Knowledge Management for Development

Dear KM4Dev friends,

We are delighted to invite you to our next KM4Dev Knowledge Cafe No. 30:

Value creation with communities of practice: experiences from KM4Dev and Danish CoPs.

We will have Olga Vtorushina, Social Learning Consultant, Denmark, to open up the session, sharing experiences from Danish CoPs.

The session will be followed by fish bowl conversations (recorded and transcribed for the eager minds) on the following questions:

· The place of KM4Dev in the context your work

· Your journey into and with KM4Dev

· Areas of value creation in your personal experience of participation

· Activities and relations you found particularly valuable.

The next session will zoom into the following questions derived from Learning to Make a Difference Value Creation in Social Learning Spaces by Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, p.212:

What stands out for you when you think of your experience of participating in KM4Dev?
What did you get out of that experience?
How did it change your practice?
What was the effect? What other improvements would not have happened if it weren’t for your participation in KM4Dev?

Join us!

Let's learn and share our experiences at organisational, community and individual level!

WHEN: Thursday, 27 July 2023

TIME: 15.00-16.30 CEST / 9.00-10.30 EST

ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZclc-uprjktGt2zZmpo_xOZiajXXWs2Xd85 

I just wanted to let everyone know that after 40 years I am finally retiring from USAID.  I’ve had a lot of fun here, including working with Stacey Young and others on KM and organizational learning.  

For much of my time, I have felt I have had a shadow team, a band of KM leaders, willing to give their time and their ideas for each other. There is no way I could have been as effective without KM4DEV having my back. I wanted to thank you all soooo much for being such an entertaining and effective community. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve told AID staff to join KM4DEV, and to post a question. I’ve always been impressed and frankly proud of the quickness and quality of responses to questions, and the depth of discussion, often within an hour or so of a post.  In fact, you all have been one of my primary sources for insights on KM communities (along with Shell and the US Army, just to give them their due also!).  And I have to say that USAID now has a really deep and meaningful COP ecosystem.  It’s taken a long time, and thanks to KM4DEV for being there as a powerful role model. 

I’m not going away; I still plan to follow KM4DEV once I unwind a bit, and probably will weigh in as a “retiree”, and hope my colleagues at USAID will continue to learn from all of you!
Tony Pryor, 29 October 2022

thanks for the wonderful contributions to this discussion [on taxonomies, thesauri and vocabularies] from Stan Garfield, Mike Powell, Dan Ranta, Jack Merklein, Zbigniew Mikolajuk and Natalia Silverio. It is very inspiring to see how KM4Dev is able to give access to such expertise and to these already existing KM vocabularies.
Sarah Cummings, 26 April 2022

Dear KM4Dev,
This community gets an A+ for "our actions match our words." Too rare in this world and so wonderfully helpful.  Thanks so much to everyone for the quality content you shared on job descriptions for managing a community of practice. I will put it all together and share back out. And when the position is posted will share as well.
Ann Hendrix-Jenkins, 20 March 2022

KM4DEV has been instrumental in assisting with the direction of policy dialogue and innovative ideas within a developing region such as the Caribbean (CARICOM- The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping of twenty countries: fifteen Member States: Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, Montserrat, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.)

Further, in my capacity as a Consultant within the Inter-American region, the dialogue platform provided by KM4DEV, combined with the platform provided by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), have provided an invaluable resource to the Caribbean region and the Central-South American region. The CTA platform being inactive, impacts negatively on the resource base of the regions, to those who are most dependent on such a development resource. In brief: dialogue and innovative ideas have been the tangible results of such platforms. They have shaped and formed the policy direction of governments, private sector investment and stimulated cooperation between various regions.
Akel Meade, consultant, Trinidad & Tobago, 7 February 2022

I want to take the time out to express my wholehearted appreciation to the members of the KM4DEV family. 2021, without a doubt, was one of the most challenging years for me personally and professionally. However, you all have helped to make 2021 a more promising and beautiful year. I have grown to learn more about the multi faceted components of knowledge management. You have embraced warmly, you have been very supportive in your feedback and actions and we have worked together successfully to do launch an impactful KM4DEV Youth Leadership forum. KM4DEV has taught me a very powerful lesson- despite obstacles and unforeseen circumstances, we can draw on and capitalize on individual and collective strengths while being cognizant of context changes, and still meet and exceed our goals and expectations. I am very proud of everyone and the work of the community. Continue to adapt, improve and flourish in all your endeavours.

