Inspired by ...

•         Learning to Fly;

•         In the context of South Africa where there is a skills shortage and knowledge sharing is [generally] a rare event;

•         It was decided to see if it was possible to produce software to replicate the ‘accessing of people through skills’ electronically - &

•         Ultimately to have the data available on the internet.

 The Results so far ...

•         We can replicate the River of Life;

•         Knowledge sharing is ‘one click away’;

•         We have other functionalities being developed [including a more immediate self-help functionality];

The Essence of this Tool ...

•         Is that the database is oriented around the skill /s that are in short supply in one area of need;

•         And the ability to identify who has the level of skill required;

•         And how to contact them easily so that relevant information can be shared.

Setup a Collection of Databases

So simple that you can use Microsoft Excel to Edit and Import Data

River, Actual, Target & Benchmark

•         The River (and what we have called a domain – i.e. the number of categories on the x-axis)

•         An Actual Score can be recorded for each entity (department, individual, drop-in-centre etc.)

•         A Target per domain to record ambitions

•         We included a benchmark so that decision makers or policy considerations could be included in the representation.

Click on overall strategy and “Internal knowledge to share and the VIMP gives you

•         All the co-operatives in the client group who has more knowledge than this group (with contact details, auto-email /

          fax etc & star rating as to whether they have time for knowledge sharing)

Click on external knowledge and you get a list of external references for outsourcing skills.

                We are currently developing the tool to include –

    •         An expert locator

    •         Training orgs

    •         Relevant documentation [policy / other]

      •         Wiki

    •         Other as required by the client

Click on “Mission” then Ambitious to improve gives you

•         All the people / orgs who have indicated they want to lean more about “Mission” (almost a Community of

          Practice & the potential to become a conference match-making function) 

It is so simple to use that it is possible to see how it could be developed into a client friendly

way of sharing knowledge across organisations.