reflections on knowledge management practice case study
DESCRIPTION
This presentation provides some early reflections of a KM start up project related to Victoria's agricultural sector (Australia) some 16 months after commencement. It also draws upon some work undertaken at the University of Melbourne on the topic of regulatory burden reductionTRANSCRIPT
Reflections on Knowledge Management Practice(15 months into a KM start up project related to Victoria’s
agricultural industries)
20th March 2012
Richard Vines
Knowledge Management Specialist
Victorian Department of Primary Industries
Hon Fellow: eScholarship Research Centre, Uni of Melb
Where are we talking
about?
Victoria
Melbourne
An introduction to knowledge management in Australia
Shared context = working across complex (cultural) boundaries
Overview
– Produces goods worth around $9 billion– Export contribution of 26% of the total national value– Dairy, beef, horticulture, poultry, sheep meat and wool industries etc– Pioneered the “Landcare Movement”
Victoria’s agricultural industries
The changing role of Government in agricultural extension– Victoria’s commitment to Agricultural industries via extension– Better Services to Farmers strategy (BSTF)– Underdeveloped capability in knowledge management – Inconsistent client & stakeholder management systems – National Research, Development & Extension Framework– The equivalent context on the US (the land grant institutions,
www.eXtension.org etc)
Context of KM project
National R, D and E Framework:Encouragement of greater collaboration and promotion of continuous improvement in the investment of RD&E resources nationally.
National industry strategies for Dairy, Beef etc
Three overarching deliverables
– Consolidation of disparate approaches to client information – Knowledge hubs across different industry sectors– Capability development in relation to KM
KM project (Dec 2010-)
Discussion of five inherent boundary tensions**(boundary tensions - between nodes of competition and complementarity)
1. Indicators of success Customer intimacy < - > Product service leadership < - > Operational excellence
2. Domain focus KM < - > Other
3. Process Knowledge < - > Business
4. Control Agency < - > Value network
5. Support system reform Organisational < - > Inter-agency / national
ConclusionDeveloping capability around KM involves mediating the tension: Learning based on the familiar < - > Learning by accessing the unfamiliar
Learning could be personal or organisational in nature ** I acknowledge the influence of a KM colleague of mine – Dr Tony English - with whom I appreciated a collaboration in the 1990’s on matters to do with cross cultural eductation. I refer to material outlined in his book “Tug of War: the tension concept and the art of international negotiation” .
<-> Boundary tensions associated with KM start up
1. Indicators of success
Example to be discussed
Example to be discussedEstablished initiative here will not be discussed
** I thank Stephen Northey, DPI for bringing this general framework to my attention
Harmonising client data
Discussion • Approach • Semantics• Tacit culture
Common scaffold for capturing client related information whilst retaining
diversity of industry social languages
• Privacy
< - > < - > < - > < - >
< - >
< - >
< - >
This, in principle is the same challenge as creeping regulatory burden
Print based culture
Visualisation of five different quality standards
Department of Planning and Community Development
Then mapping areas of semantic equivalence across these documents- an example of a visualisation not visible via print-based work cultures
This represents only around 40% of the complexity This is the face of burden creep
Farmers work within increasingly complex operating environments
resource constraints such as water rights, increasing input costs, erosion of the ability to enhance productivity gains, increasing and
uncoordinated regulatory compliance intrusions or uncertainty about market access requirements etc
Knowledge hubs: Providing client information as a service
Knowledge
hubs
Discussion • Search • Authority• Fragmentation
User’s perspective and experienceWhat’s the reality of accessing relevant information?
• Spatial relevance
What might a farm centric approach to service support look like in say 5 years?In relation to public knowledge and benefit can the noise be reduced?
Up-to-date, on demand, information
Business decision support
tools
Profitability & sustainability
information
Seasonal climateinformation (localised)
Soil health data(localised)
Farm business data
(de-identified)
Hot topics of interest
Farm & catchment planning tools
Infrastructure for carbon
assurance systems
Communities of interest support
systems
This approach will require innovation across the information publishing and the spatial services industry sectors
KM should allow users to filter out the noise
Filtering based on modularknowledge system
KM should allow users to filter out the noise
Current focus
Near farm networks, service providers, wholesalers, farm groups etc
Research organisations such as DPI, Dairy Australia, Grains Research and Development Corp
User (farmer, service provider etc)
Up-to-date, on demand, information
Service support systems, infrastructure and networks
2. KM <-> other domains
Discussion • Organisational case study
<-> Boundary tensions associated with KM start up
Adapted from Aujirapongpan, S. , Vadhanasindhu, C., Chandrachai, A., Cooparat, P. 2010, Indicators of knowledge management capability for KM. The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems. Vol. 40 No. 2, pp. 183-203
3. Knowledge Process < - > Business Process
Discussion
• Business Excellence Framework
• Capability development program developed
Customer intimacy
Operational excellence
Product service leadership
<-> Boundary tensions associated with KM start up
4. Agency control < - > value network collaboration
Discussion • Context with the National R, D and E framework
• Constraints
Publicly defined problem context
Impact monitoring and public
benefit
<-> Boundary tensions associated with KM start up
5. Organisational <-> Inter-agency / national reform
<-> Boundary tensions associated with KM start up
National and statement Government policy framework
<->Practice change outcomes are shaped by highly local or contextual factors
Policy statements from the Primary Industry Ministerial Council* (2009, p 3) and the Australian Productivity Commission Report 2011**, p 123)
References:* National Primary Industries Research, Development and Extension Framework, Statement of Intent, 17 June 2009.** Productivity Commission, Rural Research and Development Corporations, Productivity Commission Inquiry Report No 52, Final Inquiry Report, Commonwealth of Australia, 10 February 2011.*** Public Records Office of Victoria, 2011. Victorian Public Sector Information Release Framework (PSIRF) DRAFT Principles. http://tinyurl.com/6p5fzsj. Site accessed on 23/01/2012.
