KMbW Blog

Resources from KMb Workshop at Queen’s

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:08:07 -0400

It was both a privilege and pleasure to participate in the Knowledge Mobilization and Grant Proposal Writing: A Researcher's Guide" workshop held at Queen’s University in Kingston on June 2nd, 2009. The resources provided by all speakers is available from the Monieson Centre website:

http://business.queensu.ca/centres/monieson/events/knowledge_conference.php

KMbW welcomes Dr. Howard Schachter

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:44:17 -0400

It is with considerable pleasure that I welcome Dr. Howard Schachter as the Director, Research and Assessment.

Howard is a leader, in both his personal and professional life. We look forward to serving all of KMbW’s clients with enhanced research and assessment abilities.

Peter

Biography:

Research, education, training, mentorship and advocacy have been the hallmarks of Dr. Howard Schachter’s more than two-decade professional career within the social and health sciences, with ways to realize these aims becoming increasingly clarified, refined and expanded over the past ten years in his work as a health services researcher. A key part of his experience has involved “translating” into stakeholder-appropriate policy, products, processes and procedures1 the findings from primary2 or secondary3 research, which have chiefly concerned the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare or education.4 These “translations” have then been mobilized in order to facilitate various stakeholders’ (for example, professionals’ or laypersons’) adoption of the practical recommendations stemming from these observations. The ultimate purpose of the work has been to initiate, assure or improve the quality of the organization, access to, delivery and outcomes of healthcare or educational practice.

Integral to his approach has been determining the credibility of current knowledge5 regarding the behaviour or activities that are necessary and sufficient to effectively and efficiently: 1) organize, provide access to and deliver stakeholder-specific practice; and 2) translate, then mobilize in stakeholder-appropriate ways this (hopefully) current credible knowledge about the healthcare or educational practice. The validity of stakeholder-specific recommendations to adopt either of these sets of behaviour/activity within the context of healthcare or education largely depends upon the credibility of the current knowledge.

Over the past decade, Dr. Schachter developed the evidence synthesis and critical appraisal strategies as: Co-Director, University of Ottawa Evidence-Based Practice Center (AHRQ, US); Director, Systematic Reviews, Chalmers Research Group; Senior Investigator, CHEO Research Institute; and Scientist, Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health. Most recently, he built a multidisciplinary research team, which successfully obtained two Canadian Institutes of Health Research grants investigating the necessary and sufficient conditions for effective and efficient knowledge translation/mobilization. At present, he is Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa.

Additional professional interests include: 1) the effective and efficient use of current credible knowledge in the analysis, modification and development of effective and efficient healthcare or education-related policy; 2) understanding (inter- and intra-individual variations in) the experience of continuity and change within the contemporaneous arcs of personal and transpersonal (that is, spiritual) development; 3) identifying whether, and how, the perspectives or practices of empathy and inclusiveness, ecology, holism and transpersonalism—either alone or in combination—might positively influence health- or learning-related behaviour or outcomes at the same time that they might successfully prevent or eliminate individually- or collectively-held, discriminatory viewpoints and behaviour; and 4) determining how best to prevent the biases of “experts” and their explanation-obsessed, interpretation-laden epistemologies, ontologies, cosmologies, concepts and vocabularies (for example, materialism-reductionism-dualism) from missing or ignoring—and thereby invalidating—the personal (and potentially shared) experiential meanings of events experienced by those “non-experts” who happen to come to their expert attention.
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1 Examples include various forms and intensities of written technical report, peer-reviewed publication, policy brief, oral presentation, experiential workshop and course.

2 Primary research refers to empirical studies, which in collecting data, “create” scientific evidence.

3 Ideally, secondary research denotes systematic, scientifically rigourous and transparent syntheses and critical appraisals of existing scientific evidence.

4 Issues/questions have varied in their scope from the simple and narrowly focused (for example, treatment effects of a single pharmacotherapy) to the broad and highly complex (for example, school-based interventions to prevent or eliminate mental health discrimination/stigma), and have differed in their reliance upon quantitative or qualitative (for example, experiential) data, which were obtained from the various (that is, experimental, quasi-experimental and observational) types of research design.

5 Ideally, “current credible knowledge” is obtained from the question/issue-specific gold standard form of scientific/empirical evidence, whose scope is both up-to-date and comprehensive, and whose findings are vetted for their practical applicability through the clarifying lens of the “real world” experience and expertise of professionals and lay-persons.

