Sunday, November 25, 2012

Harold Jarche's "Seek Sense Share"

Just finished reading Harold Jarche's "Seek Sense Share" paper on Personal Knowledge Management. 99% of the content resonates with me, so I'll focus on the 1% that has awakened by sense-making / critical thinking, based on personal experience.  This 1% covers two related issues, the scope of one's PKM system and the extent of public sharing and boundaries of public sharing.

I consider my PKM system to encompass all aspects of my life, not just my professional life and related semi-professional interests. However, being a reasonably private person, I have no intention of sharing all of it. Deciding which "public" tools to use to share specific types of information is an important part of learning how to make the most out of a PKM system.

Harold Jarche doesn't suggest we should share everything.   Determining the scope of one's blog, the types of resources to tag on social bookmarking sites are all important aspects of PKM.

In addition, blogging about one's work on a public site isn't always possible or advisable.  Most organizations are smart enough not to try to stop you completely from doing it but they will warn you to use common sense, which could mean that "internal issues" should not be discussed on external platforms.  If you blog internally -- on a personal blog within your organization's firewall -- you may be connecting to key organizational networks, but you miss out on connections with the rest of the world.

In the end, setting up a meaningful PKM system involves much more than identifying the right combination of tools to support seeking, sensing and sharing.  There are multiple strategic aspects that were not discussed in Harold Jarche's piece.  Still, please remember that I started by saying that I completely agree with 99% of it. I just think it needs a little more in terms of guidance to help potential Personal Knowledge Managers navigate key elements of their "system."

Also, I would have liked a mention of the fact that PKM systems need to be very flexible and dynamic, to be able to address new interests, to allow for new tools and constant experimentation.  I go through bursts of seeking/sensing (less sharing) and the tools I use vary over time.  I'm neither consistent nor systematic about any of it.  In the past, I've asked myself whether I shouldn't be more systematic and efficient about it.  I've now decided that messy and flexible is perfectly fine, especially since my PKM system is mostly private.

1 comment:

Harold Jarche said...

Thanks for the nice review, Barbara. What about the other 1%? Ah, that's the part I don't give away for free, as I have to make a living as well ;)