Sensorica's information and knowledge management system
This paper describes the information and knowledge management system of Sensorica and his evolution
Open Sensorica's main Google doc on Information and knowledge management.
The first system
Since the inception of Sensorica, beginning of 2010 Tibi deployed a a Google-based CCC infrastructure inspired by his work within the Multitude Project.
- For written information, Google Docs (later become Google Drive) was implemented. Docs were used to describe ventures, to document R&D work, ideas and designs, to document the organization itself and its processes, etc. Files were also shared with DropBox, which was later dropped for more collaboration functionality with Google docs.
- Picasa Web was adopted to manage pictures. This was later changed for Google Photos.
- Youtube was adopted to manage videos.
- Diigo was adopted for information mining and was used as knowledge base.
- 3D warehouse was used in combination with Google Sketchup for 3D modeling and product design.
- SPICE programs were used for electronics design.
Everything was integrated within a Google Sites. See Sensorica's website
- A special page template was created for ventures, which integrated multimedia content produced in that context. See all ventures here.
- A special page template was created for activities, called Activity clusters, which integrated multimedia content about different types of activities like software, electronics, 3D modelling... This was proposed as an alternative to navigate network activity, by looking at activities that relate to each others. The idea was also to provide insight to collaborative entrepreneurs to address network needs and capture new opportunities. This was later changed with "open venture ecosystems" when the new Sensorica website was created, [ https://www.sensorica.co/products#h.byvyfcwi7q4y see here].
- Other special pages were created to aggregate other types of information
- The Sensorica how-tos page is used to share know how with the world.
- The Sensorica education section was created to allow Sensorica affiliates to learn new skills within the network.
Fredy's Attempt to improve Sensorica's CMS
Lead by Fredy Pulido in 2013?. The idea was to move away from Google collaborative tools. Attempt failed, because Sensorica affiliates didn't manifest enough interest in changing the systems. After some considerations and input from Daniel, François, Jonathan and Tiberius, Fredy decided to test Cynin. This was also abandoned and the community continued to use Google Drive.
Important characteristics for the chosen system:
- KISS principle in Wikipedia: "Keep it simple, stupid"
- Experience, expertise and intuition are important (know-how)
- Find and adapt a system, avoid building a system from scratch.
- Open Source: The software will be open source
- Easy to use and to maintain
- Programming language: Python, ruby or some similar (Fedy: not PHP).
Notes
- Fredy created the account sensorica.knowledge@gmail.com