Comments on Knoco stories: Knowledge Management and the age of Navigation

Nick, this is a great story. KM can be such an abs...

2011-02-16T18:10:50.988Z

Nick, this is a great story. KM can be such an abstract concept and this brings it to life. Stories, objects and artefacts from the past can be powerful tools for stimulating ideas about the present and the future. We recently completed a two-year programme with MLA London, exploring ways in which museums, libraries and archives can help businesses and entrepreneurs learn from the past, develop ideas and innovate.

Amundsen certainly learned from the successful voy...

2009-03-30T17:22:00.000+01:00

Amundsen certainly learned from the successful voyages of nansen and others. Scott was let down by a number of factors as I understand it - his ponies were poor quality (as the pony-buyer was not an expert), he wouldn't take more dogs because he could not bear to shoot them, and the solder they used on their fuel cans cracked at the extreme temperatures, and the cached cans were found empty on the return journey. And certainly - he could have learned better!

I would heartily agree with your idea that we can ...

2009-03-30T10:17:00.000+01:00

I would heartily agree with your idea that we can learn about learning by looking at the history of exploration.

I recently did some research into the various expeditions to the South Pole at the beginning of the 20th century, and you can draw simple lessons about learning from the experiences of the three main explorers.

Scott, of course, paid the ultimate penalty for not learning from his own experience, but what really suprised me was that Amundsen's successful journey was relatively so simple, because he learned so much from his own journeys and others.

Cheers,

Alastair

Brilliant post, Nick. I believe that these stories...

2009-03-29T23:19:00.000+01:00

Brilliant post, Nick. I believe that these stories in history tell us more about knowledge management and the fundamental ideas of KM than anything in today's technology. I posted a similar U.S. navigation story a while back (if you're interested: http://ykm.typepad.com/yerfdogs_knowledge_manage/2006/07/what_is_km.html), and so I really appreciated your post. Thanks. - Tom