The Name is Hub...Knowledge Hub! Guest blog by James Bond

Knowledge Hub Team

I often work alone. This all changed however when I recently went to a top secret meeting with Q. He told me about a new gadget called Knowledge Hub and promptly ordered me to set up an online group. My initial reaction was, “Dr! No way I’ll be using that!”, but later that day I received some facilitation advice in this letter from Russia with love that changed my mind.

Dearest James,

My sources say that you’re starting off your journey on Knowledge Hub so I’d make sure that your online group has a clear purpose so that all your members can easily put their gold finger on what you want to achieve. If you do this then your membership will grow so quickly you’ll feel like all your numbers have come up on the Thunderball lottery. Remember that your group is not just about you only. Live twice both in the online and offline world and your network will grow because Knowledge Hub is for everyone across the public sector and you can connect to anyone - even if they work on Her Majesty's Secret Service. Once your group begins to grow, you’ll see that your members will start uploading documents, begin forum conversations and post blogs. These hidden gems and diamonds are forever going to help you in your work. So what’s the best approach to online facilitation? Live and let die? Or persevere when things get tough? I’d definitely recommend asking others to help co-facilitate the group and share the burden. It might be the man with the golden gun or the spy who loved me, but as the great moonraker Neil Armstrong once said, getting a good bunch of facilitators together feels like ‘one small step for man one giant leap for mankind’. The beauty of Knowledge Hub is that it challenges the notion that your work is just for your eyes only as now it gives you the opportunity to share your brilliant work with your colleagues across the sector...

Forever Yours,

Natallia Octopussy

So following Natallia’s advice I set up an online group and immediately started receiving fantastic feedback from group members. One even said that the group made her the new team hero, giving her a view to a kill-er presentation that she used the following day to wow the living daylights out of cynical colleagues.

However, I found out that being an online facilitator isn’t always easy. Nobody on Knowledge Hub has a license to kill so sometimes you have to have a golden eye when moderating conversations to make sure that everyone is respectful of others’ opinions. When it works well though, tomorrow never dies on Knowledge Hub, there’s always something new to find out or people to connect with.

Having said all that, remember Knowledge Hub is just a piece of technology and you’ll have to get people to change how they work to get the most out of the platform – be ready to accept that for some the world is not enough. In the end, online groups rise and fall and if they’ve fulfilled their goals then maybe it’s time to allow them to die another day.

Using Knowledge Hub isn’t like having a bad night at Casino Royale, there’s little risk involved and you can always log on and get a quantum of solace from your colleagues. Who knows, they might even help you with preventing that Skyfall from happening...

Well done - I'm very impressed that you got all the films in there!

I enjoyed that - well done.

This is so clever, all the films and in chronological order. Very impressive Mr Bond.

I have to say that on a dark dismal damp Monday morning this brightened my day. It is so clever and yet such useful advice. I take my hat off to you Mr Bond.

Hi Leah I am a total techno phob - though did have to use wed based discussion boards for uni which I gues is quite similar to these postings. Very impressed with the James Bond theme. Are people from D and G still coming on this afternoon to try out the knowledge hub?

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