See Niki's Interview at CeBit 2002

Why do you think knowledge sharing is the new wave of transformation in the work arena?

Today the web makes this transformation possible and because the future is about acquiring and acting on collaborative knowledge. If you look at it from a perspective of totality, organizations are cultures of relationships that enable and enhance the creation and gain of knowledge. It's that simple.

But why is sharing knowledge becoming the new wave?

Is sharing knowledge a new wave? Or are we all just starting to see and understand what the Internet has really brought to the online party? Well I think that markets have always been about working based on knowledge and conversations. The big question is - What is the web for and what can this medium, this global network do for all of us?

What would you say this global network could do for us?

The original intent of the Internet was to bring people together to share ideas, knowledge, and improve productivity - In short, to intelligently communicate and collaborate! Today it's becoming a living reality. We start to use the web for what it can do best! New worlds, like the Internet, have created, and will continuously create new kind of People. This will not stop. Just think about the Kids and see how they are using the Network today and how they will use it tomorrow. The knowledge economy has brought new power to People. The wheel is being reinvented and brain is the driver.

I hear you talking so much about the power of conversation, why are you stressing this so much?

Because markets are conversations. What we at metalayer have been doing and focusing on is the ability for People to create community-based environments that support conversations in context. Simulating a natural dialogue is the key, especially over the Internet. The human dialogue must be supported by various collaborative functions and remain in context.

What do you mean by context and why is it so important?

As Nonaka said, the key to understand context is interaction. Interaction is most intelligible if it is in context. Stand-alone information has little chance of being understood, however if it is supported by a context, this information and knowledge can be easily understood. Knowledge does not just reside in one's mind. Knowledge emerges through shared contexts that are created through interaction! Communication just does not happen effectively if it is out of context. It's important that we start to realize that knowledge travels via language! Knowledge emerges in discussion & collaborative thinking. People need to think together to share Knowledge. Building a continuity of conversation is key in Knowledge creation. Knowledge must be used, discussed and changed to stay fresh.

Most organizations will have security concerns about knowledge restrictions and access controls. How are these issues addressed by metalayer?

metalayer has access control at all levels of content. Restriction to a particular set of members is possible in various permutations and at Comty level, or for one section or any object.

How do you think networked enterprises are getting smart faster than their peers?

This question has intrigued me as a CKO often. I would like to take this chance to say more about this great WEB potential and therein lies the answer to this question. I love and hate the web. Working with the web is putting pressure on me, but also giving me freedom. We at metalayer live on the web. Education, learning, Knowledge creation and a new kind of collective culture, transparency and real-time enterprise agility are some of the results of the Web. This is how communication becomes the lifeline of any company. This is how the smart companies are leveraging the web.

Again you stress on communication. Would you say Communication is synonymous with Knowledge?

Companies, whether they like it or not, will be forced to customize interaction and collaboration with their key constituents. Customization of interactions in the Economy is no longer a luxury or even a nice-to-have; it's a must-have! KM provides most benefit when leveraging people, not removing them. Finally you have not just to talk about it, but to really understand that KM is very much a social thing. I personally believe that we all have to unlearn "communication" and start to learn to deal with "context" in the knowledge economy. Knowledge needs context - Without context to specify time, place, and relationship with others, it is just information! An individual without understanding the information in the right context cannot take responsibility. For metalayer and this is the RIGHT TIME! We are on track as Economic downturns, or crisis situations are the best times for LEADERS. In turbulent time human beings are ready to focus and to think. They get motivation to change. Now is the right time for organizations to rethink their existing inter- and extra- organizational communication & collaboration strategies, the right time to communicate and collaborate in a much smarter and collective way.

How do you think the Knowledge Economy empowers people?

Knowledge Economy gives people the power of Wisdom. Shift of authority of position - to authority of Knowledge!

Could you please elaborate your answer?

Mainly I mean a cultural shift. For e.g. if a particular person in an organization is contributing on the community hub things that are of no importance to the totality of the community or to personal development. So many employees know his weakness of being unable to work within context and with the team or community. This means that the person has a chance to improve and also that the transparency clearly distinguishes between authority and knowledge with due emphasis on the latter. This is a clear and realistic demonstration of the shift of authority of position to authority of Knowledge!

You talk about culture. What do you mean exactly?

Successful collaborative environments have to engage people's hearts, not just their minds. I would say that winning over hearts is the more important task of KM. It's "culture" work. Once integrated, knowledge becomes part of our identity and culture. The goal is to make knowledge creation become invisible, a part of our daily working activity, and a part of who we are, what we do and finally how we communicate on a daily basis. Collective communication is key in knowledge management.

What we have encountered during the last 2 years within our sales activities of metalayer Community-Hub Platform is that we do not sell software. We are in the enterprise culture business.

So you would say you are selling culture?

