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This ethnographic study investigates how a project group deals with the contradiction between distributed knowledge in boundary-spanning collaborative processes and the expectation that software systems will provide unified, codified knowledge. Group and individual activities were observed over a period of 18 months, to examine the ways knowledge was presented, recognized, shared, or otherwise managed during joint design of business process and IT systems change. The study explores how knowledge and expertise were translated across organizational boundaries, and identifies four stages in the development of group understanding of how to manage sensemaking and expertise across knowledge boundaries: focus on defining shared goals; acknowledging and sharing tacit knowledge about organizational practice; identifying external influences; and explicit knowledge generation.

Transforming Technology Transfer from a Cost Center into a Profit Center Are your intellectual assets working hard enough? It’s a troubling question. Every year, universities, businesses, and government agencies lose millions of dollars in uncollected license fees, avoidable legal expenses, and missed opportunities. Even the most heroic efforts from Technology Transfer Offices aren’t enough. Constantly growing caseloads, paperwork, and reporting requirements keep them swamped. So researchers can’t access critical information. Invention disclosures and legal filings are missed. And valuable marketing opportunities fall between the cracks. KSS TechTracS® changes all this.

Steven Potash is President and CEO of OverDrive, Inc., a digital media company he founded in 1986. Under his leadership, OverDrive has become a leading digital media distributor and Digital Rights Management (DRM) clearinghouse for hundreds of leading publishers, studios, and media producers in the US and abroad. OverDrive distributes over 100,000 premium eBook, audiobook, music, and video titles to a network of over 6,000 libraries and online retail websites.

Mr. Potash has led OverDrive into strategic relationships with Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems, Inc., and hundreds of leading media companies and retailers. During the 90's, OverDrive began offering print-to-digital conversion services to publishers, and eCommerce solutions for retailers in the trade, academic, and consumer markets. Since 2000, Mr. Potash launched Content Reserve, which has grown to become the world's leading distribution network for eBooks and digital media with over 100,000 products from 500 publishers. During 2002 OverDrive expanded its digital content services to public, academic, and corporate libraries with the launch of Digital Library Reserve. Mr. Potash has served as President and as a Board member for the International Digital Publishing Forum (www.idpf.org), an international standards body and trade association for digital book applications.

Prior to OverDrive, Mr. Potash was active in the practice of law, served as Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney General, served as an acting Municipal Judge, and authored technology columns for the American Bar Association Journal. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he earned a B.A. in Journalism from Ohio State and his J.D. from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He is currently licensed to practice law in Ohio and federal courts. He lives in Cleveland with his wife Loree.