Wanted: Reviewers
Has knowledge any value if it is not used by anyone ? Does the value increase or decrease when we share it with others ? And what kind of knowledge should be shared with others to help people get their job done ?
This depends on several factors, the most important being
- Value (worth vs. cost)
- Scope (e.g.organization, department, project, personal)
- Expiration time (short vs. long term, static vs. dynamic)
Read more....
Microsoft Windows 7 was "silently" released last thursday, and, well, who cares ?
After the terrible Vista experience, a lot of people (like me) has returned to Windows XP and won't let it go without a fight !
I have "fine-tuned" XP for many years, and my last (and only) BSOD this year was when my graphics card said goodnight a few weeks ago. I know the ins and outs of XP after many years of experience, and there isn't enough compelling reasons for me to upgrade at this point (there are some interesting features for power users).
But even if Microsoft haven't given me any good compelling reasons for upgrading to Windows 7, they have given me a good reason NOT to upgrade !
Microsoft decided that they would not make the transition from XP to 7 smooth by transferring all my settings (accumulated over the last few years), and this is a major mistake. I've spent years optimizing my setup, and I don't want to start over again !
"But its improvements in productivity, security, and reliability make Windows 7 worth those short-term hassles."
- ZDNet
- Reliability ? My XP is rock solid and more than reliable enough
- Productivity ? I know every feature and shortcut in XP by heart (that I need and use daily to BE productive) - this will at least decrease in the short run with 7
- Security ? Yes, I believe 7 is more secure and better protected - but if I don't have any security problems or worries today, why should I upgrade ?
Actually, the main reason for switching to 7 for me would be if the firewall/anti-virus was built-in and excellent in Windows 7, as this is the most annoying part of Windows XP/Vista (misc. firewall and anti-virus programs; they all suck to a certain degree). I want an operating system that is rock-solid and 100% secure - maybe in Windows 8 ?
Another "My 7 favorite Windows 7 features"
1. Performance boost - on average 10% faster than Vista - which is probably on average 20% slower than XP
2. More restrained UAC - which is non-existent on XP
3. 64-bit more default - which is useful if you need more than 4 GB Ram (which is unlikely if you run XP (but 64-bit XP is available too))
4. Improved troubleshooting tools - which is nice, except that all of my troubleshooting with XP was resolved a couple of years ago through trial-and-error (and a little something called the internet)
5. UI improvements - every "improvement" means a change from what I already know by heart (but it looks much better !)
6. Touch support - useless for most
7. XP Mode - which is the default in XP ;-)
Bonus favorite feature: "It's not Vista" - and neither is XP
So is there not anything I like about Windows 7 ?
Sure - PpcSoft iKnow works much better in Windows 7 than Vista (as does everything else - so if you're a Vista user you should probably upgrade).
Many modern businesses have less focus on the traditional three factors of production - land, labor and capital, and more focus on the "new" fourth factor: knowledge.
Knowledge is increasingly becoming the differentiating competitive factor, and managing knowledge has therefore become increasingly more important.
Read more....
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The incremental search is inspired by Leaping which was invented by human-computer interface expert Jef Raskin.
The incremental search is used to quickly find text inside a note. Even if the search is designed to help you find text, it can also be used to navigate the text very quickly. To help you we have taken advantage of probably the least used key on your keyboard - the CapsLock key. On many keyboards this is one of the largest keys, but it is hardly ever used. |
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Most people have just started to understand KM 2.0, but it was already a hot topic back in the old days (2007). It has not been very successful so far, and I believe the main reason is that it doesn't solve the real problem with knowledge management.
Here is a simple overview of the differences between KM 1.0 and KM 2.0 by Mixotricha based on a presentation by David Gurteen. I have added KM 3.0.
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| KM 1.0 | KM 2.0 | KM 3.0 |
| techno-centric | people-centric | productivity-centric |
| command and control | social | practical |
| centralised monolithic systems | decentralised ecosystems | personal and decentralised systems |
| email, newsletters, databases | social tools (blogs, wikis, IM’s) | personal, social, practical |
| KM is extra work | KM is part of my work | KM is helping me do my work |
| IT select the tools | I select my tools | We select our tools (IT + I together) |
It's time to move on to KM 3.0, and finally solve the real problem.
| Part I: | What is KM ? |
| Part II: | The value of knowledge |
| Part III: | The KM process |
| Part IV: | A practical KM system |
Bill Ives asked "Is social media the new cigarette?" in a blog post yesterday, and as of this writing, he received 114 comments - all of them Tweets.
