I am always looking for mentions of knowledge management in popular media, and this piece from a recent New York Times caught my eye: Crowd-Sourcing Expands Power of Brain Research. In it, Benedict Carey describes a large scientific study in which multiple research centers around the globe shared their data to create a single, more comprehensive database.
The scientific findings discussed in the article are fascinating, but from a knowledge management perspective, I’m more interested in the cross-boundary collaboration behind the research. Just a few years ago, this kind of open sharing was a lot less common. But APQC’s research suggests that more and more organizations are taking collaboration capabilities originally designed for the internal work force and extending them to customers, suppliers, partners, and other third parties. External collaboration was noted as an emerging trend in our 2011 “Engagement and Participation for Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration” study and is listed as one of 16 best practices in the “Putting Knowledge in the Flow of Work for Real Results” study ending this week. As we gear up for APQC’s 17th Annual KM Conference this Thursday and Friday, I know that internal and external collaboration will be hot topics among our attendees.
Do you think wide-ranging, external collaboration is the next big thing in KM? Or are the legal and intellectual property barriers too difficult to overcome?