SABC Media Library's best 5 tweets this month

Twitter Ads are compiling interesting Analytics with regards Timeline Activity, and this is our "Best" tweets this past month.

Best Tweets of SABCMediaLib

1. Our Video Biography via Vizify got marked as a favourite:

SABC Media Libraries Twitter Bio video via Vizify: Just made a movie of my twitter: https://t.co/e4aghsjeTy Le... http://t.co/jq6PWKmYLp
— SABC Media Library (@SABCMediaLib) June 18, 2013

2. Our daily newspaper about Knowledge Management and Knowledge Café got marked as favourite
    The Daily Knowledge Café:

The Daily Knowledge Cafe is out! http://t.co/vVgZPHMN8y
— SABC Media Library (@SABCMediaLib) June 16, 2013

3.  The blog post about The Use of Vine in Libraries and Archives also got marked as a favourite:

The use of Vine in libraries and archives: Vine is a mobile app that is available on iOS and Android. It recor... http://t.co/bn7G2AXBs2
— SABC Media Library (@SABCMediaLib) June 11, 2013

4. Another The Daily Knowledge Café got 2 Retweets.

The Daily Knowledge Cafe is out! http://t.co/vVgZPHMN8y ▸ Top stories today via @IamDdanz @coveo @LoulouVance
— SABC Media Library (@SABCMediaLib) June 11, 2013

5. The daily SABCMediaLib.li about libraries and archives got marked as favourite:

SABCMediaLib.li is out! http://t.co/ycfSzfBZ9s ▸ Top stories today via @sdeeble @EllysEyeland @SuiteBrigitte
— SABC Media Library (@SABCMediaLib) June 11, 2013

To get to these analytics, it is necessary to sign in at Twitter Ads, and to set the account to Advanced under Billing History.

It is not necessary to set up any campaigns to get the Analytics.


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

The Knowledge Café combined with a Drum Café

David Gurteen in action

David Gurteen facilitated an interactive Knowledge Café with the help of drums at the recent International Knowledge Management Conference (ICKM 2012).

It formed part of the opening proceedings, and helped conference delegates connect with each other during the speed networking session, as well as connection through the drumming.

Warren Liebermann with his drummers & singers

Warren Liebermann of Drum Café with his drummers provided an interactive experience for all which opened up the synergy and receptive mood of the conference.

Conference delegates with musical instruments

The question was asked about the format of teaching which has not changed for centuries, and the informal and interactive way of the Drum Café brought home the message even more.

"Is the lecture format of teaching an effective way of learning and sharing knowledge and if not, what is?"

Drum on a chair at ICKM 2012

The following four questions paved the way for the rest of the conference proceedings:

"At this conference, to what extend are you prepared:

1. to get value from being here?

2. to engage personally to achieve this?

3. to take risks to learn?

4. to take responsibility for the learning & engagement of others?"

ICKM 2012 Conference delegates

The success of a conference depends on each delegate's willingness to participate!

The combination of the drums facilitated the interactiveness of the Knowledge Café, and it created a wonderful synergy for the rest of the conference!


See blog post & video playlist by David Gurteen about the same event:
A wonderful combination of a Knowledge Café and a Drum Café


Blog post by Karen du Toit, conference delegate at ICKM 2012.

Conversations for business - David Gurteen Knowledge Café workshop

David Gurteen facilitated a workshop on the implementation of Knowledge Cafés at the International Conference on Knowledge Management 2012. 

He is a Knowledge Management consultant, speaker and facilitator at Gurteen Knowledge. 

He is well-known for his Gurteen Knowledge Cafés which helps to facilitate conversation in business.

The Knowledge Café workshop brought up a few interesting points which regards conversation in business:

- People love to feel important. It is very valuable to remember in conversation in business.

- The circle as a mechanism in conversation. It helps to enable equal access to each other. 

- The conversation needs to be centred around a central point.

- Misconceptions are addressed through conversations, and it enhances better understanding in a business environment.

- There is power in presence. Direct conversation leads to a different conversation which is based in the direct connection with each other.

- Relationships are important in an organization. Conversation improves relationships.

- The most important resource in an organization is the individual. The focus should therefore be on the person/personnel.