Public utility is enhanced if information created by Govt departments is made accessible to its citizens through open access release frameworks***
Public Records Office of Victoria
Conclusion: What has not emerged yet in any coherent way is the need to think about both these policy developments in relation to each other
Contextual information management
… this is understood as the representation of
complex networks consisting of entities (people, organisations, committees, divisions, events etc.) published resources, archival resources and digital objects linked by
relationships. All entities, published resources, archival resources, digital objects and relationships are dated so that both are understood within a time continuum
Context entities act as surrogates for real life objects, events, ideas, document structures etc.
CSIR(short description)(Dates: 1926-1950)
CSIRO(short description)
(Dates: 1950-present)
was previous to
Based on the principles of the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) standard
Example of EAC installation in the US: http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/
Lamb innovation network2003-
Property Identification
Code
Loddon value chain project(2002-2008)
Gippsland value chain project(2008-)
is member of
Farmer Bob’s Farm(2010-)
was preceded by
Is member of
Fictitious case study
GippslandLocated in
Context entity networks in agriculture
is ascribed
Information publishing < - > spatial services
Example of inter-agency contextual information network: Who Am I? project and Pathways website
http://www.pathwaysvictoria.info/
eScholarship Research Centre
‘Manages the records of’
Govt Dept
CSO Archival
centre
State Library
The sector as a context entity network
Source available here
.. can help visualise inter-relationships between entities that guide the administration of regulatory interventions at particular points in time
Family Services and Out of Home Care Standard
Legislators
Contextual information
Source available here
Use of EAC as a means of reducing regulatory burden
Reducing the burden - increasing the impact: final reports prepared for the Office of the Community Sector , Better Integrated Standards and Quality Assurance Systems (BISQAS) Project 1 and 2. eScholarship Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Department of Planning and Community Development, June 2009, http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/9041 (Vines, Richard; McCarthy, Gavan; Jones, Michael)
Cities, human well-being and the environment: conceiving national regulatory knowledge systems to facilitate resilient knowledge, knowledge based development and inter-generational knowing. In Knowledge Cities World Summit, Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Victoria, Australia. 2010 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1764605 (\Vines, R., McCarthy, G., Kirk, C., & Jones, M.
Other standards concerned with context-based metadataISO/TS 23081-2:2009 establishes a framework for defining metadata elements consistent with the principles and implementation considerations outlined in ISO 23081-1:2006. One of the purposes of this framework is to enable standardized description of records and critical contextual entities for records,
Registry Interchange Format for Collections and Services (RIF-CS)RIF-CS is a data interchange format that supports the electronic exchange of collection and service descriptions.
Open Archives Initiative – protocols for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH)OAI‐PMH is a low‐barrier mechanism for repository interoperability. Data Providers are repositories that expose structured metadata via OAI‐PMH.
TROVE as a national aggregation serviceThis forms part of the National R, D and E framework
http://trove.nla.gov.au/general/contribute/
Department of Primary Industries – Sitemap (Detail)[1]
…. in contrast to web publishing approach
"The greatest crisis facing us is not Russia, not the Atom Bomb, not corruption in government, not encroaching hunger, nor the morals of the young. It is a crisis in the organization and accessibility of human knowledge. We own an enormous 'encyclopaedia' - which isn't even arranged alphabetically. Our 'file cards' are spilled on the floor, nor were they ever in order. The answers we want may be buried somewhere in the heap, but it might take a lifetime to locate two already known facts, place them side by side and derive a third fact, the one we urgently need."
Thanks to Michael Jones from the eSRC (Uni of Melb) for bringing this quote to my attention
Robert Heinlein, 1950
Thank youRichard Vines
Knowledge Management SpecialistFarm Services Division
Department of Primary Industries
[email protected]+61 - 417 104144
Concluding remarks:
Being a KM specialist covers a very diverse practical and intellectual territory. It is still going to take time to develop a coherent domain of practice called
KM and any traction will continue to be hard earned.
This domain requires sustained commitment.