Implications and suggestions for news media:
The name might sound boring, but don’t go away. Knowledge management is one of the most exciting areas in the weblog world. And so-called “k-logs” have significant implications for news organizations.
K-logs typically are internal weblogs for organizations, usually accessible via a corporate intranet. The basic concept is that a company might have multiple k-logs for various departments, as well as a corporate-wide k-log. In each department, all employees and managers can post items to the weblog — which of course is read by everyone else in the department. These internal blogs are in effect a running newsletter for each department — with announcements from management, news posted by employees, and just about anything that others in the department need to know. In some cases, all internal e-mail and instant messages between employees are automatically posted to k-logs. And each item has a feedback mechanism, so that discussions can take place on the k-log about anything that anyone appears on the weblog.
K-logs come in really handy because each item posted is stored in a searchable database. So a department k-log, for instance, becomes an easily searchable treasure trove of information and data of the department’s ongoing work — a permanent record that’s readily accessible to all. Weblogging software makes it simple for employees to contribute to the corporate intranet/knowledge base.
What gets published and stored tends to be information that previously was not communicated to everyone. Some of it once was left on voicemail; some was stored only on individual hard drives in the form of e-mail messages or instant messaging notes; some appeared only on paper that got tucked away in file drawers. By mandating that all communication be posted and stored in a k-log, information that might be useful to others in the future is put at employees’ and managers’ fingertips.
Apply this to the news industry and you’ll quickly realize how valuable this could be — especially to reporters. A useful newsroom intranet k-log would contain:
- Items posted from managers and employees to be shared with all, and discussed online.
- Correspondence between editors and reporters, stored for future reference to aid reporters covering similar topics to previous coverage.
- Agendas and minutes of meetings.
- (Possibly) reporters’ notes and interview transcripts.
- Daily news budget records.
Obviously, a k-log can collect a LOT of information. No one is going to want to read everything that goes in. The k-log is most useful on a couple levels. First, when you have a need to search (I’ve got to do a story about the mayor’s ex-wife. Let’s see how her name pops up in the newsroom k-log), it’s great. Second, you can set up filters to have new items that match user-selected criteria e-mailed to you. A managing editor might set up a filter to see all correspondence between city editors and metro reporters, for example (in a case where such communication is automatically being stored to the newsroom knowledge bank).
Example of a k-log:
Mobilocity K-Log – Weblog by Omar Javaid, chairman of a mobile communications consulting company.