New KMb Videos on YouTube

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:33:19 -0400

I am pleased to announce that Knowledge Mobilization Works is launching a video series that may become a book on knowledge mobilization.

The first two are:

What is Knowledge Mobilization? A brief introduction.

Origin of Knowledge Mobilization

Please leave your comments, suggestions for topics that should be covered or if you would like to be interviewed for the series, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Peter

KMbW welcomes Jan Jablonski

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:20:31 -0400

I am pleased to announce that Jan Jablonski, a recent Queen’s University at Kingston graduate has joined Knowledge Mobilization Works as our first Knowledge Mobilization Projects Officer.

Jan will be working on projects that cover KMbW’s six streams of activity. He is currently developing background information on the Wiki 101 workshop we plan to launch in the Fall 2009.

Please welcome Jan to the KMb family.

Peter

Presentations from Leadership Event

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:08:49 -0400

I have just returned from beautiful Victoria, British Columbia where KMbW hosted another successful Mobilizer Boot Camp. This one was on Leadership. A big thank you to Royal Roads University, especially Graham and Diane, who were very helpful in pulling the venue and catering together.

The presentations by Peter Levesque, Graham Dickson, Alan Breakspear, and Laura Milne have been posted on the Bootcamp page. (Resources for March Participants)

Thanks to all the participants for such incredible input and knowledge sharing.

Peter

Steve Kaufmann at 4th Mobilizer Boot Camp

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:31:28 -0400

It is my pleasure to announce that Steve Kaufmann will be speaking at the 4th Mobilizer Boot Camp on Creativity & Experimentation for Knowledge Mobilization.

Steve Kaufmann is a former Canadian diplomat, who has had his own company in the international trade of forest products, KP Wood Ltd., for over 20 years. Steve is the founder and CEO of LingQ.com an online language learning system and Web 2.0 community. Steve speaks ten languages, having recently learned Russian at LingQ. Steve maintains a blog on language learning, and has written a book on language learning called The Linguist, A Language Learning Odyssey.

Sean Muir at 4th Mobilizer Boot Camp

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:31:23 -0400

It is my pleasure to announce that Sean Muir will be speaking at the 4th Mobilizer Boot Camp on Creativity & Experimentation for Knowledge Mobilization.

Sean Muir is the founder and executive director of the Healthy Aboriginal Network. HAN creates comics and animated shorts on health and social issues for youth. Issues they have covered so far are suicide prevention, gambling addiction, diabetes prevention, staying in school and child & youth mental health.

Creating Knowledge Mobilization Curriculum

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:03:45 -0500

Last month, during the first Mobilizer Boot Camp in Ottawa, several participants suggested the need for courses in knowledge mobilization theory, history, practice, and methods. Following up on these suggestions, I began putting together the beginning elements for a process to develop this curriculum.

Today, I wrote a relatively lengthy reply to one potential funder. I thought this might be useful to the KMb community, as I think it speaks to the ethic and philosophy needed to create a knowledge mobilization community in Canada and elsewhere. I am not saying who the funder is to protect their decision-making process.

Thank you very much for your reply to the request sent on February 3, 2009. The questions asked by the KM Committee are very pertinent. I trust that the information provided below is helpful to answering these questions.

Background:

Knowledge Mobilization Works launched a series of workshops this year that focus on particular aspects of knowledge mobilization practice, policy, administration, and research. The themes include such topics as: incentives & infrastructure, human resources, leadership, creativity, management & governance as well as lessons learned in key sectors of our society such as health, education, social services, and business. The dual goal of this series is to increase our collective knowledge about knowledge mobilization and to build a community of practice of those involved in knowledge mobilization. These workshops are self-funded through participants’ fees and profits are re-invested in developing the series. This is a challenging model to work with but one that we felt was worth the risk.

The first two workshops in Ottawa and Toronto have been well attended and considered successful by most participants. In an effort to remain transparent and to “walk the talk”, we post the results of each work on the KMbW website. We also distribute the results to members of the KMb discussion group hosted on Google. Transparency of methods and discussion of results is the cornerstone of good knowledge mobilization practice.

The idea of developing a KMb Curriculum emerged from participants at both workshops. During the breaks and networking periods, several individuals approached me as the facilitator and suggested that despite having titles that included knowledge mobilization/knowledge transfer/knowledge exchange, they felt that they did not understand the basics and could really use a course (or two) to build their skills. When I proposed this to the full group, there was significant positive response.