If you take a look at the "comments", you'll see that most of them are simply the title of the blog post and a link - that's it.
These are not comments, these are simply links that add nothing to the conversation.
I try to show my appreciation of interesting blog articles by leaving a short comment, and I like to read other peoples comments, but when "drowning" in a sea of Tweets I feel discouraged to do so.
Twitter is "solving a need" for many people to communicate, but unfortunately Twitter as a tool is still terrible. Or maybe horrible is a better description ?
If you are interested in knowledge management and use Twitter, chances are that you had 20-30 people telling you about this article yesterday...so if you check Twitter more than 10 times a day (as 39% of respondents under age 35 do) you may have catched one of them....
Our main personal product, PpcSoft iKnow was released this summer. PpcSoft iKnow is a personal knowledge manager that will help you manage information overload by storing all the little tidbits of information and help you remember all the details.
PpcSoft iKnow is the first of 3 products in our knowledge management suite:
| - "Nobel" | Throw-away notes (replace temporary yellow notes) | 2010 |
| - iKnow | Personal notes (your knowledge) | 2009 |
| - "WeKnow" | Shared notes (common knowledge) | 2012 |
Our next product, codename "Nobel", will be released in the first half of 2010. This is a simple application that is designed to store your throw-away notes (your "yellow notes"). "Nobel" features a zoomable interface and a similar editor to PpcSoft iKnow.
"Nobel" is currently in the alpha stage, but we may release a beta version before christmas.
Our third product is much more ambitious, and can be viewed as "Shared iKnow" (or "SMB Knowledge Management").
We don't except this to be completed until 2012 at the earliest.
We will also release an updated version of our flagship product next year, called (surprise) PpcSoft iKnow 2010.
Any suggestions for functionality are welcome, but will probably not be considered until PpcSoft iKnow 2011. Unlike huge products like MS Office that update their suite every 2-3 years, or other products that update every 2-3 months, we plan to relase one medium upgrade per year (with additional minor bugfixes if needed). This means a more predictable upgrade cycle and smaller changes for users (easier to learn and adjust).
Keep up all the great feedback - we especially want critical feedback that will help us improve PpcSoft iKnow (but we never get tired of praise either, of course :-).
Many people have asked us if it is possible to share/sync their iKnow data. For security reasons PpcSoft iKnow does not allow synchronizing directly, but you can still do it indirectly if your company allows it.
PpcSoft iKnow is a professional tool for knowledge workers, and may therefore often contain sensitive data for the business.
However, the data is stored in plain text in order to be accessible from any platform using any text editor and is therefore only saved locally to protect the data.
You may synchronize using a USB stick or a 3rd party tool like Dropbox...
Everyone should know some basic first aid.
When an emergency occurs, people often make mistakes.
Most common mistake: people panic !
Second most common mistake: people don't know what to do !
Read more....
A lot of people have asked us what the main difference between PpcSoft iKnow, MS OneNote and Evernote is.
PpcSoft iKnow is a great tool for many people, but it is obviously not perfect for everyone.
People have different work habits and different needs, and therefore need different tools. Both PpcSoft iKnow, OneNote and Evernote are great tools, but they serve different types of people with different needs.
So, to help you decide which tool is best for you, this is our simplified summary:
Google offers a translation service that will translate any web page to almost any language 'on the fly'.
We have now integrated this into this blog - simply select a language from the menu in the upper right corner.
PpcSoft has been selling software for almost 7 years and we have customers from more than 20 countries, but most of our customers are from English-speaking countries. However, some people might want the page translated into their own language, and this service should hopefully help.
We've selected a few languages to start with, as most of our non-English customers are from these countries. Please contact me at
atle.iversen@ppcsoft.com if you have a request for a different country.
The translation works surprisingly well
(as in 'I understand most of it, and it is funny too' :-)
A very nice write-up of PpcSoft iKnow in WebWorkerDaily
PpcSoft iKnow is a difficult application to cover quickly, as the power and productivity improvements become more apparent as you use it more and more.
However, Will Kelly from WebWorkerDaily did a great job covering the most important parts. The only thing the article missed was the built-in help in PpcSoft iKnow. I've added a comment to the article itself explaining our help and support features, but here is the link to our support just in case :-).
Update: Read more about help in my blog post PpcSoft iKnow Help
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