Productivity Gains enabled by ICT and KM Support Systems

Knowledge Management (KM) has from the start been a major theme of our InnovationWell community activities.  Knowledge Management in R&D was the topic of our very first InnovationWell conference held at the end of 2003, progressed in 2004 by the theme of Integrating Knowledge in the Life Science Product Life Cycle, to Drug Safety Knowledge Management and Knowledge-based Innovation in 2005, and to Critical Path and Translational Medicine applications in 2006.  More recently we have addressed additional critical knowledge management support areas of culture, collaboration, leadership, trust, innovation etc.  In these meeting sessions I have enjoyed both excellent dialogues and meeting many interesting, competent, thoughtful and inspiring people.  As we now move into becoming a community of research in addition to a community of practice, these conversations are having a significant influence on the research proposals and projects we are pursuing, and I am very much looking forward to the launch of our initial related collaborative research projects starting in 2008.

It is interesting to note from the Economist survey “Foresight 2020: Examining the Economic, Industry, and Corporate Trends of the Future” that healthcare industry executives singled out knowledge management as the highest priority area for productivity gains in the next 15 years.  Such recognition is also reflected in the key role knowledge management plays in the Critical Path Initiative and that it is one of the key 4 pillars of the Innovative Medicines Initiative launching in 2008.

Next month at Bryn Mawr (15-16 October) we return to the topic of KM in R&D by taking a look at existing ICT solutions supporting R&D activities including the increasing deployment of Collaborative electronic Research & Development (CeR&D) and Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) systems.  We will additionally explore the emerging roles and impact of approaches emerging from semantic web research, social software, web services and utility computing and Web 2.0/3.0 that are complimentary with structured IT systems to enable increased productivity and innovation success within the context of the ever increasing importance of collaboration within and between organisations working in increasingly networked global research initiatives and projects.  Cross-disciplinary thinking from fields such as organisational development and culture, cognitive science and innovation management will I maintain play key influencing roles on future integrating architectures supporting knowledge management, transfer and sharing to enable the hoped-for productivity gains of executives.

The workshop at Bryn Mawr will have a strong emphasis on peer-to-peer discussions with each workshop session involving a facilitated Knowledge Café discussion. On Monday evening we will have a Knowledge Dinner with good food and conversation menus at the Alumni House, whereas on Tuesday evening we will have a poster session, drinks reception and buffet dinner in Thomas Great Hall.

For Poster Presentations, you can present as a traditional poster or setup a computer-based presentation of software for discussion.  Wireless and Internet connectivity are available. Abstracts ca. 300-500 words should be sent to me.

We will discuss and share experiences with current information and communications technology (ICT) supporting R&D, to discuss current requirements and short term needs with electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) systems, collaboration support and knowledge tools supporting R&D, and to create a shared vision and roadmap for next generation knowledge management (KM) support systems. A wiki will be opened prior to the workshop to commence group documentation of supporting materials and to help to populate the workshop program with introductory materials, suggestions, ideas and experiences.  The wiki will continue to be available after the workshop for supporting continuing interactions in 2008.

Presentations to seed Discussions
Dimitris K. Agrafiotis, Vice President of Informatics, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, LLC; The ABCD ELN: Towards a Fully Integrated Discovery Enterprise
Frank Guerino, CEO, TraverseIT; Semantic-based Frameworks for Enterprise Content Management
Carl Elkin, Principal Scientist, Schering-Plough; Building Knowledge Infrastructure: A Bottom-up Wiki in a Large Company
David Gilmour, CEO, Tacit; Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing - Implications for Enterprise Knowledge Management
Alex Heiphetz, CEO, Delta L Training; Training Simulations and Metrics in Second Life
Marisol Wesson, CEO, TMS; Enterprise Knowledge Portals and Application Integration for supporting Collaboration
Richard Lysakowski, President, CENSA; Collaborative eR&D - Vision and Strategy to Product Realities
Jeff Spitzner, CSO, Rescentris; Research Knowledge Management for the Post-ELN Era: Envisioning a Multi-Scale 'Scientist's Desktop' with Unified Information Services, Management and Collaboration
Gladys Range, Consulting Engineer; GVR Systems Automation, Semantic Knowledge Infrastructures and Services for R&D

Program Brochure: http://barryhardy.blogs.com/theferryman/files/KMWorkshopBrynMawr07web2.PDF

More Information at: http://www.innovationwell.net/COMTY_kmworkshopbrynmawr07

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