Data, Info, or Knowledge?
What is data? It’s a set of discrete, objective facts about events. It could be one transaction in your retail store, one visit to your website, or an article in your pile of RSS reader subscription. Why is that data? There are at least 4 reasons why data is data. Let’s take an example of site visit event, and why do I think that it is data.
- Everyone else is doing it. Tell me if there is any site that is not counting their visitor? Maybe there is one or two, but if they seriously think about doing something significant, business or so with the website will likely to count their visitors.
- Voluminous. The more your site’s subscribers, the more visitor you have, and that is a significant measure that what you have is data.
- Automatic capture. You can put a counter in your website, that is increased for every visit. You can ask help from SiteMeter or Google Analytics. You can use their data, but unless you do more things with it, it’s simply automated capture that is meaningless to you.
- Doesn’t answer substantive question. You may have the visit info, but merely data will not answer substantive questions, such as what profile are your visitors, where do they come from, why do they buy or why don’t they buy your product and services, what are they interested in, and so on.
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KM is not about managing books
I picked up a new interest, it’s KM or Knowledge Management. I am taking my Master study in that area and I’m going to write much more about the area.
Still, you might be wondering, what is Knowledge Management? You can choose between the longer and the shorter definition I give below.
Let’s go with the longer one first, taken from my lecture notes, quoted from the experts in Knowledge Management…
Any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and performance in organizations.
(Swan et al., Journal of Knowledge Management)
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Do you have the little self within you that you’ve been trying to hide all the time? It could be your childhood trauma. It could be wounds and hurts that forced you to hide them. And, by the way, it is your shadow.
It is something that you want to hide behind accomplishment and fake personality. It is also be something that you think you are not, a potential that you purposely hide within you.
They are like beach ball that will float on water. The more you dislike them, the more you push it under and eventually the more pressure you will feel.
One better way is to embrace them. Debbie Ford in her movie, The Shadow Effect shared how true it is that what we resist will persist. On the other hand, what you befriend, you will transcend.
The DVD consists of 2 CDs. One full-length movie, and another interactive CD, where Debbie will ask you several questions to realize and work on your shadow.
It’s been three weeks since my new journey begins. I didn’t know that I have learned so much during these three weeks.Thanks to CK Reyes that gave me an opportunity to reflect on my three-weeks journey and share my 25 tips of entrepreneurship in her blog.
It’s not an easy journey, but I really have to thank God for the opportunities and open doors He brings to me. Also thanks to my friends and associates that has helped me along the way.
The article summarizes the lessons I learned the past three weeks. It is a part of 100 ways to birth your entrepreneurial dream written by CK Reyes and Michelle Vandepas. Please check it out! You’ll be inspired, who knows that you’ll have your own new journey!
For your success,
Robert
Two weeks have passed since my birthday. It’s a new journey, not only as a 27th year old man, but also as a new entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur? Yeah, eventually I resigned from my ex-company to explore something new in my life. Five years ago, 2nd of August 2004, I started my first job, and exactly after five years of working, here I am, a new entrepreneur.
The Wild at Heart
Deep within I believe that I am not reaching my potential in my previous employment. I have thought about that since last December but didn’t put up enough courage to leave the job. There are series of events, series of books I read that lead me to the decision; but in short, I leave my job only knowing one thing, that it doesn’t make me alive.
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~Gil Bailie, quoted by John Eldredge (Wild at Heart)
Have you read the book Wild at Heart? It’s a book about man, not only the gender they were born with, but the adventure that they are meant to live. This is the book that ignite my desire to find something new in my life.
I’ve been thinking about what I should write next. It can be my argument with a friend last week, my experience in networking with some friends, my tendency to rush things or put too many things together, my book that I read, or the thing that has bugged my mind the most recently.
Writing is a good opportunity for me to reflect and learn. I’m happy that the past month I can be productive again. I can actually blog much more often, faster, and easier. It is the big lesson I learned during the past month. I wish I can make it as a reason to stay writing, unfortunately it does not go along with the lesson I want to learn this month.
I am coping rather than producing. Writing is good habit, and unless I can put more commitment into both networking and writing, I may not go far. It’s good to have it as journal, but I don’t want it to distract what I’m pursuing this month. It’s the first reason I decided to go on hiatus (a new word I’m learning online), an inactive state of blogging temporarily, while I focus on some other thing in my life.
Do I stop learning as well?
No, of course not. Our life is called the school of life. And I have to learn to go to the next class. I was thinking to use this blog to share the journey I’m taking as well. Unfortunately, the lesson I want to learn is also not something I can comfortably share in this blog. That is the second reason why I decided not to blog for this moment. Unless I have passed this lesson and get something from it, I will not be able to share with you.
For the very least, I’ll be on hiatus this July. I’m taking holiday in the middle of the month as well. And I still have no idea what will August hold. Maybe I’ll continue writing, maybe not. Maybe I’ll create something, and in the due time, I’ll tell you guys. For this July, it’s action time!
Hope to see you again when I come back.
All the best,
Robert
Who is Larry Wall? Many of you may not know who he is.
He is the father of Perl, a programming language that is more popular among system administrators. He created Perl in mid-1980s. You may never hear his work, but there is something we can learn from his life as a programmer and innovator.
Today I want to share the three attributes of innovators, inspired by Larry Wall as he is mentioned and described in the book Learning Perl, by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, & brian d foy (I don’t have any idea why the last name is written in lower case). Continue Reading →
Do you know what surprised me recently? It’s the number of my RSS subscribers. I couldn’t believe it that in two weeks after I re-launched the new theme, the subscribers number goes from below 200 to 253 the day I wrote this article.
I’ve secretly made a goal of reaching 200 subscribers by the end of last year. But as you know, I didn’t make it. The number is fluctuating around 180-190. It’s hardly increased, and new subscribers are almost always accompanied by other unsubscribed readers. So it’s indeed really surprised me that the number jumped so high. I even thought that it might have been some technical glitch, or changes in how Feedburner counts the subscribers.
What else surprised me? It’s the ‘churning’. I mentioned ‘churning’ during the theme re-launch a few weeks ago. It’s how I wanted to reduce the ‘quality’ to increase quantity and creativity. It really works.
I posted my recent articles earlier than usual. I’ve already scheduled the post one to two days earlier. It has never happened before. I’ve always rushed to finish my article on the day I’m publishing my article. This time I really made some difference. I’m less stressed and not rushed for the deadline. Instead of a burden, I found blogging as opportunity. Each post is an opportunity. What opportunity? Continue Reading →
I am preparing for another Toastmaster (public speaking) project on 30th of June. And this time, the project is about Persuading with Power. I was thinking about a topic to share about in my next speech, and GTD came out.
Getting Things Done is the topic I have shared earlier in my previous project. This time I am going to repeat the same message with different structure and purpose. Basically, I’m integrating the lessons I have learned from the earlier speech. These are some of them. Continue Reading →
Last weekend, my room taught me a number of lessons. It all started with my old wardrobe, a fabric wardrobe (the first picture in the gallery below). Over 5 years of usage, it has degraded. The fabric is torn here and there, it is not zipped properly, slanted and it cannot stand properly. I’ve been hesitating to replace it until now. As I just renewed my room rental contract, I thought this is a good time to get me new furniture and rearrange my room. And more than a new room, the experience taught me a number of lessons. I’ll share three of them in this post.
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Hello and welcome! I am Robert, sharing with you articles in personal management and personal development. Check out the 