Based on this reaction, I invited a series of senior KMb practitioners from across the country to come together to develop the curriculum for two courses on knowledge mobilization currently described as: KMb101 – Theory and History & KMb 201 – Methods and Practice.

The reaction from practitioners was positive. There was general agreement that this is a useful project to become involved in and that given the complexity of knowledge mobilization, it makes sense to work collectively on designing a curriculum that would be widely available.

What is the KM curriculum?

The core content modules of the curriculum will be developed at a 2-day face-to-face meeting at the University of Guelph. The Executive Director of the Centre for Families, Work & Well-Being, Linda Hawkins has offered to host the meeting. The Associate Director Teaching Support Services at the University of Guelph, Peter Wolf, has agreed to help develop the content into useful modules.

The goal is to produce the outline and core content modules for the two courses KMb101 – Theory and History & KMb 201 – Methods and Practice.

The ongoing development of this content will be facilitated using a Web 2.0 application called a wiki. Knowledge Mobilization Works has purchased a license from a leading software company (http://pbwiki.com) for an unlimited number of users in a publicly accessible site.

A stub (initial elements) for the KMB101 course has been created at the following link:
https://kmbw.pbwiki.com/KMb-101 Making the content of courses publicly available has been pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through their open courseware site: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

We anticipate that as the curriculum matures, there will be additional modules created that will correspond directly to particular contextual needs such as those with brain injuries, physical differences of abilities, special educational needs, or particular cultural perspectives. This is one of the strongest arguments for pursuing a collective development strategy. Including a range of people in the process will also include their specific needs in the development of the curriculum.

The goal is to provide the content free of charge to be used in seminars and workshops across Ontario, Canada and elsewhere. The understanding of users is that by accessing and using this content, they are engaging with a community of practitioners and will also share their learning from their use of the content.

Who will be targeted in Ontario to take part in this course?

Currently we are targeting individuals and institutions that have an intermediary or brokering role between research and practice, policy, produce & process development. One of the key lessons learned during my past 7 years of explicitly defined Knowledge Mobilization practice (job title) is that the core audience for the development of knowledge mobilization skills is not researchers or policymakers themselves but those in positions as educators and influencers, synthesizers, fieldworkers, transfer & disseminators, and resource allocators. While researchers and policymakers may be interested and are not to be excluded, their core business is not knowledge mobilization itself but the production and utilization of knowledge. Knowledge mobilization is focused on making both these processes more effective and efficient.

We anticipate working with agencies and organizations such as the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, Cancer Care Ontario, Centres and Institutes associated with Universities, Hospitals and Colleges, professional associations such as the Council of Ontario Directors of Education, and specific branches of the Ontario government with knowledge mobilization mandates such as Early Learning and Child Development Branch of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

It is important to mention that while Knowledge Mobilization Works will be delivering seminars and workshops based on this curriculum, it does not intend to hold the content strictly for itself. The content of all KMb courses developed will remain in the public domain to be accessed, shared, utilized, and contributed to by many interested parties. This is the model of collective creation that has allowed Linux to emerge as an operating system, Wikipedia to grow as a public encyclopedia, and Amazon to have 140,000 applications produced independently to build its distribution services.

Will there be a cost to join or is this anticipated to be provided free?

There is no cost to access and contribute to the curriculum content. The wiki requires that a participant create a username and password. The contributions of each participant are data based and subject to the ongoing discussion of the group – a form of ongoing peer-review.

The choice of charging a fee to participate in a course is the choice of whoever wishes to deliver the course. Universities and colleges charge tuition. Private companies charge a fee. Learning groups within professional associations may deliver the content for free.

On the other-hand, if a self-motivated learner wishes to access the curriculum on-line, s/he may do so at no charge.

Users agree that regardless of how the content is delivered, lessons learned, opportunities for new modules or courses, and new content elements will be shared with all users.

Are there other sponsors that have agreed to provide financial support or have been approached to do so?

At this point contributions have been in-kind or investments made by Knowledge Mobilization Works ($12,700 to date). We consider this to be an important project that has the potential to produce widespread benefits. As much as we directly benefit from this work, the complexity and need for effective and efficient knowledge mobilization is too big for one enterprise or sector to engage in alone. In our opinion, it is a collective work for collective benefit.

