NZ Knowledge Management Network

NZKM Knowledge Update, December 08

Welcome to the final NZKM newsletter for 2008.  It seems to have been a particularly busy year for everyone and I'm sure that you are looking forward to some well earned rest over the Christmas period.

It has also been a busy year for NZKM this year.  We have launched the new website and are working hard towards increasing the value we deliver to members through the website, our regional events and discounts to events, seminars and conferences both in New Zealand and overseas.  There is more to come in 2009...

The Management Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank you, the membership, for your continued support and interest in keeping the New Zealand KM community alive. 

Enjoy the Christmas and New Year break, and the very best wishes for 2009.

Email Records Management in the 21st Century New Zealand Government

A team of researchers at Victoria University in Wellington have completed a twelve month research project, which investigated how public servants across the New Zealand central government handle emails of significant organisational value. For more information about this research project please visit:  http://e-government.vuw.ac.nz/summary_erecords.aspx

The research report is now available on-line at:  http://e-government.vuw.ac.nz/research_projects_2008/End%20of%20project%20report_final.pdf

Achieving the Full Potential of an Intranet Redevelopment

Dale Hartle, Website Manager at the Porirua City Council, provided an informative and practical illustration to Wellington-based NZKM members in late September. She outlined how a combination of intranet initiatives was able to improve employees' access to information as well as save time, effort, and money.

Dale discussed three recent intranet projects at the Council, the first of which was the development of an A-Z of business processes. This is used by front-line Council staff to answer queries from the general public. One hundred and fifty processes were documented with input from the business owners and were published on the intranet - and new processes are continually added.

The second project provided a platform to publish details on a business excellence initiative. Dale provided us with a sneak preview of some of the clever interactive and informative diagrams.

The third intranet project involved publishing the corporate planning documents, a major task undertaken by the Council each year, which involves numerous deadlines across various activities and roles. Prior to the project, the information was silo-ed, people were unsure which was the correct version, documents were misplaced - all of which led to wasted time and unnecessary headaches for staff. Now the information is centralised, is easy to use, and the pages can be updated by the business owners.

Thanks Dale for an informative, practical session.

Lunchtime Networking Opportunities

This year we have run a number of lunchtime networking meetings.  The purpose of the meetings is to give practitioners the opportunity to come together to discuss issues, challenges and opportunities they are currently facing and to share expertise and experience on how these might be approached. 

The sessions have been well attended and there has been lively debate and discussion.  It has also given people the opportunity to put faces to names and to build and extend their existing networks.  These sessions will continue in 2009.  Please watch the website for more details.  Thanks to all those who took the time to come along and participate.

Records and Archives in Ethiopia by Janita Stuart

For three weeks in September/October, I was in Ethiopia.  I was asked share stories of records and archives management that I experienced while there.  Although building houses doesn't have a lot to do with records and archives, records and archives hold such an influential role in our every-day lives, I wasn't surprised when experiences happened that made for stories of interest.

I have two stories to tell: one of poor recordkeeping and one of excellent archiving.

I went to Ethiopia with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses for poor people in a town called Debra Birhan.  Before we went to the building site, we flew into Addis Ababa where the headquarters for Habitat Ethiopia is.  We were invited to come for our welcoming and "orientation".  On the wall was a poster, which we were chuffed to see because one was of the first Kiwi team to go to Ethiopia, in 2007.

We settled down to hear the presentation from the National Director of Habitat Ethiopia, Kebede Abebe, as he used Microsoft Powerpoint for the presentation located in the network drive of his laptop.  One of us was very interested in the graph on the top left of the poster and asked if that electronic file could be downloaded on our flash drive for us to show to Kiwis back in New Zealand.  I watched very closely to see what happened next.  He went to Windows Explorer where there is this hierarchy of files within files within more files.  He clicked down at least 10 levels of electronic files and was not able to find the wanted file...and gave up looking. I thought they needed to hire a good records manager to find a better structure for his unwieldy hierarchy.

My second story is a good example of archiving.  After we completed house building, we went to Lalibela for the customary R&R (rest and relaxation).  Lalibela is a popular tourist destination with its churches chiseled out of rocks.  The majority of these churches are attributed to King Lalibela who ruled over Ethiopia from 1185-1225 A.D.  Multitudes of his followers would chisel away at the rock either creating a church out of a man-made cave or creating a church whose roof is at ground level.

In one of these churches, we saw the "Chronicles of King Lalibela".  As you can see from the photographs, it is written on a codex.  However the pages of this codex are goat skin.  It is well preserved by keeping it in the dark church and in an air-tight case.

Just like all languages change as they are used, these chronicles, written in the 10th and 11th centuries are in a language nobody uses or knows now.  The chronicles are being studied to try to decipher what they say.  So an exact copy has been made and is use by the linguistic scholars while the original remains in its protective case. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Ethiopia and do humanitarian work, I would highly recommend it.  You'll never regret it.

Meet the NZKM Committee - Anita Rapson

Hi,

I joined the NZKM Management Committee in 2008. Currently, I divide my weeks between two roles. For the first two days of the week, I am based up at Victoria University's Kelburn campus, working as a Research Fellow on a research project that is investigating NZ central government employees identify and manage electronic records created through the use of SMS messages, instant messaging, video, or wikis. We have also recently completed a project looking at how public servants manage business emails (see the link to the report earlier in this newsletter).

For the second part of my working week, I am based at Environment Risk Management Authority New Zealand, implementing an electronic document and records management system. We're just about to pilot the system with a group of users, so things are really starting to ramp up.

Wellington Christmas Event

Earlier this week, the Wellington-based NZKM members had their 2008 Christmas celebration. This was a relaxed way to wish fellow NZMK members all the best for 2009 and to share some stories about achievements and challenges from 2008. These events provide a great opportunity to make connections with fellow NZKM members - and of course enjoy a drink and plenty of yummy food!

We recommend...

You create your profile on the NZKM website. This makes it easier to collaborate using the website. Instructions on how to create your profile are in the previous issue of our newsletter (http://nzkm.net/newsletter/nz-knowledge-management-newsletter).

Keep an eye on our website (http://www.nzkm.net/) for full details of our upcoming events. Please remember to register where required.

Check out the ActKM site  - this includes some interactive materials from the ActKM conference, October 2008. Several attendees at the ActKM conference were asked about what one piece of advice they would give to "newbies" new to a knowledge management role - and the resulting podcast is available.

If you didn't manage to get to KM World this year, in San Jose, Sarah Heal prepared a series of blog posts, providing a NZ perspective on the sessions she attended.

Contact Us

Join the network - membership@nzkm.net

Register for events - wgtn@nzkm.net, chch@nzkm.net  or akld@nzkm.net

Chairman - chairman@nzkm.net

Treasurer - treasurer@nzkm.net

Marketing/Promotions - promotions@nzkm.net