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Public collaboration, network effects, crowdsourcing - call it what you will, the read/write web is based largely on projects where the value of the whole is greater than the sum of countless parts. Those parts are contributed by individual people all over the world, often for free. It's world-changing stuff, but can businesses make effective use of this paradigm?

The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University, occurs where people fail to adequately assess their level of competence - or specifically, their incompetence - at a task and thus consider themselves much more competent than everyone else. This lack of awareness is attributed to their lower level of competence robbing them of the ability to critically analyse their performance, leading to a significant overestimate of themselves.

"Going green" has become a topic of increased attention lately, but it's nothing new to knowledge management. By its nature, knowledge management promotes efficiency and optimal use of resources, which often reduces the amount of energy required to achieve a given goal. What has changed is the heightened awareness of those benefits. That awareness is creating new interest in KM solutions that can improve business performance while reducing environmental effects. Knowledge management also plays a role in the software tools that help companies improve their energy management, embedding expertise in algorithms to optimize use of office equipment and energy in buildings.

Businesses are learning that social networking, used properly, can be an effective business tool. Having your employees involved in the community can enhance the company's reputation and bring in more business - so long as it's done right. Thus many large firms, especially in the technology industry, are actually encouraging their employees to blog, tweet, and participate in forums and social sites on company time.\n\nEven so, you still need to exert some control over how these sites are used. You can't just give employees free rein and hope they'll all exercise common sense. And you can't, in all fairness, blame them for violating rules that don't officially exist. You need a social networking policy that explicitly lays out what is and isn't permissible, both on the company's network and outside of it if they're presenting themselves as representatives of the company.

Businesses are learning that social networking, used properly, can be an effective business tool. Having your employees involved in the community can enhance the company's reputation and bring in more business - so long as it's done right. Thus many large firms, especially in the technology industry, are actually encouraging their employees to blog, tweet, and participate in forums and social sites on company time. Even so, you still need to exert some control over how these sites are used. You can't just give employees free rein and hope they'll all exercise common sense. And you can't, in all fairness, blame them for violating rules that don't officially exist. You need a social networking policy that explicitly lays out what is and isn't permissible, both on the company's network and outside of it if they're presenting themselves as representatives of the company.

Not sure what a Workspace is? Cisco employee Mark Spencer faces his technology fears and learns how to work more effectively in the Web 2.0 world.

"Through the effective and appropriate management of records held in all formats we can operate more efficiently, better serve our stakeholders and protect our legal interests."

The government needs to get the ethical framework and regulation of artificial intelligence right and invest in skills training if it wants to make the most of the technology, the Government Office for Science has said.

Make your emails actionable - 10 simple but effective writing tips from 'Without Bullshit'

As automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics play an increasingly great role in everyday life, their potential effect on the workplace has, unsurprisingly, become a major focus of research and public concern. The discussion tends toward a Manichean guessing game: which jobs will or won't be replaced by machines?

A useful common-sense guide to effective posting on social media 

Report on the effectiveness of storytelling at Rio Tinto

"To truly embed innovation and agility, we have to be able to collaborate, work across boundaries within and between organizations, to bring together disparate experiences and perspectives, and to properly empower people to come up with ideas and make change happen. In other words, we have to build different corporate cultures and ways of working". Peter Cheese, CEO Chartered institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) These elements are the "softer" side of agility. But they are also the most critical enablers of change and adaptation, and they are harder to understand and to put into effect, which is why they are so often underestimated or misunderstood.

Collaboration is a mindset and set of skills. It is also a messy and occasionally frustrating activity, and in the short term can even take longer than not collaborating. But long term, effective collaboration provides far stronger results. But to get there, we must first take a look at ourselves.

How to achieve more effective services - the evidence ecosystem

When managers say they are data driven and ROI focused they are usually more intent on professing a belief than delivering results. They are, essentially, accidental theorists, putting their faith in an abstract idea rather than engaging in any true analysis of cause and effect. Despite what many will tell you, numbers can lie and only fools follow them blindly.

People who can effectively communicate the results of analytics applications to business executives are becoming big contributors to the analytics teams in some organizations.

Misconceptions about the brain are embedded in corporate training programs and could be sabotaging their effectiveness. Companies should reevaluate them in light of the latest scientific insights.

Worth downloading and reading this paper. One abstract: "The ultimate goal is to enable data scientists,business analysts and other users "to extract the most information they can out of data as quickly as possible....For the business, we need answers now. The market is fixing the pace, so we have to give the best answer we can at the right time."

The eLearning Guild's Handbook on Synchronous e-Learning is intended for anyone who wants to produce, lead, or promote live, interactive learning events on the Web. Novices will find information on what other people are doing in this medium, which kinds of training and education are best suited to it, how to convert existing classroom content for delivery online, how to lead effective and compelling live learning events on the Web, and how to promote these events to obtain maximum participation. More experienced practitioners will find a wealth of ideas that they can use to improve or enhance their current processes. All readers will find job aids, references, examples, and information to significantly reduce the amount of time required to produce online learning events