The Practical Knowledge Management Series (vols. 1-4).

• Author: PEMBERTON, J. MICHAEL

TITLE: The Practical Knowledge Management Series (vols. 1-4)

ISBN: 0-933887-85-X

PUBLISHER: Access Systems, Inc.

PUBLICATION DATE: [n.d.]

LENGTH: 20 CD-ROMS (1 presentation per CD-ROM)

PRICE: $495 for seminar; $75 for seminar updating program

SOURCE: Access Systems, http://www.accessskm.com or 888/624-6319

There are two ways to get training: you go where the training is offered, or the training comes to you. Rapidly advancing information and instructional technologies, as well as the rising cost of travel, are propelling many toward the latter approach. Today, people famous in their field can be brought to your desktop via the audio, video, and navigational capabilities of CD-ROM technology.

So it is with a content-rich series from Access Systems, Inc: The Practical Knowledge Management Seminar. Here, the best-known figures in knowledge management (KM) provide insight on a wide range of KM topics. Tom Davenport, Karl-Erik Sveiby, Hubert Saint-Onge, Verna Allee, Thomas Stewart, and 15 others help assemble a veritable KM curriculum on CD-ROMs. The seminars' faculty is from a broad array of sectors that are represented by such organizations as Hewlett-Packard, Corning, Hallmark, the US Army, and Monsanto.

There are four tracks in the seminar, each with six presenters. The themes of the tracks are "Knowledge Management: Strategy and Value"; "Implementation: Steps and Issues"; "Methods and Tools to Enable KM"; and "Building and Maintaining Our KM Community."

Presentations follow a common pattern: the presenter is introduced (the introduction is duplicated in the binder material); each has a live audience; and each presenter does the voiceover for the presenter-produced slides (which are also duplicated in handout form). There are, of course, individual differences in presentation style -- some are animated, some sedate -- and in the slides, which range from "corporate" to "colorful." Regardless, each presenter is successful in making the material both understandable and interesting.

Using this product is easy. Everything is clearly laid out and self-explanatory. All 20 discs and presenters' handouts come in a well-organized binder. Navigational flexibility within each presentation makes it is easy to go forward, go back, or pause at a slide. Users can, for example, jump ahead without a problem because the speaker's voice and slides are fully synchronized. The most difficult task for the user is downloading the latest (free) version of RealPlayer...