YWAMKnowledgeBase:Sprint2009

May 11 - May15

Location Brussels, hosted by YWAM Brussels.

Virtual connection on kevincolyerwork"

Daily virtual meeting 16h00-17h00 (GMT+1)

Blogs and daily reports?

Participants
Physical


 * Kevin
 * Arnoud
 * Steve
 * Rodney (part time?)
 * NakedICame?
 * Frankwin?

Virtual


 * Lots!

Thoughts and comments from those not able to be present
Some of the responses to my initial announcement of the Sprint were really kind: "'Dear Kevin, That is great to hear about and I wish I could take part in it as it is sorely needed in our organization. It is truly a shame all the 're- inventing of the wheel' that we continually do. I was just discussing with a friend of mine in Cairo today how many   people have taken photos, videos and made contacts all over the world,   who over time get lost or do not go to use. I suppose we need to   really thank the Lord for those regional/ministry leaders try who keep   everything together and organized. If only our student groups would   know them all and how to use their resources! Many thanks for your work brother, keep up the good work. It is   useful. There is a great long-term purpose and no matter what people   say or do, I think the Lord is guiding your efforts incredibly. Thank You, Jonathan'" "'Dear Kevin Thank you so much for the precious invitation for YWAMKB. I am very happy to hear about the face to face gathering for initiatives of improvements and developments. I would really love to have face to face meeting. But at this time, I am very busy with my schedules on the office and work. And I am not able to come. (haha, from Nepal, even if I can come, geographically, I am really away far, and far away from you guys) But I wish and pray that the Lord will bring more people together with you to this plan. He may provide you all the wisdom, guidance and anointing. May the Lord be with all of you. '" "'Thanks for the invitation..... First of all i'm sorry for not doing my part for our KB... i've been and will be busy till may second week.... Unfortunately i won't be able to come for the Sprint Meeting. But i  will be able to join for the meetings over skype which i would like to   do... not because i will have or have something to share but would   like hear from all the wonderful people from the Sprint Meeting. but  if i have some idea or some thing i can contribute i will surely do   that....'" "'Sounds like it would be great fun. It is unfortunate that I won't be able to come during that time. For sure, keep me posted about when I can join in online via Skype or Instant Messenger. Nathan'" So we will work on the virtual side of the meeting!

Programme
11th - 15th May 2009 The aim is to do a lot of work! We want to take the YWAM KB on several steps in terms of content, accessibility, usefulness and uptake in YWAM.

As well as the physical participants there are virtual participants who we will include as much as possible recognising that geographical division do not prevent participation in the KB. We will use a regular report back time for this and IRC/Skype and other technologies that help us achieve these ends.

Ideas, thoughts, wishes, comments etc.
Please put any raw ideas for the week here. It really doesn't matter what you put. Please sign though!

Agenda
What we want to achieve will go here


 * 1) Article on Knowledge Management (Steve - in process) Knowledge management
 * 2) Start up some new knowledge threads – eg how to start a new team, what new YWAMers need to know. (KPC - Done)
 * 3) Use scenarios – how might the knowledgebase be used in various scenarios (KPC and AD - Done)
 * 4) Should lead to clear vision and missions – rather than starting with this it should become apparent through considering it's use. (See summary)
 * 5) Tuesday: Work through scenario/thread of How to start a New Team Thread (all)

Task List
What we will do and who will do it during the Sprint goes here


 * Kevin will:
 * Work on YWAMKnowledgeBase:Circle of Trust idea to ensure KB lasts for 10 years or more with 99.9% uptime.
 * YWAMKnowledgeBase:Knowledge Threads
 * Use YWAMKnowledgeBase:User Scenarios
 * Facebook group discussions - how to integrate with KB YWAMKnowledgeBase:Facebook Integration
 * YWAMKnowledgeBase:Mailing list - how to integrate with KB or de-integrate!!!
 * Numbering system for GLT documents

Monday
Today we met and started to process of talking about the KB. We brainstormed a whole slew of ideas. We could group the ideas in two sections:


 * 1) Details - quality issues, marketing, style guides, long term thoughts, gaps and holes
 * 2) Management of the knowledge - The KB could just be a puddle of knowledge but is that the best way to serve YWAM? We think it needs to be about helping YWAM make best use of its knowledge. Thus it leads to the purpose of the KB being to make YWAM more Effective and to Multiply YWAM's work and workers.

We worked on some scenarios and ideas of what people would want so that we can have an idea of how we can serve up the information and make it useful. We recognised the need to "trial" or "observe users" gaining the knowledge from the KB to better understand their needs.

We made a start on some threads to go on the front page to lead people through the swamp of knowledge.

On Tuesday we will work on one scenario - How to start a new team and use the experience to work out how we should organise the knowledge.

We finished by talking to Torgrim on the skype. Nice to have him along.

Tuesday
Brilliant youtube discussion that impacts lots of our hot areas -- collaboration, democracy, bottom up....