The Alberta Health Foundation for Medical Research has been approached and is supportive but feels that this project does not directly fit their mandate. They are willing to provide expertise and in-kind support for the development of the curriculum and wiki.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has been approached but no response has yet been received.

The Wellesley Institute Foundation rejected the request for support based on the economic downturn and current commitments.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada has been approached but no final decision has been made.

York University is providing the services of their Director of Research Services, Dr, David Phipps, formerly the Director of Partnerships at CIHR.

The Canadian Centre for Elder Law at the University of British Columbia is providing the services of their Exective Director, Laura Watts.

The University of Guelph will host the face-to-face meeting, providing catering and meeting space. They are also providing professional services in curriculum development.

The Institut National pour la Recherche Scientifique in Montreal is providing a template for a graduate KMb course that is currently delivered to students in French.

The Institute of Work and Health will provide undetermined in-kind services but is unable to contribute financially due to a cut in their budget. They remain however, quite supportive.

There has also been interest from other parties who are willing to support delegates attending the meeting in Guelph as well as participating in the ongoing development online.

I am pleased that you were interested in learning more about this project. I hope that this information provides you with a better understanding of what we are trying to do.

Your offer of lunch in Toronto is appreciated and I will take you up on it. The next time that I am heading to Toronto, I will let you know.

If there is anything else that you or the KM Committee needs to know, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Peter

Adding Twitter updates to your webpage

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 09:22:11 -0500

I was wondering how to add twitter updates to my profile and found this very useful tool at:
http://nulldot.org/2007.07.21.html

It is easy to do and personalizes your information with up to date content.

Peter

Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator Job

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:25:26 -0500

JOB POSTING for KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION COORDINATOR

Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator for the Canadian Social Economy Hub: Located at the University of Victoria

About the Canadian Social Economy Hub:
The Canadian Social Economy Hub (CSEHub) acts as a facilitator for the Social Economy Research Partnerships, a five-year project funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). It promotes collaboration among researchers and practitioners associated with six regional research centres across Canada (Québec, Atlantic, Southern Ontario, Prairies and Northern Ontario, BC and Alberta and the North), and several national partners in the Social Economy. It undertakes research as needed in order to understand and promote the Social Economy tradition within Canada and as a subject for academic inquiry within universities.

For information about the Canadian Social Economy Hub and Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships, please visit their website at
http://www.socialeconomynetwork.ca

Knowledge Mobilization:
The goal of knowledge mobilization activities at the Canadian Social Economy Hub is to take the information generated by research activities associated with the Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships and makes them relevant and useful to a wider audience. This is done through a number of vehicles including:

* Web-based publication (e.g. webpages, news feeds)
* Print publications (e.g. occasional papers)
* Posters
* Promotions (e.g. brochures)
* Presentations
* Lectures
* Workshops
* Electronic newsletter

See http://www.socialeconomyhub.ca/hub/?page_id=1087 for more information on the Knowledge Mobilization activities of CSEHub.

Job Description:
The Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator is responsible for knowledge mobilization products as assigned under the immediate supervision of the Manager. He or she will work as part of a team that includes students, researchers, and practitioners, and people who identify with a combination of these roles. The successful candidate will need to be detailed oriented, and also be able to simultaneously coordinate a number of projects. An interest in the Social Economy and its role in communities is crucial.

Qualifications:
COMMUNITY SKILLS

* Able to communicate and assert own ideas and opinions while understanding and considering those of others.
* Able to work independently on self-directed tasks as well as those assigned by others.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in effective communication, teamwork, and cooperative collaboration on projects.
* Ability to demonstrate leadership skills
* A sense of humour

COMPUTER SKILLS

* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in publishing using software such as Adobe InDesign, Quark Express, or similar.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in website maintenance using software such as WordPress, Drupal, Dreamweaver, GoLive, or similar.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in using electronic mailings systems, including sending out emails to a mailing list.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in basic sound recording and editing using software such as Adobe Audition or Audacity.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in simple photo editing using software such as Adobe Photoshop or similar.

CREATIVE SKILLS

* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in text editing (for errors in both grammar and flow), as well as writing promotional announcements, newsletter content, and event descriptions.
* Experience, or a strong interest in developing skills in graphic design, composition, formatting, and layout.
* Knowledge of French or Spanish an asset.