- The following stands in the way of conversation in an organization: 

•   Hierarchy; 
•   Language of blame; 
•   Company Talk; 
•   Who is perceived to have the power; 
•   Top-down-management conversation.

- The Knowledge Café addresses most of the imbalances and problems encountered in business conversations. 

The Knowledge Café brought up a few interesting applications in business:

-  Organize lunch dates with people in different departments (done through Human Resources).

- Breakfast dates: "What is spoken at breakfast remains at breakfast."

- Instead of meeting call it a forum with the theme of "Fearless conversation!"

- Communities of Practice can use it directly or virtually.

- Knowledge Cafés without furniture in the room. It gets business done!

- The use of conversation cards in a Knowledge Café, such as "Take the lead!" and "Be quiet!" and "listen more!" that are handed to participants.

- Use of Knowledge Cafés can be very valuable before decision-making happens.

- A picnic day with different struggle heroes. It can be applied to using leaders or specialists in the organization who are sitting at each picnic spot, and the participants rotate around them.

- To break protocols in certain communities. Everybody gets a chance to speak.

- Knowledge Cafés do not need many resources to make it happen. No flip charts and other paraphernalia are necessary. There is no need to record the outcomes. 

It mostly only requires a coffee to make it happen. 

The Knowledge Café made us aware of how many and varied its applications can be in business. It is only limited by our own imagination.

Each Knowledge Café will also bring up another set of applications.

Related reading:

- For more reading on the David Gurteen Knowledge Cafe:

Knowledge Café

- The SABC Media Libraries & SABC Training had a private Knowledge Café facilitated by David Gurteen: Report from a Knowledge Café with David Gurteen at SABC Media Libraries

Blog post by Karen du Toit, SABC Radio Archives

Report from a Knowledge Café with David Gurteen at SABC Media Libraries

The SABC Media Libraries and SABC Training Department had a private Knowledge Café with the guru of Knowledge Cafés, David Gurteen, at the SABC on 3 September 2012.

The David Gurteen Knowledge Café spread from a desire to have more meaningful conversations to enhance personal and business relationships; as well as having a profound impact on business decision making and understanding.

"Knowledge Cafés turn a traditional chalk and talk,
death by PowerPoint or meeting,
into an engaging learning event"

The SABC Media Libraries had their own Knowledge Café in 2011, called LibCafe, based on the principles by David Gurteen, which was facilitated by Manti Grobler.

We learnt that David Gurteen would be coming to South Africa this year to be at the International Conference of Knowledge Management (ICKM2012). We are extremely pleased that he could find time in his busy schedule to do a private Knowledge Café with us.

We have picked up valuable tips on how to conduct a Knowledge Café in the future, as well as valuable insights from our colleagues about the value of conversation in business.

Insights about conversation (gathered from the SABC Knowledge Café process):

The question that brought up the following insights:

"What is the role of conversation in knowledge sharing and in creating a conversational / learning culture?"

(Conversation can be face-to-face or via social media)

- Engagement is a good way of learning.

- Conversation brings all topics to the fore.

- Knowledge vs conversation: Is the knowledge in your head the same as knowledge on paper?       - "Knowledge only exists in your head."
It is impossible to capture everything.
The qualities of conversation is linked to a spectrum of what makes a conversation.

- Without conversation there is no knowledge sharing.

- It helps to have a conversation before decisions are being made. It helps to facilitate the decision-making process.

- More informal ways of knowledge sharing exist than only through a PowerPoint presentation or a meeting.

- The conversation depends on the people willing to share their knowledge.

- Conversation adds to the exchange of ideas.

- The more conversation, the more understanding.

- Conversation helps to know what is going on in an organization and who is doing what in an organization.

- The knowledge is on ground level. All personnel need to be included in the conversation.

- People know things, but they are very defensive.

- Conversation helps to adjust own perspectives.

- There is not enough conversation in the organization, but it is up to us ourselves to open up the conversation.

- The culture of conversation is aligned with our values of conversation. We need to get back to conversation.

- A better "voice" comes from a Knowledge Café.

- Having a chat over coffee - seeing the value of this kind of conversation through the perspective of the Knowledge Café.

- Conversation is not a debate. There is no need to convince anybody.

- Conversation can lead to empowerment and effectiveness!

David Gurteen in action in the final circle of the SABC Knowledge Café

Tips for the future about the use of conversation in the company

- Conversation through the Knowledge Café process can be used to help facilitate decision-making.