Key ingredients to stimulate culture change within an organization to motivate knowledge and information sharing, Major Angela Burth, USAF
 * Get knowledge and information sharing outside structural hierarchies
 * Recognise knowledge and information sharing organizational behaviour
 * Recognise and reward subject matter experts
 * Provide objective measures of contribution, value, trust and reciprocity

Key Ingredient: the secret sauce
 * How to motivate participant?
 * Answer the questions
 * What's in it for me? and/or
 * What's in it for my organization?
 * Bottom line
 * Organizational and senior leaders buy in
 * Recognition of behaviour -- make it matter, if it doesn't matter they won't participate.

Good books
 * Wikinomics ISBN 184354637X
 * We are smarter than me ISBN 0132244799

This video is a WOW!!! It is an advertisement for sharing knowledge funded by Lotus but we could use it ourselves -- if it is legal? Lotus put it out in 2000 so it is dated and they may be happy for us to use it?

Today we were thinking about presenting the KB to others and did so. Then we created a scenario that someone might ask and did some backward planning on how it might be done (starting an evangelism and church planting team). See: YWAMKnowledgeBase:How to start a New Team Thread.

The aim is to create a learning thread though the KB. In doing so we will discover where we have gaps in knowledge and where the KB is working.

We also talked a lot about social network and the application to KB. But realised we have some more primary concerns before investing lots of resources in integration with social networking and the marketing benefits that brings the KB.

Wednesday
Can we look at pages like the "special pages" page and see if it can all fit on one page and not overflow to another one? (probably not - they are hard coded in php --Kev-The-Hasty 09:05, 13 May 2009 (CEST))

And, is the font the right size across the site for clarity and maximum information in one view? Or is that a dumb question? (It's not dumb but consider the factors: different OS', different browsers, different screen sizes, different fonts systems and fonts installed, just a few!)

New notes from the whiteboard
The Purpose of YWAMKB: To Help YWAMers to be Effective and Multiply

This Week:
 * Strategy - Gaining a Big Picture
 * Accessible - Clear - Getting right to the Knowledge
 * We are now undergoing a transition from a semi-random entering of articles to a more focused goal of helping YWAMers get skills they need to do the job.
 * YWAMKB is not about getting people to join the KB (contrast with aim of Facebook: Facebook is about joining Facebook) but be more a community joined around helping other YWAMers.
 * The KB Community are people who value the KB as a tool to help other YWAMers
 * IDEA: ask NTN (New Teams Network) to work together on one specific area for 2 months
 * IDEA: DNA Infusion notes up (front page)
 * IDEA: What is my question? (front page)

5 years View

 * KB will have been Effective and Multiplied to YWAMers of all cultures.
 * Strong community of YWAMers who want to help other YWAMers be E+M using YWAMKB as a tool.
 * KB will be effective as equipping with specific skills and be a vast general resource of information.
 * De-centralised leadership: Key people on all continents caring for KB
 * In 5 years time SAK will be NOT ESSENTIAL to the life of the KB (SAK = Steve, Arnoud and Kevin)

Core strategy for next 12 months

 * 1) Develop the threads, mapping what is missing and trying to fill the gaps (30% effort)
 * 2) Strengthening the KB community (30% effort)
 * 3) Refining and pruning the KB documents and interface (15% effort)
 * 4) Keep telling people about the KB (15% effort)

Effort assignments correct?

Summary of the Day

 * Where we are going in the next 5 years (roughly!) (see above)
 * We have been thinking about the KB Community (inviting people to the tribe, inviting tribe members closer to the fire)
 * We have been working on the starting a new team thread (YWAMKnowledgeBase:How to start a New Team Thread
 * We are dreaming of having another sprint in 2010 (poss in Berlin ;-) poss in May)

Thursday
To Do today: Kevin
 * strategy page (what we are doing) YWAMKnowledgeBase:Strategy
 * philosophy page YWAMKnowledgeBase:Philosophy
 * Community YWAMKnowledgeBase:Building the KnowledgeBase Community (1 joining tribe 2 moving closer to the fire)
 * What can people do to help YWAMKnowledgeBase:How_to_help (moving closer to the fire!)
 * Note to Kevin: Don't forget marketing (Telling people about the tribe)
 * DNS notes call -ask people to post their notes on YWAM DNA.
 * poisonous people thoughts - how to protect an online community project from poisonous people
 * Bus-Factor - What is the Bus-Factor of the KB right now and how do we reduce it to zero in 5 years?

Proposal for Discussion
Thought - we are getting a number of pages that are really adverts for schools or events and don't offer instruction other than the contact address of the promoter (who should be considered a resource person). I (Kevin) do not like to discourage people with their first few posts but I would like to propose we have a policy:
 * Not to accept adverts for YWAM schools or events
 * Relational contact with community who post pages like this with help and advice for turning it into an instructive article. We could use a template like with a category _Article was an Advert with a link to a policy page? YWAMKnowledgeBase:Policy
 * As a final case we should remove the article.

Comments please!!!!!