new knowledge, while seeking to collaborate and bring in new knowledge. However, one point must be stressed here is that knowledge management also combines cultural and process changes along with enabling technology to achieve bottom line results. It seems that President Obama will continue to leverage Knowledge Management and KM Systems through out his tenure as president.

I look forward to everyone’s response and comments!

The Obama Affect – Creating an Environment of Collaboration and Knowledge Acquisition

As the President-Elect moves to select/fill his cabinet appointments as well as selecting his vice presidential running mate, the Obama Team leverage another important aspect of the Knowledge Management Strategy: Collaboration and Acquisition. Understanding that Barack Obama had to fill his knowledge gap in foreign policy the Obama Team selected Senator Joe Biden, essentially acquiring the necessary knowledge Obama needed or perceived to need in order to strengthen the opportunity for the democratic ticket to get elected. As cabinet selections proceeded, Barack Obama and his team worked together to acquire the “best” folks to fill cabinet positions, bringing in former opponents to work with him. The vetting process included collaborating with key team members to select candidates based on certain criteria to meet the duties of the cabinet positions ( www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703037.html ).

Collaboration (www.byeday.net/assets/documents/Patti%20Anklam%20Collaboration%20Thread.pdf) to leverage existing knowledge and knowledge acquisition (www.epistemics.co.uk/Notes/63-0-0.htm), (www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/Vol7_1/blackman.pdf ) to acquire new knowledge is a cornerstone of the Obama governing policy. Evidence supporting this policy is rooted in Obama’s actions to reach out and speak to the nation’s governors for input into the proposed stimulus package to “kick start” the economy and his actions to engage in dialog with past presidents about life in the White House and the day to day function as President of the United States, and by building a coalition to support his job creation and other economic policies. I see this Knowledge Management Strategy for President-Elect Obama continuing to evolve and being leveraged throughout his presidency. Let me know your thoughts!

The Obama Affect – Knowledge Sharing and Reuse

An important aspect of any knowledge management strategy is to establish an environment of continuous sharing, collaboration and knowledge reuse. During the democratic primary and the presidential campaign the Obama team leveraged email list gathered partly through their internet site and their push for campaign donations through the mail, including list harvested during Obama’s run for the United States Senate. The emails were leveraged (and are still being leveraged) to push out information and knowledge to supporters, solicit donations and to solicit additional email list of people that want to get involved, partly enticed by the possiblility of winning certain promotional items identified by the Obama email (see example - http://www.pic2009.org/page/invite/tickettohistory).

The Obama team would utilized these email list, determine where in the country these supporters live and dispatch teams to these locations to mobilize these and other supporters to get out the vote for Barack. This process was repeated (reused) all over the country. This created a “grass roots” effort to gain support and votes for Barack Obama. The emails served as a vehicle to build organic Communities of Practice (CoP) for Obama, to disseminate knowledge and build support for the Obama campaign and subsequent presidency. This strategy empowered supporters to hold their own functions (lunches, dinner parties, other special events) to showcase Barak Obama’s message and to talk about the issues.

Through targeted email marketing, development of communities as vehicles to share knowledge, and creating and executing a repeatable process, established a foundation to a knowledge management strategy that was able to expand. I will post more about this iterative expansion of the Obama Knowledge Management Strategy as we continue this dialog. I look forward to all thoughts and comments.

Happy New Year!

The Obama Affect

Happy Holidays to All!

During the next several post I would like to examine the affect the Obama presidential campaign, cabinet selections and governing strategy is being shaped by the principles, practices, and technology of Knowledge Management (KM). I am referring to this as "The Obama Affect". This is the first time in the history of American politics that someone has leverage KM in a political campaign and has ultimately changed how politicians will be elected. KM has many facets. Among its many facets KM includes knowledge acquisition, collaboration, knowledge transfer/sharing, and the technology and strategy to effectively leverage knowledge to shape decisions.

The Obama Team has instituted a push strategy executing a knowledge sharing policy that includes disseminating information about the the campaign, transition team, cabinet selections and future policies via , email, mobile devises, and Internet. As the Obama Team continues to add cabinet positions and shape their policy decisions the following links provide some insight into their strategy:

http://change.gov/

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm

A good KM strategy Includes:

KM Vision
Valuation of Knowledge Assets (People, Process and Technology)
Conducting Knowledge Audit
KM Strategy Details
· Knowledge Acquisition Planning
· Knowledge Transfer Planning
· Knowledge Sharing/Collaboration Planning
· Knowledge Management System Planning

We will examine each aspect of the Obama KM Strategy and I welcome your comments and suggestions.