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!