2009 – A förfärlig year for KM at York!

Certain milestones simply invite reflection; anniversaries, birthdays and the arrival of a new year are most obvious.  Never one to shy away from opportunities to reflect, I am pleased to share with you a retrospective look back at 2009 for the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University.  On behalf of the entire team, here at the KM Unit we are proud of the level of service and commitment we have provided to the research community here at York and to our project partners and collaborators outside of York.

While our data reflects growth and success over the past year (and stay tuned to Mobilize This! for more on this in 2010… but a teaser for you, we have had 1 million web hits from 2007- May 2009 and almost 1 million hits since!), our work is so more than the quantitative metrics of opportunities brokered, revenue generated from collaborative research and numbers of students engaged.  We are proud of the stories we have shared on Mobilize This! but we acknowledge they are not always our stories.  I would like to share with your two brief examples of our work in 2009, which is intended to shine a little light on us, but shine a very bright light on the work of York researchers and our non-academic collaborators, for it is these people who provide the energy needed to support this process of collaboration.

• A York Knowledge Mobilization Peer to Peer Network – Did you know that at York University there are over 25 people who self-identify professional interests and responsibilities in KM?  As singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel said, you can blow out a candle but you cannot blow out a fire, to which, KM is generating incredible momentum across Canada and York is a recognized leader.  Working collectively, we have developed an action agenda here at York to share knowledge and build capacity – individually and collectively – around KM.

• Student Interns (4 interns of the 19 graduate students engaged by KM), Community-Based Research Projects (26 of 48 collaborations in 2009 were community-driven), Major Collaborative Research Initiatives/Community-University Research Alliance projects (KM has supported three successful large-scale grants in 2009 worth $6 mil) – so what do these three all have in common (aside from the obvious)?  As evident by the data above, the KM Unit has helped support success for all three.  It is important to clarify our role; we are not the reason for the success, we are simply the brokers, matching the right people and providing the right information. As our KM Colleague, David Yetman at Memorial says, “KM is like the Ed Sullivan Show.  We set the stage but we have none of the talent”. It is a great feeling to support people who have the vision ad the talent to collaborate and utilize York expertise to help meet real world solutions.

In closing, if imitation is the greatest form of flattery then we are all blushing here in KM. Not only are colleagues from other Canadian universities seeking our input to inform their decisions about investing in KM support services, a delegation from Sweden visited the KM unit at York in October.  Some from that delegation are now considering developing services for KM which they call Kunskapsmobilisering.  Well, I think that is just förfärlig!

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday and a healthy and prosperous 2010!

KM at York: How will it grow – from understanding to undergraduates?

The following is a guest blog posting from YorkU 4th year undergraduate student Andrei Sedoff. Andrei has worked in the YorkU KM Unit for the past 2 summers and throughout the academic year and has worked on the development of our clear language research summaries, which can be found on our web site here.

I feel that the concept of KM integrates ideally into today’s Web 2.0 online environment. It is no surprise to me that the York KM Unit’s activities have thrived via online tools like Twitter and WordPress. I think this success is possible because the philosophies of KM and cyberspace are very similar; they are both about information sharing, collaboration, and development of new ways to facilitate knowledge exchange. When I think how KM works with information, I am reminded of open-source collaboration through online tools like Wikis. KM is ideally suited to facilitate online collaborations in an egalitarian atmosphere, where everyone is a “mobilizer”. That is why I feel that KM must continue to develop in the direction of open-source, becoming a platform for democratizing knowledge. I really admire that, through KM, we can take collective ownership of and responsibility for knowledge. Also, KM makes learning fun. There are no limits to collaboration and the results are defined by how excited people are about working together. That is why I see KM as a liberating force for information. It is a model where the many formalities of various disciplines can be stripped away to create a common space.

I also see the broadening of the KM at York to one day include undergraduate students. The keen enthusiasm of people that are starting out their post-secondary journeys would be a valuable addition to the momentum of KM. Young people feel empowered when knowledge is passed to them in an open environment. By including undergraduates, KM would be able to cultivate a new generation of leaders in the field. Instilled with a passion for KM and empowered by the tools of the Information Age, many of these students would be inspired to pursue KM or KM-related careers. Most importantly, students would be exposed to a completely new way of looking at information and knowledge. They would be able to interpret the university through the KM lens. Speaking from personal experience as an undergraduate student, my work with the KM Unit has redefined the way I learn. I often catch myself using the captions from our research summaries like “How can we use this?” when doing course readings or listening to a lecture. I feel that the tools used by KM would really help undergrads distill the daunting volume of information that they are expected to process. That is why I see the inclusion of undergrads as a crucial development in KM.