Job Location:
The Canadian Social Economy Hub
University House #2, Room 103
University of Victoria

Salary and Employment Conditions:
Payment scale will vary depending on the demonstrated experience of the candidate. There will be a probationary period. This position is deemed to be a full time position but the successful candidate can choose to work between 25 to 35 hours weekly. This is a term position based on grant funding, which terminates on August 31, 2010. After one year of continuous employment the employee can choose to participate in a limited benefit package. Please note that this position is not part of the University of Victoria CUPE or PEA unions. Hours of work are 9:00am to 5:00pm for 7 hours work day. Occasional evening, weekend work and travel will be required.

A learning plan will be established for the successful candidate.

Expected start date: March 16, 2009

How to Apply:

In person, email, fax by noon on March 6, 2009
Annie McKitrick
Canadian Social Economy Hub
c/o BC Institute for Co-operative Studies
University of Victoria
PO Box 3060 STN CSC
Victoria BC V8W 3R4
Tel: (250) 472-4976
Fax: (250) 472-4541
Email: secoord at uvic.ca

Rick Hansen, Keynote at 4th Mobilizer Boot Camp

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:57:57 -0500

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Rick Hansen will be the keynote opening speaker for the fourth Mobilizer Boot Camp on Creativity & Experimentation for Knowledge Mobilization.

Personally, I cannot think of anyone who has done more to change how we think about the abilities of those with spinal cord injuries than Rick Hansen.

This promises to be an extraordinary conversation about how we collectively move from knowing to doing.

Please register at this link.

Participation is limited to 50 people.

Laura Milne at 3rd Mobilizer Boot Camp

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:13:21 -0500

It is my pleasure to announce that Laura Milne, Coordinator, Knowledge Mobilization at the University of Victoria’s Office of Community Based Research will be joining Graham Dickson and Alan Breakspear on the panel discussing Leadership for Knowledge Mobilization in Victoria, March 20, 2009.

Laura Milne’s academic and professional background has focused largely on public health and community development. She has worked as part of a research team in the Psychology department at the University of Victoria, and has also worked in Xi’an, China as an adult educator and community volunteer.

Laura is currently the UVic Coordinator for a federally-funded Knowledge Mobilization initiative called Research Impact, which is being led by UVic and York University.

Laura works out of the UVic Office of Community-Based Research, where she facilitates, supports, and tracks research projects involving UVic researchers and community partners or policy makers. Her goal is to create sustainable mechanisms that systematically support research partnerships and knowledge sharing between multiple sectors.

Alan Breakspear at 3rd Mobilizer Boot Camp

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:06:39 -0500

It is my pleasure to announce that Alan Breakspear will be joining Graham Dickson on the panel discussing Leadership for Knowledge Mobilization in Victoria, March 20, 2009.

Alan Breakspear had a distinguished 30-year career in Canada’s federal Public Service, much of it in intelligence-related functions. He founded Ibis Research Inc. in 1997, served as its President and CEO until September 2007 and remains an active partner.

Ibis Research provides professional services in Competitive Intelligence, Knowledge Management, Strategic Early Warning and Enterprise Risk Management to client organizations in Canada and around the world.

Alan is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario (English and French) and an alumnus of Canada’s National Defence College. He served in government as analyst and manager in intelligence, policy, program and resource management functions, and as senior manager (up to Assistant Deputy Minister level), in several departments and agencies including the Communications Security Establishment, Privy Council Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Solicitor General Secretariat.

He is currently a Sessional Lecturer in political science, teaching intelligence studies at University of British Columbia and University of Victoria, and has served as an adjunct professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Management. He has taught Competitive Intelligence in many settings, including the University of Ottawa’s EMBA program and the training programs of several federal departments and corporate clients. He has been a featured speaker and workshop leader on Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management at conferences throughout North America. He served as Chair of the Knowledge Management Program Advisory Board of Royal Roads University (Victoria, BC) from 2001 to 2006.

Topic for Knowledge Mobilization Workshop

Intelligence is arguably the original knowledge discipline. Intelligence techniques for the collection, analysis and communication of information and knowledge, especially as applied to human sources, can serve as exemplars for knowledge mobilization. Interviewing and networking are key skill-sets. They demand focussed requirements, trust and respect for sources, and ability to recognize and exchange value.