- There is a place for more informal ways of sharing knowledge in the company. The coffee dates and meetings in the kitchen add a valuable addition to foster conversation.

- Archivists and librarians that are feeling undermined can have a valuable outlet in the form of a Knowledge Café to share frustrations and to surface issues. It can also address the issues of working in silos.

- The Knowledge Café can be used instead of having a meeting.

- We should cultivate a culture of conversation.

- Use the idea of "hiring" a specialist/mentor/buddy in the organization as a way to increase understanding/enhance knowledge/fostering relationships.

- There is a need to create a group out of the Knowledge Café process to speak with a "better voice".

- The training specialists can help to facilitate the Knowledge Cafés.

- The training specialists also see a value in adding Knowledge Cafés into their training programmes.



More information about David Gurteen Knowledge Café method can be found here:
David Gurteen kcafe


Related posts:

- Storify of the private David Gurteen Knowledge Café at the SABC Media Libraries #SABCkcafe

- Knowledge Café newspaper publishing daily - created by SABC Media Libraries

- David Gurteen Knowledge Café - background reading in preparation


The Picasa Photo album of the Knowledge Café can be found here:

- SABC Knowledge Café with David Gurteen - 3 September 2012



Blog post by Karen du Toit, Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

Knowledge Café newspaper publishing daily - created by SABC Media Libraries

The SABC Media Libraries' newspaper focusing on Knowledge Cafés and Knowledge Management, The Daily Knowledge Café, is a good way to get the most recent information available in social media.

Paper.li generates the newspaper automatically on a daily basis.

 As we are having an upcoming Knowledge Café by the guru himself, David Gurteen, this is one of the ways to update us again about the topic.

Please tell us what your thoughts are about the newspaper? Should the topics be more broader than knowledge café and knowledge management?


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Archivist, SABC Radio Archives


Related posts:

- David Gurteen Knowledge Cafe - background reading in preparation

- Paper.li, a great tool for link building, content curation and social networking

David Gurteen Knowledge Café - background reading in preparation

David Gurteen, Knowledge Management expert and Knowledge Café guru, is coming to South Africa in September to facilitate a workshop on Knowledge Café's, as well as speaking at the International Conference of Information and Knowledge Management 2012.
Hopefully he will also present a Knowledge Cafe at the SABC for the SABC Media Libraries, as well as for SABC Training.

The SABC Media Libraries held a Knowledge Café, called LibCafé,  in August 2011 based on the principles of David Gurteen's Knowledge Cafés.

Some more posts about our own Knowledge Café can be found here: LibCafe

A quote from David Gurteen's website sums up the premise of a Knowledge Cafe:

A Knowledge Cafe is a means of bringing a group of people together to have an open, creative conversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface their collective knowledge, to share ideas and insights and to gain a deeper understanding of the subject and the issues involved.
This ultimately, leads to action in the form of better decision making and innovation and thus tangible business outcomes.

For more background information about Knowledge Cafés, videos about previous Knowledge Cafés by David Gurteen and upcoming Knowledge Cafés, read at KCafe by David Gurteen.


http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/kcafe

(Photo from our LibCafe in 2011)


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Welcome to 2012

Copy from our Vizify Tweetsheet for our Twitter account: SABCMediaLib

Best wishes to all for a great year in libraries and archives!

Some of us are back at work already, and doing the last of 2011's stats and starting with plans for the New Year!

Before we can move on, it is always great to have a look at the previous year!


The SABC Media Libraries hosted and took part in some events in 2011:

- The British Library Audiovisual Archiving training workshop took place at the SABC from 28 March to 1 Paril 2011

- We participated in Ask Archivists Day on 9 June on Twitter #AskArchivists

- The SABC Media Libraries first Knowledge Café - LibCafe 30 August 2011
   The theme was "Diving into social media" - It was an introduction to social media, and how to get everybody involved in participating on our social networks.

- Moshito 2011 experience 31 August - 2 September 2011
 The yearly music conference and exhibition - The SABC Media Libraries and the SABC News Archives had an exhibition in Newtown as well.