York Undergraduates are Mobilizing Knowledge for Regional Economic Development through Experiential Education

On December 10, six students in a fourth year Regional Economic Development course at York University presented their research findings to representatives from their community partner, the South Simcoe Economic Alliance. The opportunity to apply their skills to a real world problem came through one of the KM Unit’s sister offices on campus, the Experiential Education (EE) unit. York’s KM Unit has been pleased to collaborate with students from the EE program on previous projects and it was a pleasure to attend the  students’ final presentation.

The South Simcoe Economic Alliance (SSEA) is a dynamic partnership of three municipalities and Nottawasaga Futures: Township of Adjala-Tosorontio, Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, and Town of Innisfil (the South Simcoe region also includes New Tecumseh and Essa). This region is home to two multinational industries, Honda (automotive) and Baxter (pharmaceuticals) yet the lives of it citizens are also shaped through agriculture and many small and medium sized businesses. To realize the South Simcoe brand as “The Best of All Worlds”, SSEA was seeking:

• guidance on attracting and retaining investment monies that will drive business growth and enhance the quality of life for the community

• analysis on the recommendations and results of strategic/core activities arising from two background reports – ECAP and Competitive Analysis 2004

• analysis of the SSEA website and benchmark it against other Canadian regional economic alliances

The students made a presentation and provided a written report and executive summary to SSEA. Valerie Ryan of Nottawasaga Futures said she “appreciated depth and clarity of recommendations from students. They were all very earnest and displayed a high level of integrity.” Valerie was joined by her Nottawasaga colleague Margo Cooney and Adjala-Tosorontio counselor Mary Brett.

They heard from the students that SSEA communities need to view economic development as an investment and expand budget allocation to support economic growth activities. It was recommended that South Simcoe take a leadership role in promoting the region to the Greater Toronto Area (with specific recommendations on transforming the SSEA website into a successful marketing tool) and that local economic developers could establish a partnership fund to leverage joint marketing initiatives. According to the students, SSEA could integrate programs and services to retain and attract business investment and accelerate job creation by developing employment parks that are serviced, readily available, and prominent to possible developers.

On of the students, Christina Kroner said that the EE experience “was a fantastic educational experience that brought our learning to life! The discussion that followed the presentation was very stimulating”.

Thanks to Geoff Webb and his team in the EE Office for remaining an excellent partner for York’s knowledge mobilization activities. York’s KM Unit has added to our growing relationship with SSEA by placing two KM Interns funded by the MITACS Accelerate program to assist in the development of the Nottawasaga Futures Green Transformation Program – stay tuned to Mobilize This! for more on that collaboration.

(l to r) Prof Frank Miele, Daniel Hernandez, Byung Mark Yoo, Tri Ngo, Xiaomin Liang, Ali Waris, Mary Brett, Christina Kroner, Margo Cooney Valerie Ryan

About Experiential Education: Experiential Education is a form of engaged learning that blends theory and coursework with practical, hands on experience. As part of their academic studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies students apply key course concepts to a wide variety of case studies and projects involving both profit and not-for-profit organizations. Faculty members serve as guides in the background, facilitating student engagement with EE opportunities that lend concrete credence to LA&PS’s innovative blend of liberal and professionally-relevant programs.  For more information please contact Geoff Webb, Manager of Experiential Education at gwebb@yorku.ca.

KM in the PM, that’s something new!

December 3, York hosted it’s flagship KM in the AM event. Two things of note actually; we hosted (which we rarely do, we like to have these events in the surrounding community) and, it was a PM event. The chance to highlight our new space within the York Research Tower as well as being able to sufficiently host the group of 51 confirmed attendees supported our decision.

