It’s been a busy time with local and national elections and now cyber-attacks across the NHS and the world. It feels like staying on top of data – and how we deal with it – is more important now than ever before. But there is a huge difference between data and information, and as Tom Waits put it “we are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge”.
Three months ago, we were asked to create a new knowledge management system that will help the Q community in its work. Something that allows us to make best use of the insight, knowledge and ideas that emerge over time. Since then, we have been conducting research to better understand what it is that Q members most need that they can’t access elsewhere, how to build that and to take the opportunity to hear the ideas and feedback from members.
We wanted to thank those of you who have already given their time to talk to us – but what happens next? The first part is finishing the process of hearing from you and finalising Q’s strategy. If you would still like to contribute it’s certainly not too late – please email us directly on noah@demsoc.org or beth@demsoc.org. We are including a quick survey here, and if you could spare a few minutes to complete that we would be deeply grateful.
And then we start building the system over the summer with our colleagues, The Bureau. We are looking to develop, test and roll out an online space that Q members can really use to capture knowledge and to share insight in areas of collective interest. We’ve heard that you wanted something easy to use, that’s worth visiting and which gives you useful knowledge back – and let’s you add more knowledge to the wider group. We want to find a few areas and spaces where we can test this, rather than seek to build an over-whelming library of everything. That’s what we’re aiming for – and by the Autumn, we will be releasing it for members to start using, adapting and tweaking. So, watch this space!
Noah Curthoys is a Senior Partner at The Democratic Society and is working with Q to create a new knowledge management system for the Q Community.