- A lone tweep also participated in #Followalibrary Day 1 October 2011

- The SABC Media Libraries celebrated World day for Adiovisual Heritage 2011, in Auckland Park as well as in the regions Bloemfontein and Platfontein. 27 October 2011
The ILAM Travelling exhibition was set up in the foyer of the SABC in Aucland Park in preparation for World day for Audiovisual Heritage.


Some of the projects that took shape last year:

- We finally got Springbok Radio back as part of our collection thanks to keen collector Frans Erasmus.

- Pops Mohamed Music Project for the San at SABC Platfontein
Pops Mohamed is a local South African musician championing the African music culture through the use of indigenous African musical instruments. Pops Mohamed trained them to use a studio to record the indigenous music of the San culture.


Our 5 most popular blog posts of the previous year were:

It seems the interviews with our interns were a big hit. (351 hits)
1. Interview with an intern - Thakani Ramufhufhi

We had our first Knowledge Café last year, and this was one of the preliminary posts. (342 hits)
2. The Knowledge Café to address a PowerPoint aversion

Another interview with an intern. (196 hits)
3. Interview with the intern at the SABC Radio Archives - Obakeng Phiri

Interview with the Principal Librarian (156 hits)
4. Interview with the Principal Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Interview with the Afrikaans Archivist (148 hits)
5. The Weekly Archivist Interview: Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives: Karen du Toit



We have high hopes that this year is going to be a year of big changes, and that we finally will be able to get the ball rolling with regards a Digital Library!


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

LibCafe summarized via Summarizr

We had our Knowledge Café called LibCafe at the end of last month, and here is a summary of the event on Twitter through Summarizr.

LibCafe

Summarizr is a 

... service [that] will create a brief summary of a TwapperKeeper tweet archive. It works for #hashtag archives, keyword archives and @person archives. Just enter a hashtag, keyword, Twitter account name or archive URL ...

Summarizr LibCafe

Summarizr LibCafe twitterers

Summarizr LibCafe Top 10 @reply recipients and/or mentions

Summarizr Top 10 conversations and hashtags

More statistics can be found here: Summarizr LibCafe


Blog post by Karen du Toit, SABC Radio Archives.

LibCafé curated - SABC Media Libraries Knowledge Café

LibCafé WordItOut word cloud

The SABC Media Libraries had a very interesting and successful Knowledge Café #LibCafe last week.

We are still busy  looking at some of the results that were generated through the tools used in the LibCafé. Even the scribbles done by the participants are a valuable way in finding our way through the maze of social media.

The question that was asked: "What do you need to start using social media?"

We have curated our tweets identified by the hashtag #LibCafe in Twapperkeeper:
http://twapperkeeper.com/LibCafe

Also in Twubs:
http://twubs.com/LibCafe

We have found a strange phenomenon which happened with regards Twitter. Our main Twitter account @SABCMediaLib was not picked up by any of the curation options that we used. The account is not blocked, nor is it private. It is only the tweets that were retweeted, or that came from the other sources, such as the @SABCRadioArc account, that were curated.

If anybody has an idea about the reason, please let us know?

The story of the day is compiled in Storify, which include tweets, blog posts, links, photos and related information about Knowledge Café's as well as specifically our LibCafé.
http://storify.com/sabcmedialib/libcafe

The Prezi, the presentation tool that was used, is also available online:
http://prezi.com/nxg-6mv1cemx/libcafe/

The TwitterFountain can be seen her:
http://thefounta.in/i5nC7


Related post:
What do we need to start using social media in the SABC Media Libraries?

Blog post by Karen du Toit, and WordItOut word cloud by Obakeng Phiri (intern) (SABC Radio Archives).

What do we need to start using social media in the SABC Media Libraries?

Prezi of #LibCafe

LibCafé, our first Knowledge Café, wanted to create an environment for conversation about the use of social media in the SABC Media Libraries.

The question: What do you need to start using social media?
We used the Knowledge Café as a facilitation tool towards a better understanding and learning environment about the uptake of social media in the SABC Media Libraries.

The SABC Media Libraries have a website and a blog which feed into the Facebook fan pages of the different departments, as well as the Twitter accounts. (See below for the different accounts.) We are two people who manage these accounts for the SABC Media Libraries. Representation of all the departments are slow in uptake, not necessarily because of disinterest, but because of heavy workloads and under staffing. The issues of workload and under staffing are global phenomenons, and not only problems unique to us.