Given the size of this event, we adopted a panel format, allowing for multiple speakers (and multiple perspectives) to speak on the topic of Youth Engagement. Dr. Gordon Flett (Faculty of Health), Cathy Dandy (Kinark Child and Family Services), Jennifer McPhee and Elizabeth Brockest (Mobilizing Minds) and Sean Twyford (Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services) shared their experiences and perspectives on Youth Engagement and fielded questions from the audience, both informally and within the structured Q&A setting. After closing statements and reflections from our panelists, David Phipps launched the opening of the new community collaboration stations (work space within the KM Unit for community partners to access York libraries and work on collaborative KM projects), as well as the latest additions to the ResearchSnapshot library, which houses clear language research summaries on a wide array of topics designed as a calling card to help inform people about York research and researchers (read more about these new developments here).

The positive responses and the energy of the afternoon have already helped sown the seeds for a follow up event!

While the time, location and format may have slightly changed from events past, we’re delighted that the spirit of collaboration and interest in research, and knowledge mobilization is as strong as ever!

Be sure to check our web site for future KM in the AM events. In addition, if you have thoughts, ideas or reflections on this event, or past events, be sure to contact us at kmunit@yorku.ca!

(l to r) Dr. Gordon Flett, Jennifer McPhee, Elizabeth Brockest, Sean Twyford, Cathy Dandy

♫Let it Grow, Let it Grow, Let it Grow♫

ResearchImpact announces growth in research summaries, community access, outreach and new web tools.

Three recent stories speak to the continued development of KM services at York:

Research Summaries and Community Collaboration Stations

As reported in YFile on December 4, 2009, York announced the release of 40 additional ResearchSnapshot research summaries. This effectively doubles the number of research summaries available to inform decisions by York’s current and prospective research collaborators. See www.researchimpact.ca/researchsearch for a searchable database of ResearchSnapshots. YFile also reported on the opening of 2 Community Collaboration Stations. The KM Unit on the 2nd floor of the York Research Tower opened 2 work stations including York computers linked into the York Libraries. These two work stations will allow York research collaborators access to York research infrastructure. To reserve time on one of York’s Community Collaboration Station, please email kmunit@yorku.ca .

Social Media tools for Knowledge Mobilization

ResearchImpact previously wrote about its involvement in the launch of ORION’s social media platform, O3. On December 1, 2009 ORION’s newsletter featured an interview with ResearchImpact’s David Phipps discussing the role social media can play to enhance KM services.

New Web Stories: KM in Action

We have also made some changes to the ResearchImpact web site. New content has been added throughout the site but we have launched a new section called KM in Action. This sections features stories of successful KM outcomes or research and research use that was enabled by KM services at ResearchImpact institutions including stories on KM interns (Free the Children, Toronto Wildlife Centre), York’s KM Expo and UVic’s CUExpo in 2008 plus others. Stay tuned for more videos and stories of KM in Action to come.

KM at Queen’s University

The Queen’s University Office of Research Services hosted David Phipps to speak about the road to an institutional KM Unit. David was joined by Yolande Chan, Monieson Centre, Queen’s School of Business, who is a holder of a Knowledge Impact and Society grant and has established a KM capacity focused on economic development in Eastern Ontario. David and Yolande jointly presented on their respective KM activities and began the start of a conversation to explore inter-institutional KM collaboration. Look for Yolande and her team on twitter @RuralKnowledge.

ResearchSnapshots, Community Collaboration Stations, increased utilization of social media, KM outreach and stories of KM in Action are testament to our commitment to excellence in knowledge mobilization by our faculty, graduate students and their research collaborators.

♫Watch us grow, Watch us grow, Watch us grow♫

YorkU’s KM Expo 2010 – save the date!

Join us on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, when York University’s KM Unit will be hosting their third annual KM Expo at Le Parc in Richmond Hill.

The theme of the YorkU KM Expo 2010 is “Bridging Cultural Boundaries: Push, Pull and Co-Production of Knowledge” and we will explore the unique cultural boundaries that exist between university researchers, graduate students and their non-academic research collaborators from community organizations and government agencies. Featuring plenary, breakout, unconference and networking sessions, the KM Expo will explore how the push, pull and co-production methods of KM partnerships help universities and their partners become ‘boundary organizations’*.

Date: Tuesday, March 2

Time: 8:00 am to 5:30 pm

Location: Le Parc Conference and Banquet Centre
8432 Leslie St (Highway 7 and Leslie), Richmond Hill
Map to Location

There is no cost to attend the Expo but space is limited.  See below for the day’s agenda (to be confirmed).

Register early!  RSVP to kejensen@yorku.ca or register online.

