Professor Valerie Brown is engaging the audience how social change is sending the management of knowledge in two different directions. One is the recognition that there are wicked problems that can't be solved within current thinking, so social learning is required. The other is the strong current towards collaboration in all fields of practice. Long-term decision-making on complex issues becomes a matter of collective inquiry.
Patrick is exploring some of the barriers to the professionalisation of knowledge management. He is arguing that as a professional community we lack some of the key mechanisms that will make our practice better grounded: we work to a quick fix orientation, we use improvised and unstable methodologies, we rely on a focus on marketing and spin, we lack access to mass observation of KM practices and their effects. He is giving us some examples of 'magical' thinking (not) and how we are practiced in search if a justification for what we do. Patrick is linking KM to witchcraft and looking at the similar organizational responses to both.
Amanda Horne is the first speaker presenting on Positive Psychology - the scientific study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions. Amanda is covering the main messages, theories and concepts are and how this can be applied to knowledge management. She is discussing how we can be better KM managers, how we can enhance the KM community, or how we can improve knowledge and information transfer using Positive Psychology techniques.
The Organising Committee is pleased to provide the opportunity for interested parties to submit proposals for the actKM 09 conference.
actKM 09 will be held on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th of October 2009 at University House, Australian National University (ANU) Canberra, Australia.
Those interested can look at our full Call for Submissions document. Submissions are requested by 15 June 2009. Please direct any questions or submissions to our conference team at conference2009@actkm.org.
More information about the conference itself can be found on our Conference 2009 page.