Stowe Boyd has an article on "Metaphors Matter: Collaborative Technology versus Social Tools." He's concerned that, as happened with KM, "technologists" will take over social software and strip what is really important - the socializing. [Read More]

Jack Vinson provides a nice summary of what I had to say last week about personal knowledge management in his class on knowledge management. [Read More]

I can't say that I claim to have a system for personal knowledge management - still not really knowing what that phrase means - but I do have a couple of tools I use regularly to augment my memory. A simple personal wiki acts as a place to keep very brief notes on places and people and travels. A few dozen lines of shell scripts manages a todo list that helps me remember what I have promised to myself and other people. And of course there are address books and calendars to track phone numbers and dates.

I can't guarantee that there is any knowledge in there anywhere, but there are observations and facts and notes in a format that I can usually get back to them when I'm online, and that seems to help.

What I can't say for sure is whether the online tools give me *more* knowledge than if I just used my brain and spent more time being thoughtful about things instead of going hurry-scurry trying to get too many things done. That's a bigger philosophical question.