SABC Media Libraries: The Knowledge Café via David Gurteen

Friday, August 5, 2011

The Knowledge Café via David Gurteen - start of our LibCafe

The SABC Media Libraries are planning a Knowledge Café at the end of August. We were introduced to the concept by Manti Grobler at the recent Information and Knowledge Management Conference 2011.

See the recent post The Knowledge Café to address a PowerPoint aversion where I try to conceptualize my own understanding of the Knowledge Café.

We have already started to use the hashtag #LibCafe on Twitter for our Knowledge Cafe.

A Twitter Fountain is also embedded on the SABC Media Libraries blog flowing with the hashtag #LibCafe.

The SABC Media Libraries Knowledge Cafe "story" is also being curated in Storify: http://storify.com/sabcmedialib/libcafe

David Gurteen is a worldwide Knowledge Management guru. He has been using the Knowledge Café for years to use conversation in business to stimulate a learning environment. We are using his insights extensively in our research into a Knowledge Café.

A quote from David Gurteen's work:

One way of energizing an organization to take real advantage of conversation and consequent tangible business benefits is the use of Knowledge Cafés. A Knowledge Café is an effective vehicle for opening up conversations and discussions that lead to a deeper understanding of the business world that is turn leads to improved decision making, new ways of working and innovation.

A Knowledge Café is a tool that is used to share tacit knowledge. It can be used within teams, Communities of Practice or across silos to question entrenched assumptions, to help facilitate learning from others and gain a deeper collective understanding of a subject – through conversation. - http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/kcafe