It's more about encouraging companies to make the transformation from a conventional enterprise to a Knowledge Powerhouse. This transformation breeds a new kind of culture in the organization. metalayer lives on the Network. The web has become our workplace. We have gained a knowledge culture. This is a good thing, which I'm very proud of as a CKO. Company culture is the principal determinant of the success of surviving in the knowledge economy.

Could you explain what you mean with knowledge culture?

Feeling that you have a peer at the other end of the road dealing with the same kind of problem gives you some comfort that you are not just fighting windmills on your own. The value of an individual's knowledge depends upon the smartness with which it is used in the entire system. The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be those who discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels (META-LAYER) of the Organization. To be successful with Knowledge Management, you have to understand People and their Relationships, how they learn, how they think, and what motivates them. The price of that, or call it the logical requirement is that you have to work on an open CULTURE of TRUST and TRANSPARENCY.

What about monitoring performance in transparent environments?

Face it; CEOs have no excuse for not knowing what's going on in their companies. Transparency is and was always a factor for success. Trust and Culture need this Transparency! I'm trying to find a simple answer to your question: If we start monitoring People's movements, activities, discussions and daily work live on the web we can go very close to each individual. It's up to all of us to use these powerful intangible measurements to help ourselves to learn and to unlearn and grow intellectually.

You talk about work transparency. Don't you think people will feel insecure about working in sheer transparency?

Yes sure - people will feel very insecure - if they have reasons to feel insecure. Frankly speaking, I even have some people in my mind. Well, the 1990s, with CEOs as heroes, was a lot more fun than 2002 - isn't it? Current business climate demands a change in culture, style and substance. We are seeing a new phenomenon right now in the top-management of most companies. McKinsey & Co. surveyed nearly 200 directors in May and found that 25% had turned down or quit a board seat in the past year at least partly out of concern for personal legal liability. If you look into the past, the topics about measuring a company had been more nuts-and-bolts financial discussions, but this year the talks become kind of post-Enron ethics.

But coming back to your question, what do you mean with Transparency and measurements?

You mean things like "who gets asked what" or "who talks to whom" or "who is starting some good ideas and who is not" and "who gets most attention and who is not taken serious" in community Networks or "who is known throughout the Network as Knowledge holder or who is known as a very good and active net worker and facilitator" etc? Well, you will find out very hard facts and figures about your Enterprise. And here I think it is important to reflect again about the impact of communication and collaborating on community Networks instead of linear eMails.

Tell us something about the metalayer Strategy, Vision and Value?

Our strategy and value is that we are co-working our vision together with Partners & Customers and Suppliers. We envision that knowledge intensive enterprises will provide a metalayer of Communication and Collaboration to bundle their constituents in groups and to manage their knowledge intensive communities. Community Hubs will be implemented in most Portals, Marketplaces and Websites (Inter-Intra-Extranets) to ensure People Collaboration, Knowledge Creation and Relationships.

In our view, leading companies will make strategic decision to move toward creating "highly collaborative value networks". They will leverage new community technologies and completely new working models that can differentiate the response to each individual! Well, you must shift from the importance of knowing to the importance of knowing how to find out and learn quickly. Knowledge is anyway changing very rapidly. Paper in Databases is becoming dead Knowledge! We need to start to share to learn and learn to share!

How helpful is collaborative working to individual development?

I think that having a nonjudgmental curiosity is key. This is what a company culture should try to enforce. Transform your employees to People who ask, and not people who follow blindly or dictate. I think that this is one of the fundaments of a Knowledge Strategy.

What do you mean by nonjudgmental curiosity?

Curiosity means also to be ready to ask question. Asking questions is not an easy thing for many people because it reflects on your lack of knowledge. Well, to solve this fundamental problem I can recommend community networking. I have found a new real world, which is kind of different. It's different because we human beings usually do not live so much within a collective. Being on a Community-Hub is just different. It's like standing in a crowded train-station, but the difference is that each single Human, which you encounter, has some relationship with you. He must have something in common to you, because he is also working on the same HUB. Either he is a customer whom your company is working for, a Partner, who is going to have a virtual meeting online to understand the latest development of your Company Product or an Employee.

What is the future of online work environments?

The opportunities for cross-collaborative community networks (many-to-many) in the future will depend on matching collaborative functionality to processes as well as WEB Environments that are heavily contextual in nature. Inter-Enterprise Knowledge-Worker understands and has experimented the immense power of collaborative and collective Knowledge working environments. Online work environments are here to stay. I think that the future of online work environments will show us that most valuable innovations come from outside the existing practice and that these online community workplaces have no eternal life. Companies will use collaborative community networks not only to learn about something - but also to learn to be something. In this respect I can imagine that a key challenge for many of us will be unlearning what we know. The problem we are facing is not that we know too little, but that we don't how to leverage what we know.

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