Informal, joined up knowledge Informal, joined up knowledge sharingsharing using connected using connected

weblogs in pursuit of weblogs in pursuit of Mental Mental Health service improvementHealth service improvement

Lee Bryant, BlogTalk 2, July 2004http://www.headshift.com

lee@headshift.com

What am I going to talk about?

1. Weblogs as personal and social knowledge sharing tools

2. How to stimulate and support a social knowledge sharing network

3. Getting Started: identifying and encouraging potential blogging ‘voices’ in knowledge networks

4. How we support individual and collective modes within a social software-based knowledge community

5. Some observations on our methodology, conclusions & linksNotes available on SubEthaEdit now, on the Wiki later or mail me….

1 :: Weblogs as personal and social knowledge sharing tools

Some barriers to online knowledge sharing• Knowledge is a social construct - not just ‘content’

to be managed• Too focused on content creation vs. linking people• Formality of systems, tools and process• Metadata/“Metacrap” - top-down view not user

view• Divergent conceptual models of communication,

KM,e-learning and other software

• KM Software vendors lock us in to command and control systems, yet KM consultants speak of “knowledge ecology” and systems thinking

Lessons from Social Software

• Informality of weblogs / wikis encourages participation

• Aggregation: manage feeds NOT content items• Bottom-up emergent metadata promotes self-

representation and user involvement in categorisation

• Weblogs and Wikis promote ‘loosely joined’ markup and linking culture rather than content recreation

• Simple conceptual models for personal publishing

Social Software is not just online social networks and weblogs, but loosely coupled software that is…

Social in the way it is conceivedSocial in its purposeSocial in the way it behaves

2 :: How to stimulate and support a social knowledge sharing network in the real world

Case Study: National Institute for Mental Health in England

Aims:• cut across multiple, conflicting perspectives and interests• help people in different organisations & disciplines work

together to improve mental health services & experiences.

Key challenges:

Multiple perspectives - political issues of representationHighly devolved organisation with roots locally, in the fieldLow level of IT awareness and exposure beyond email & listsCultural ‘legacy’: long meetings, email-centric comms, etc. Integration: their work involves multiple organisations

A social engagement approach

1. Scope project --> map network --> define objectives together

2. Use a project weblog to learn their issues and language and to help teach them ours (knowledge transfer)

3. Participative design: let users shape their system4. Patient seeding of Weblog-driven local ‘feeder’ sites to

get early adopters blogging ‘close to home’ where comfortable

5. Develop the platform with pilot user groups6. Phased launch from core users -> partners -> public7. Training and support through events, demos, support

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are needed to see this picture.

Who are we trying to reach & why?

Offline networking & communications

Based on the target groups identified by the mapping, we undertook extensive offline networking among Mental Health professionals and service users to understand their content and interaction needs, and introduce people to blogging…

3 :: Getting started: identifying and encouraging potential blogging ‘voices’ in networked organisations

Keep it local, keep it simple, keep it real

• Setup ‘feeder’ blogs within local corporate Web sites• Train and mentor staff to allow direct posting to

public sites• Prove benefits of open dialogue through user

feedback• Aggregate upwards when they are ready - don’t

scare them!

Early wins: ‘feeder’ blogswww.nimhenorthwest.org.uk

Early wins: ‘feeder’ blogsbme.nimhe.org.uk

4 :: … and then finally we build something

The NIMHE knowledge communitykc.nimhe.org.uk

Understanding individual and group needs• For each network we

try to understand individual and collective needs: what types of groups are best in each case?

• This also drives a content plan to support groups with appropriate RSS, news & resource feeds

Anatomy of a personal profile

Personal Home Page

Personal Weblog• Links to

related classification nodes

• Quick and easy posting

• Syndicate via RSS or ‘grab’ using aggregator

• Ability to bring in feeds from external blog

• Links to groups you are part of

Anatomy of a Group

• Group Statement

• Group weblog• Open space

(wiki)• Directory• Aggregator• Categories• Events• Syndication• Admin• (Groups are

public or private; both types by invitation or request only)

Multi-faceted, multi-perspective metadata

Faceted top-down metadata combined with emergent bottom-up

Total aggregation & syndication• Every blog, person, org,

classification node, saved search, etc has an XML feed and these can be combined into aggregated feeds & used outside the system

5 :: Some observations on our methodology, conclusions & links

General observations

• A balanced approach of networked individualism and free-style group forming can unleash dialogue and collective action

• Manage feeds, not items: informal k-logs, feed aggregation and bottom-up metadata can help solve the content problem

• Online social networking works best for a specific common purpose, not for its own sake

• Engage with people on their own terms and build the network person by person, group by group

• Embrace rather than deny complexity: ‘Small pieces, loosely joined’ is more resilient than command and control

Summary of our methodology

• Start with deep, embedded engagement - stimulate, challenge, educate; encourage personality & voices

• Participative design: don’t just consult - let users design

• ‘Feeder’ blogs can get early adopters blogging ‘close to home’ and grow outwards from there

• Modular development of the platform using web services - throw away what doesn’t work and build on what does

• Phased rollout: core users -> partners -> public• Training and support through events, demos, support• Solve real problems and make friends - don’t sell

software

Some Links

• http://kc.nimhe.org.uk (invite only for now)• www.headshift.com/nimhekc (original Project Weblog

with background docs)• www.nimhenorthwest.org.uk (active local feeder site)• www.nimhewm.org.uk (active local feeder site)• http://bme.nimhe.org.uk (public consultation weblog) • http://www.nimhe.org.uk (background on NIMHE)• http://modern.nhs.uk/improvementknowledge

(collaboration site about improvement knowledge)• www.headshift.com/moments (headshift weblog)