Knowledge-at-work

Structured Settlements3.0 ?

On the web there is much excitement around the 2.0 meme - a realization that the web has evolved, has re-invented itself and has reached a milestone.

Is the same movement afoot in the Structured Settlement industry?

Patrick Hindert my partner at S2KM seems to believe so. His terminology for this milestone is 'Stage 3' and the changes he sees are reflected in this series of slides (click the slide to enlarge).

The history of Structured Settlements

Transfer dynamics

Stage 3 changes

Influence of the internet

 

KM has a number of roles to play in this vertical market:

• Sharing learning and facilitating collaboration between the multiple players in Structured Settlements3.0 - judges, plaintiff lawyers, annunity providers, transfer and trust companies, settlement planners, brokers and subject matter experts.
• Enabling faster, cheaper, more effective business communication, transactions and money transfers between all the parties involved.
• Providing instant and easy to understand information on plaintiff rights, legislative changes, case law decisions and changing tax rules.

'05 Retrospect

A year where KM lay in limbo - poised on a knife-edge, will KM rise with the web2.0 tide or be relegated to the dead fad bucket?

KM bloggers kept the meme alive while new books, conferences and articles wained. I Watch:

• Jack Vinson - his connections to TOC, consistency and KM coverage make this a feed to keep
• Bill Ives - kept me aware of blogging developments and trends
• Lilia Efimova - visited here in January, but faded towards year's end. May '06 bring a revival, always on the leading edge
• Anecdote - Shawn, Andrew and Mark shared their narratives and helped with sense-making
• Joy London - connected me to the world of lawyers
• James Robertson - the oracle on things CMS
• Nancy White - has a keen sense for the balance between tech and personal empathy

2005 was the year:

• I came to use and really appreciate the power of Del.icio.us & Flick'r, when I purchased an iPod, subscribed to iTunes and found songs from way back, made my first podcast, explored the emerging world of social software and made an aggregator my first port of call.
• Attended my first blogwalk, met many bloggers f2f for the first time, followed the folksonomy and tagging memes, became interested in e-learning2.0 and the library2.0 tags / movements.
• My KmWiki died after 6 years and then refactored as a wikispaces repository
• Finally got the chance to present in the AOK star series on "Knowledge sharing and social software"
• Continued to post to Brainstorms, KnowledgeBoard, Brint and KMforum
• Made 66 posts to this blog

Looking ahead

There is an under-current in business that respects the KM basics of relationship, trust, community, networking and connections. Not sure if the web2.0 meme will be strong enough to revive commercial interest in KM - certainly it will not be called knowledge management - but I sense business folks are seeing value in new affordances for web collaboration, are more aware of the possible benefits of virtual knowledge work, need improved business intelligence services and see the younger generations so 'at home' on the net.

I'm looking forward to learning more of the art of collaborative concept mapping with Barbara Bowen as my mentor. There is something very powerful about knowledge elicitation, visual representation and working almost synchronously on a diagram.

Working with CPSquare colleagues, I'm wanting to clarify the role of web2.0 in CoP work, sharpen my grip on these new genre, understand more about mashups, playlists and dig deeper into tagging. Purchased my first mobile phone and will be experimenting with the strange thumbbed world of texting and SMS.

Hope to launch a series of participatory gatherings at the METS center with my partner Patrick Hindert, bringing (draging?) the Structured Settlement industry into the Internet age.

What then are your plans & thoughts for KM in '06 ??