ICT-KM Program

As new  Megaprograms were being finalized, research defined, new partnerships forged for a new more impactful agriculture research agenda… as the  texture, the vital structure of the new CGIAR  was being defined it became apparent that communication and knowledge sharing related issues were “missing in action”…. but not everywhere… signs that there was a growing awareness of the value of knowledge sharing in research became apparent… the heads of communication of the various CGIAR centers started to make noise around the fact communication and knowledge sharing were being neglected… so these topics made it back to the “must be there” list in a Megaprogram.

They say  ”a picture is worth a thousand words” and I have always been intrigued by pictures, images and visuals and their production as tools for knowledge sharing and learning. The field of ‘graphic facilitation’-in which the creation of graphics are a key part of the facilitation process- is a growing field.
According to the KS Toolkit: “Graphic recording at its core is visually capturing what is happening in a group or presentation. It is part of a large set of visual practices which use images as part of group processes, which includes graphic facilitation, collaborative graphics work, etc. ”

On July 7th, 2010, Antonella and I had the opportunity to participate in the one-day workshop titled: ‘Open Access- Maximising Research Impact”, hosted at Bioversity International; organized by Maria Garruccio (Bioversity) and the CGIAR’s Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property (CAS-IP) group.

How can you make knowledge move around?  Well like any mechanism that moves around you need the right kind of apparatus to be moved around,  some sort of push or force to make it move, a good track for it to follow, and some momentum to keep it going.  You need the whole system to be applicable to the job.
And this is true of making knowledge travel around- you need it to be in the right format, you need energy to make it move, you need some sort of plan or framework for it to follow, and it definitely needs momentum to keep it going. We see various mechanical contraptions achieve this movement- like the ferris wheel shown in the image- but what kind of systems can achieve moving knowledge around?