The hope is that we could get a better understanding of what is needed to get more people involved, and to see where we can address some of the issues that make it difficult for people to use social media in their daily work activities.

We are very grateful towards Manti Grobler who facilitated our LibCafé, with her experience in the method of Knowledge Cafés. She believes that it is imperative to get a measurable result out of the process, and that it does not stop with the conversation only. David Gurteen, The Knowledge Management expert, and worldwide facilitator of Knowledge Cafés, believes that conversation is the most important, and that you don't have to get a result for it to be successful. We used his theory and videos about Knowledge Cafés extensively in our preparation as well as presentation.

The collective discussion in our LibCafé came to the following conclusion of what we need to focus on in taking social media forward in the SABC Media Libraries:

What did we discover?
(See #LibCafé Prezi snippet above)

We need:

1. Skills    It includes know-how about the applications, social media etiquette, language and we need to know the pitfalls.
2. Access    Tools such as the Internet, smart phones, etc.
    Unlimited time (when; duration)
    Permission
3. Audience

4. Interest (blending social media into your daily activities)

5. Finding your own voice    Desire, motivation, passion

Where to from here?

"A social media inFundi has more eyes on the World"

We have already announced a social media empowerment plan for the SABC Media Libraries to take the issues of Skills and Interest forward.
We identify inFundi's who social buddy the next inFundi's.

The inFundi status is measurable by the following criteria:

• Open a Twitter account;
• 30 Tweets; 
• Follow 50 Twitter users;
• Need to get 20 followers;
• Facebook - make 10 Facebook fan page updates on the relevant department's fan page.

The new inFundi's social buddy the next set of inFundi's. The first set of inFundi's will be awarded surprise packets, courtesy of Manti Grobler.

The issue of access need to be taken up by the management and social media committee of the SABC Media Libraries. 

Blog post by Karen du Toit, SABC Radio Archives. 

The Facebook fan pages:

SABC Radio Archives

SABC Record Library

SABC Music Library

SABC Audio Restoration

SABC Information Library

Twitter accounts:

SABC Media Libraries

SABC Radio Archives

SABC Record Library

SABC Information Library

SABC Music Library

SABC Audio Restoration

Related posts:
LibCafé - SABC Media Libraries first Knowledge Café
The Knowledge Café via David Gurteen - start of our LibCafé
The Knowledge Café to address a PowerPoint aversion
Experience of a Knowledge Café at KMUK11 #KCafe
Twitter Twub: #LibCafe

LibCafé - SABC Media Libraries first Knowledge Café

The SABC Media Libraries had their first Knowledge Café called LibCafé yesterday.
It is identified by the hashtag #LibCafe on Twitter.
The theme was: "Diving into social media"

The question that was explored extensively is: "What do I need to start using social media?"

The photos are uploaded on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/SABCMediaLibraries/LibCafe30August2011#

Manti Grobler facilitated the Knowledge Café, which helped us immensely with her advanced experience in the Knowledge Management tool of business learning.

Manti Grobler explaining what a Knowledge Café is

I will be posting about the outcomes and experiences of the day!

We got some very valuable feedback from the participants in how to take social media forward in the SABC Media Libraries.


Blog post by Karen du Toit, SABC Radio Archives.

Paper.li - a great tool for link building, content curation and social networking

Today's SABCMediaLib.li

Paper.li is a curation tool that publishes daily on-line newspapers automatically generated by predetermined keywords and hashtags from Twitter and Facebook, as well as from RSS feeds.

The SABC Media Libraries started their own newspaper SABCMediaLib.li a month ago.
The results are very positive:

• After a month Paper.li is already the biggest referring URL for our blog.
• As referring site it comes third after Google.com and Google.co.za.
• We have gotten a lot of RTs and mentions on Twitter because of the Twitter update every day on the SABC Media Libraries twitter account: SABCMediaLib
• The online newspaper has brought a daily stream of recent events, thoughts and content in the arena of libraries and archives (keywords and hashtags that were selected) that would have gone by unnoticed.
• We are connecting with thought leaders in their fields of expertise by following and retweeting some of the valuable content.
• It does not acquire any effort on our part after it has been set up. The set-up takes about 20 minutes. From there it is only an editorial function required when unsuitable content is displayed. In this month it has only happened once that I had to delete three "adult content" articles from the paper. 