* Boundary organization: an organization that sits at the boundary of and spans the cultures of research and action & of science and politics.

Public Policy Forum on Social Innovation, November 10

On November 10, I had the pleasure of attending a one-day conference hosted by the Public Policy Forum on Social Innovation. MaRS, Social Innovation Generation, Imagine Canada and HRSDC also provided support to the conference. With 100 attendees representing policy, public service, research and the private sectors and with representation from across Canada (I had the pleasure of sitting with Eastern Canadians).

The event provided a forum for open dialogue, and with 100 people present, that was an impressive feat. The Public Policy Forum encouraged participants to share information throughout the day, and I was one of many who were ‘tweeting’ interesting nuggets on good practices on social innovation.

In addition to panels of practitioners who shared their experiences and examples of social innovation, highlighted speakers were Janice Charette, HRSDC Deputy Minster and SSHRC President Dr. Chad Gaffield. Dr. Gaffield shared the leadership role that SSHRC has played in supporting research to enable social innovation. He gave a shout out to ResearchImapct, led by York University, as an example of Canadian university leadership in enabling social innovation. Dr. Gaffield stated a new integrated model of collaboration calls on university researchers to play a part. ResearchImpact is honoured to be playing a role to facilitate this new model of collaboration.

There is strong leadership in Canada to move forward with an agenda of social innovation. Entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, policy makers, youth and even knowledge brokers have a place to help shape a social innovation agenda for the betterment of Canadians. Most important for me was the opportunity to witness that Social Innovation, like Knowledge Mobilization, is easiest understood from a practical place. I was honoured to be with so many leaders who make a positive contribution to Canadian society through their work.

For more information on the Public Policy Forum, click here.

On the building of silos and bridges

I am writing this on vacation – a few days away in Vancouver….rain, rain and more rain…but it’s not home and that’s important. I always try to catch up on some reading while away and this week I read a lengthy paper from the Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme at Oversees Development Institute (a UK independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues) and it reminded me of two blogs I had previously posted. In my blog about Sarah Michael’s work on knowledge mobilization for environmental policy and in an unrelated post, I wrote about how we need to use evidence to inform our own KM services. As I read the piece from RAPID I came back to a synthesis of these two previous blogs.

RAPID produced the paper “Knowledge, policy and power: Six dimensions of the knowledge–development policy interface” available here. The paper explored the six key areas of the knowledge–development policy interface including: Types of Knowledge; Political Context; Sectoral Dynamics; Actors; Innovation Frameworks and Knowledge Translation. Three key things I took away from this article:

1- The authors cite Ian Graham’s knowledge generation and translation cycle model. I am continually impressed how Canadians are among global leaders in thinking about and doing knowledge mobilization.

2- The section on Innovation Systems (IS) aligns well with ResearchImpact’s KM philosophy. To summarize:

• IS emphasizes the supply as well as the demand for knowledge, and the need to strengthen the voice of knowledge users

• The importance of tacit knowledge

• The importance of networks and linkages as channels for increasing the uptake of knowledge, and the need to facilitate trust and interaction

• The need for ‘intermediary functions’

3- The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support the work of intermediaries.  “Rather than trying to bring audiences into an organization’s own space, ICTs have enabled them to take its messages to the audience.”  ODI cites use of RSS feeds, video streamed public meeting, Facebook, the production of short research summaries and Wikipedia.  Click on the “Web 2.0” tag cloud on the blog and see what we have written on ICTs and KM.

The work and writing of ODI from the perspective of International Development is evocative of the writing of Sarah Michaels on Environmental Policy. There is convergent evolution of tools and processes for KM regardless of the discipline. Here’s the first issue: SILOS. On October 7, 2009 Jason Guriel wrote in Mobilize This! about KM as a means of breaking down silos. If we continue to read, write and speak in silos we will not maximize learning opportunities to continually improve our own KM services by using evidence from any discipline to inform our own KM practice.

Here’s the next issue: BRIDGES. As ODI writes, intermediaries are critically important in knowledge-policy interface, “Empirical research on intermediaries is urgently needed given the high level of demand for such a brokering role by analysts, policymakers and practitioners alike, as are efforts to assess and share lessons with regard to new approaches to capacity building.” Knowledge brokers such as those developing within the ResearchImpact network and the networks forming amongst York’s KM associated research projects (see here) are intermediaries. We can build bridges between our own silos.