Farewell to 2021 and all the best for 2022 and the possibilities that the new year will bring!
Tina Renier, Canada, 31 December 2021

KM4Dev has been a revelation for me both as an Information and Knowledge Management professional than as a person. The community is strong and cohesive and it offers a wide range of opportunities to share your points of views and experiences across different cultures and environments with an open and inclusive approach. I felt welcomed since day one and had the opportunity to learn more about KM in the dev sector, but I also had the great luck to meet exceptional people to work with.
Ginetta Gueli, independent consultant, Italy, 1 September 2021

Speaking of personal experience it is quite difficult for many of us, especially women from the so called “Global South” to think of ourselves as “experts”. There is a conditioning that we need to overcome in order to contribute. Km4dev is an excellent platform that has only gotten stronger over the years. I have personally benefitted a lot from the community. This is the safe space for all of us. There are many mentors here who are willing to help and support. So, I strongly encourage all of us to write and participate on the topics that interest us. There are no right or wrong things when it comes to experience, let us share what we know and learn from each other even through disagreements and grow.
Srividya Harish, India, 21 April 2021

I wanted to thank those of you involved for organizing and sharing the KM4DEV hosted session I attended yesterday, “Knowledge Cafe 15: Decolonization of Knowledge : An action plan for KM4DEV.”  The session was well managed, and the presentations and discussions were engaging, rich with candid reflections, forward-looking suggestions, and the sharing of resources (also in the very active Chat). I have been a member of this community for some time, before it evolved from Pelicans to Peregrines, and believe establishing bridges and encourage knowledge creation and sharing across communities and fields of practice is a critical ingredient for transformational learning and change. So, kudos to KM4DEV, please continue to keep us Peregrines informed of relevant opportunities for engagement, and I highly recommend other Peregrines who have not already to check out these KM4DEV Knowledge Cafes.
Scott Chaplowe, Spain, 19 April 2021

Knowledge Management for Development (KM4DEV) is a global community of practice of primarily international development practitioners interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing theory, practice and related matters. On 2-3 July 2020, they celebrated their 20 Years Anniversary with 10 online sessions over a 24 hr period. The sessions involved a large number of KM4Dev members around the globe. John Hovell, Donita Volkwijn and I talked at one of these sessions on Conversational Leadership. You can watch the session on YouTube. If you are interested in all of the sessions you will find them on the KM4DEV YouTube channel. Well done KM4DEV. I love your work.
David Gurteen, UK, 29 July 2020

I realize that it sometimes is not easy to withstand real-life pressure in a field like CoP/facilitation/KM and that a strong and professional community can help us to make up our mind, support us in choosing the path that feels right. Everyone - you know, all your helpful thoughts, comments, sharing of your own personal experiences, references to papers - all this empowers me and supports me in my decision and also energizes and strengthens me in a moment of doubt. I am very happy that I threw my case into this community. Thank you.
Christina Merl, Owner Talkshop

One reason I love the KM4DEV community is it tends to include learning in with KM, to include HOW we learn, WHY we learn, and WHAT we learn.  (Which gets KM more in the lineage of the social sciences, as opposed to solely IT sciences).
Tony Pryor, Senior Programming Advisor, USAID

The optimal culture for “KM” is exactly as you have in KM4Dev, which is an open inclusive and supportive one. This supports the flow of knowledge and builds trust, but is hard to “measure” (so difficult to write requirements for in a standard format, although I would argue this is more important than anything that can be accurately measured). This is what we were trying to get a greater sense of into the standard, but were not able to get across as strongly as some of us would have liked. However, there are stronger elements of this in the old Australian KM Standard, which we will revive as a supporting guide.
Arthur Shelley, Founder, Intelligent Answers

I started lurking in this group since the ELDIS workshop at IDS September 2016. Thanks to everyone because I am learning a lot just following the conversation. I work at Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness, involved in communication / knowledge brokering. I am also working (over the weekends) on my PhD in which I am exploring the role of communication in facilitating change through research. The digital turn is an important part of my research. I wrote a piece on the ELDIS workshop Winds of Change. Thanks again and best wishes!
Patricia Canto, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness, USA

I will also be in Vienna, October 15th 2016, and hoping to meet you and understand more fully your work. I am a long-time learner on and admirer of KM4Dev. Great minds!
Diana Woolis, Carey Institute for Global Good, USA

I feel so moved by all the positive reactions I received every day since I posted my request. Just as if I have numerous secret hidden friends ready to give a hand ! It's a feeling not easy to express ; the kind of strength you sense when you're not alone and that makes you dare and never afraid of taking new challenges... merci beaucoup.
Yennenga Kompaoré, Performances, Burkina Faso

I’m proud of being part of this collaborative community.  Thank you all.
Marcelo Yamada, Promon Engenharia, Brasil