Implementing knowledge management initiatives at PATH

1
Implementing knowledge management initiatives at
PATH

• October 7, 2006SLA Northwest Regional
  conferenceVancouver, BC

2
Agenda

• General information about PATH
• KM _at_ PATH
• Why?
• Current state
• PATHnet (including live PATHnet demo)
• What needs to be done?
• Other KM tools and practices

3
What is PATH?

• Health technologies
• Maternal and child health
• Reproductive health
• Vaccines and immunization
• Emerging and epidemic diseases
• www.path.org

4
Where does PATH work?

• PATH is working in more than 65 countries.
• As of September 1, 2006, PATH has 26 offices in
  16 countries including Belgium, Cambodia, China,
  France, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nicaragua,
  Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand,
  Ukraine, Vietnam, Zambia, and the United States
  (with HQ in Seattle, WA).

5
Funding sources

• Foundations
• US government
• Other governments
• Multilateral agencies (WHO, World Bank, UN
  agencies)
• Corporations
• Individuals

6
Additional info about PATH

• Total number of employees gt500.
• Annual budget gt 130 mil.

7
Why KM _at_ PATH?

• Need to share information to maximize efficiency
  and effectiveness, and to create synergies
  between programs and countries. PATH is a
  judicious steward of donor funds and intends to
  maximize return on investment to the utmost
  degree.

8
Current state of KM _at_ PATH

• 500 staff working around the globe in many
  languages, time zones, climate conditions, levels
  of computer expertise, and degrees of research
  involvement. In spite of substantial differences
  between countries and locations there are a lot
  of similarities. For example Magnet Theater in
  Kenya and India disseminate up-to-date medical
  information on HIV/AIDS prevention among people
  who often do not receive their medical
  information from printed sources.

9
Magnet Theater in Kenya


10
Current state of KM _at_ PATH

• Need to share information created at the Seattle
  HQ with the rest of the organization.
• Need to keep staff up to date regarding new
  developments in programmatic and HQ activities,
  scientific research, and commercialization
  efforts.
• Need to collect information from the field
  offices and bring it together for the entire
  organization to share. This information supports
  the decision-making process and donor relations.
• Need to evaluate existing programs and create new
  ones.

11
Earlier KM model _at_ PATH
12
Future KM model _at_ PATH
13
PATHnet as a means _at_ PATH to bring people together

• PATHnet demo
• Home page (3 panels include navigation bar, PATH
  bulletins, and customization panel)
• LiveData access to databases
• Boards as means to communicate and seek feedback
• Blogs (same as above but with more tightly
  controlled ownership)

14
Where we are with PATHnet

• Clear and inexpensive way to share materials
  issued by HQ with the rest of the organization.
  Examples HR, Library, Procurement, Travel.
• Easy way to make announcements and share news,
  including photos. Audio and video messages are
  also supported.
• Easy way to personalize home page by providing
  useful links to other resources inside and
  outside of PATHnet.
• Ability to review information held in databases.
• Ability to post documents for internal review.
• Certain document collections have been started,
  folders populated and kept up to date.
• Folder ownership has been established and content
  managers group formed and met several times.

15
What needs to be done?

• Staff need to know that other people are
  interested in their work and that they need to
  provide a quick and inexpensive way to share
  their information with the rest of PATH.
  Currently a lot of information is kept in
  silos.
• Departments need to assign PATHnet duties to
  specific staff as position responsibilities to
  maintain order and provide continuity with the
  existing pages.
• Researchers or their support need to submit their
  documents to KS staff or post their materials on
  PATHnet for further reuse.

16
What needs to be done?

• Search capability needs to be improved and
  enlarged to include more external sites and files
  on shared drive.
• Knowledge Services staff need to develop a search
  thesaurus to improve recall and precision of
  search results.
• Document management practices need to be improved
  and support staff educated about proper
  meta-tagging. KS staff need to review new
  additions to the online collection and make sure
  that thesaurus terms are properly applied.
• Change in behavior staff needs to utilize
  already existing resources on a day-to-day basis
  and learn how to function in the new
  information-rich world.
• PATHnet needs to become more of a working space,
  i.e., an interactive medium where people can
  interact, fill out forms, complete tasks, etc. as
  opposed to just being a repository of documents.

17
Additional ways to share knowledge _at_ PATH using
electronic media

• Individual and group email between offices and
  laptop owners. Nearly all PATH offices are
  connected to the Internet and all PATH laptop
  owners are able to see PATHnet and use email.
• Teleconferencing with standard telecommunication
  links and Skype creates an opportunity to bring
  people together at minimal cost.
• Annual and semiannual meeting of country leaders
  in Seattle other training opportunities for
  field staff, with mentoring process as a
  follow-up.

18
Additional ways to share knowledge _at_ PATH using
electronic media

• SharePoint sites for team activities,
  particularly useful for those teams with outside
  collaborators.
• Groove is being tested by a few teams operating
  where Internet connections are poor or
  connectivity is intermittent. It is easy to
  develop and share documents between team members
  but not outside of the group creates potential
  silos.

19
Means to share information _at_ PATH by personal
contact

• Meetings, usually by department, program, or team
• Brown bag lunches where staff share information
  and expertise
• Lectures and presentations from field staff and
  other researchers

20
Olga Shargorodska, MLSKnowledge Services Team
Leaderoshargorodska_at_path.org(206) 285-3500

• www.path.org