So a charge to all knowledge brokers: you may need to live in a silo for your own professional service delivery but build bridges between the silos.

And a question: who sets the table that allows diverse knowledge brokers to share a meal? Where can the brokers in nursing talk to the brokers in environmental policy? Where can knowledge brokers in mental health sit down with those in international development? Any thoughts? Use the comment feature above to let us know what you think.

P.S. While in Vancouver check out the Pacific Palisades Hotel. It looks like a converted apartment building just off Robson St. so your hotel room is actually an apartment and centrally located. Come to Vancouver and check out the Pacific Palisades and go to the Vancouver Aquarium where you can participate in “sharing knowledge”.

Knowledge Broker Diary: Day 167

The following is a guest blog posting from David Yetman, Manager of Knowledge Mobilization at the Leslie Harris Centre with Memorial University in St. Johns, NL. Visit their web site at www.mun.ca/harriscentre

I am a part-time PhD student and a full-time knowledge broker. And today I feel like Sisyphus. You never heard of him, hey? He was the poor Greek son of a… king who took pleasure in killing and was sentenced to a life’s struggle of pushing a boulder up a hill, only to reach the top with the curse of it falling down the hill again. Never (never!) to reach the top. Sounds a bit like positioning academic research to contribute to society. You think the change is happening… and then… before you know it, you are back to the base of the hill.

The graduate student gives me hope. I have no background in pedagogy or theories of learning. I have no need to fulfill tenure requirements. But I do have an inkling that graduate students could be the most important human resource in our modern society.

What makes graduate students so very different? Their post-modern view of the world? Their affinity for drinking copious amounts of European beer? (OK, different, but not unique) Not at all. Graduate students are unique human beings because they have a passion for knowledge and they want to share that knowledge for the betterment of the world around them. Is that unique you ask? Everyone carries knowledge and wants to change the world (existentialists exit here). But graduate students do it with a special thrilling insight into how knowledge can change society. And they have special knowledge.

I make no apologies for saying that, in my humble opinion, academic knowledge is the peak of the highest learning mountain. It is the supreme athlete of the learning arena.  The peer-to-peer battle over ideas gives knowledge its strength. Peers beat the pulp out of knowledge for a reason; so it can stand on its own merits. And graduate students take that torch with vigour. They are interested, focused and committed. At Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada this year, there is a record number of graduate students. 2758 full and part-timers. 2758. That’s ten times the amount of people than the small community I grew up in. That’s 250 times the size of the average municipal council in Newfoundland and Labrador. That’s a lot of changing power.

I was reading on old University Affairs article the other day and it said only 51% of graduate students will go on to be academics. The other 49% will work in the public sector, not-for-profits, or start their own businesses. I’m not great at math, but that’s half. Half of all graduate students will choose not to be academics. I was shocked at that statistic, and enthused.

Imagine. Half of graduate students will be future academic researchers, half of them policy-makers. For the knowledge broker (able to leap silos in a single bound) it’s a future match made in Heaven. It is an infiltration of like-minded people who believe in the power of research. Who want to change the evidence-free decision-making culture in our system. 2758 (to infinity) pushing the boulder simultaneously, with a passion to push it over the top.

Youth Engagement KM in the PM- December 2

The YorkU KM Unit will be hosting a KM of the PM event on Wednesday, December 2nd. The topic of the afternoon will focus on youth engagement, with brief presentations by researchers and community leaders, followed by ample time for questions, discussion, and networking.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Gordon Flett, Faculty of Health, Associate Dean of Research, Canada Research Chair (Personality and Health)

• Sandra Cunning, Clinical Director, Research and Evaluation, Kinark Child and Family Services

• Joanne McQuiggan, Executive Director, Thrive! The Canadian Centre for Positive Youth Development

Invited Panelists:

• Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services, to speak about their recent document – Realizing Potential: Our Children, Our Youth, Our Future: Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services Strategic Framework 2008-2012.

• Mobilizing Minds, Youth-friendly mental health resources and decision aids that will assist young adults and those who support them make informed choices about mental health treatment options.

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Time: 1:30 to 4:00 pm. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

Location: York University, Keele Campus, York Research Tower, 5th Floor, Board of Governors Room

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Space is limited. Kindly RSVP kejensen@yorku.ca to confirm your attendance.