I have seen some dissenting views about paper.li, but I find the content to be extremely valuable with regards a certain niche topic. If you consider that it is an automatic process, it makes it all the more commendable. 

The most important factor seems to be the initial five selection criteria. They are the most important to ensure good quality content making its way to the newspaper. When you are not happy with the content being generated, you can also go and change your criteria. The next update of the newspaper will generate the new selection criteria results. 

We have a Knowledge Café #LibCafe upcoming in two weeks' time, and for that purpose we have started another Paper.li newspaper. The topic covers Knowledge Management and Knowledge Cafés.

The Daily Knowledge Café 

What are your thoughts on Paper.li?

Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Experience of a Knowledge Café at KMUK11 #KCafe

WordItOut word cloud of Knowledge Café quotes

A most recent Knowledge Café which was facilitated by David Gurteen. #KCafe @DavidGurteen

Some of the quotes that came out in the Knowledge Café presentation:

Business is a conversation

Conversation is a meeting of minds

KM is about understanding

Dialogue

Conversation is our most effective KM tool

Conversation is a learning technology

                                                                                      (see the WordItOut word cloud above)

Gerald Meinert wrote about his experience of the Knowledge Café in a blog post, which can be read here:

One step beyond: KMUK11 - Knowledge Cafe: Having a cafe after the desert makes some sense, and the second good news: this time it was not in the virtual coffee-corner...

Our own Knowledge Café called LibCafé is upcoming on 30 August, and we are busy preparing the presentations and formulating the questions. Our topic will focus around social media in the SABC Media Libraries.

Do any of you have practical advice?
How do we get to a question that will spark the most debate?

The Knowledge Café via David Gurteen - start of our LibCafe

#LibCafe on Storify 

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

 Read more: Knowledge Café, by David Gurteen


Related post:
The Knowledge Café to address a PowerPoint aversion


Post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives

The Knowledge Café to address a PowerPoint aversion

Knowledge Cafe Prezi

We as the SABC Media Libraries had the good fortune to attend the 10^th Annual Information and Knowledge Management Conference hosted by the Department of Information and Knowledge Management of the University of Johannesburg in June.

There were a number of good presentations, and the whole conference was very successfully hosted at the FNB Conference Centre in Sandton.

The one paper that caught my eye was the presentation by Manti Grobler about the concept and hosting of a Knowledge Café at SAP South Africa. She calls it “Welcome to Café CRM where conversation is served”. I am one of the people that as soon as a PowerPoint goes up, it makes me wants to nod off… This usually happens as well!

But, it seems that there is a great Knowledge Management tool that will address this: The Knowledge Café!

A Knowledge Café is a way of engaging all the stakeholders in business to bring out tacit knowledge. It is a way of conversation where everybody gets involved in a less formal setting – the café – and where the discussion is orchestrated around a certain well-prepared topic. The idea is not to get to a decision, but to get to a learning environment where all the ideas and perspectives around a certain topic are brought to the fore!

Manti Grobler used Prezi as a presentation tool: http://prezi.com/2xiybjmsfrii/cafe-crm-johannesburg-13-april-2011/.

This is so much more exciting and visual than a PowerPoint presentation.

She also used Storify to compile the “story” of the day. The photos, tweets and notes were pulled into a storyline: http://storify.com/mantigrobler/cafecrm-13-april-2011

The Knowledge Café is a great way to use as a Knowledge Management tool. I played around with Prezi yesterday, trying to understand the concept of a Knowledge Café, as well as learning how to use Prezi as presentation tool! I used David Gurteen’s video on Knowledge Café which I found on YouTube as a starting point for understanding the concept. The video is also included in the presentation if anybody is interested to go and watch. 

Knowledge Café #KCafe Prezi

I can recommend Prezi for any presentation. You can also pull in your PowerPoint slides as well. No problem! (I’m a convert!)

What is better than sitting around a table with a cup of coffee and cake, and the discussion does not force a certain outcome? The conversation does not need to be “correct”; it only needs to be heard!

I love the idea of not being forced towards a certain outcome, but that the opinions of all the stakeholders are taken into account and everybody feels that their voice has been heard! I hope we will see more of this in the workplace than “death by PowerPoint!” (*hint*)

Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.