Article 6- KNOWLEDGE CAFE

INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE CAFE
A knowledge cafe is a group of people, who have a creative conversation about a mutually interested topic in an open environment, it is not only a talk but every individual understand the depth of the topic according to D.Gurteen (2006)and Malhotra (2005).


Fig 1: from Guteen .D(2006)

He also emphasis Knowledge management is not only sharing but it is the understanding of the concept deeper according to D.Gurteen (2006). The concept Speed Networking comes under knowledge cafe, now let’s see what is SPEED NETWORKING?

Speed network is define as getting peoples together talking or discussing about business idea, where you live, how they live. Speed network can be connected to peoples namely 16 or less members, who are looking for work or contact it can be short term but can be processed as long term too, because business are corporation of people which work efficiently according to Derek Polcyn(2008).

REFLECTION FROM PRACTICE
After hearing many videos about knowledge cafe but how is it in real life? I met with a surprising knowledge cafe which was held on February 19, 2009, conducted by our lectures. In the initial steps, they asked as to get information of the unknown people inside our group which was held for around 3 mins which is known as speed network, then starts the actual play we were asked to sit in group which consists of 5 or 4 members and we were asked to discuss about the interesting topic namely “List out the worst things that could prevent an organisation from being able to manage knowledge”, we were little surprise then we started listing for around 3 sheets some are; no experts, no framework, no internet, no skills, no hierarchy, no encouragement, no design, no controller, no communication, no meeting, no manuals, no rules, no resources, no structure, no experience, no training, no restaurant, no cafe area . Etc... Then we consider ourselves as Knowledge Manager and picked out three topics which is majorly used to prevent knowledge in an organisation namely; no communication, no training, no meeting.

By establishing proper socialization among the employees is important, to express and share their knowledge either tacitly or explicitly within the other employee therefore this leads to good communication according to Nonaka (1995) Secondly, if there is no meeting, there is no schedule nor deadline in an organisation. Thirdly, if there is lack in training the employee, they cannot plan their work and they cannot manage the requirements of the external parties Jones, P. M. (2001). Therefore these are few steps to prevent knowledge in an organisation and if it is considered as the positive impact then it is the way to implement knowledge in an organisation.

REFERENCE
1. D.Gurteen (2006). Available at http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/kcafe(accessed on 14th February, 2009).
2. Derek Polcyn (2008).Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6RXa4XUQ4o&feature=related (accessed on 19th February, 2008).
3. Jones, P. M. (2001). Collaborative Knowledge Management, Social Networks and Organisational Learning. [Online].Available:
http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/publications/collab_know_paper.pdf. (20th march, 2009).
4. Nonaka, I and Hirotaka T, 1995, the knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation, New York, Oxford University Press, pp 4-10 (accessed on 14th February, 2009).
5. Yogesh Malhotra (2005),"Integrating Knowledge management technologies in organisational business processes: getting real time enterprises to deliver real business performance", journal of knowledge management vol. 9, no 1, pp 7-28(accessed on 14th February, 2009).