Report from Knowledge in Motion 2008

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:30:08 -0500

Reports and the launch of a New KMb Initiative at Memorial University Knowledge in Motion 2008

Knowledge in Motion 2008, hosted by Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, October 16-18, was attended by over 200 participants, with presenters from every province in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia. Go to the KIM 2008 website, http://knowledgeinmotion2008.ca/ to find:

Over 60 KIM presentations

2) The Strategic Intelligence Summary Report
Ø Providing the results of on-site polling at KIM, the results of table discussions and the post-conference survey
Ø Knowledge and awareness of KMb is growing, barriers remain, but there are solutions

3) Youth and Climate Change: Maximizing the Impact of Research and Action Session Report

4) KIM Evaluation Results and Participant Comments and Suggestions

Resources on HR for KMb

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:32:41 -0500

One of the participants attending the upcoming “Human Resources for Knowledge Mobilization” Workshop suggested the following resources as background material.

Thanks MS.

Thomas Davenport's book "Thinking for a Living" talks about how to manage human resources for knowledge workers. I have found this paper on the Pfeffer and Sutton's Evidence-based site that would be extremely relevant in enabling human resource professionals make evidence-based decisions.

Briner, Rob B. Is HRM evidence-based and does it matter? IES Opinion, April 2007.

There are other resources especially the first 10 on this link that I couldn't get access since it is a paid service.

I look forward to joining you at the workshop.

Some terrific videos on 2.0 applications

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:20:28 -0500

Yesterday, in Toronto, I spent most of the day working with the Canadian Association for School Health on developing a Community of Practice on Prevention of Skin Cancer/Promotion of Sun Safety. During several of the side conversations, participants asked if there were some quick and easy way to learn more about web 2.0 application, especially blogs, wikis, social networking, and community of practice software.

I really admire the work of Lee Lefever and his company, Common Craft.

His series of plain language videos on YouTube have been a hit and are a great way for people to acquire an introductory knowledge of these important tools.

Here are some of my favorites:
Social Media in Plain English
Twitter in Plain English
Social Networking in Plain English
Wikis in Plain English
Blogs in Plain English
Podcasting in Plain English

Results of 1st Mobilizer Boot Camp

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:20:22 -0500

Mobilizer Boot Camp #1:
Incentives and Infrastructure for Knowledge Mobilization
January 23, 2009, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Responses produced during the
“So What?” 4X4 conversation process

Data_4x4_Conversations_January_2009.pdf

Summary

Fifty participants from a broad assortment of societal sectors including government, health, education, culture, and business assembled in Ottawa at an event entitled Incentives and Infrastructure for Knowledge Mobilization organized by Knowledge Mobilization Works. The following is a summary and full collection of the responses produced during a facilitated conversation process called a 4x4. The process is described below.

To question one: What incentives for knowledge mobilization are working now and why?; participants at this first Mobilizer Boot Camp, ranked funding tied to knowledge mobilization, shared passion or common goal, and access to information, technology and facilitators equally as the most important considerations. Ranked second was shared passion or common goal – a consideration that was given the greatest number total number of rankings. Ranked, as third most important considerations were myth busting, fun, and human-factor interconnectedness.

To question two: What role does infrastructure (public and private) play in successful knowledge mobilization?; participants ranked clear vision & mission and strong leadership at the most important consideration, while not infrastructure in themselves, they are strong indicators of the conditions needed for successful knowledge mobilization. Participants ranked networks as the second most important consideration for successful knowledge mobilization. Ranked third were “laboratories of collaboration” and money.

To question three: What are the effective methods for creating a knowledge mobilization culture?; participants ranked communication as the most important consideration for creating a knowledge mobilization culture. This is closely followed by the consideration with the most number of overall rankings and the most rankings as second most important – the need for role models and champions. The third most important considerations were skills development and the creation of opportunities for discussion, such as time and physical space.

The fourth and final question, was an exercise that asked participants to imagine an episode of the CBC Television show – Dragon’s Den on Knowledge Mobilization with $100 million of investment dollars available. In what KMb projects, programs, and priorities would you argue the investments should be made? Participants ranked knowing what’s working – what is the evidence, both tacit and explicit as most important. Developing tools was ranked as second most important. The development of leadership received the most overall rankings and the most third most important consideration.

Resources for IDW Students

Sun, 8 Feb 2009 10:22:01 -0500

It was my privilege to present to and discuss with a terrific group of students yesterday as part of International Development Week at the University of Ottawa.

As promised, I am linking the slides used yesterday:
KMb_uOttaw_Feb2009.ppt
HansRosling_2006.mp4

I also promised to share a series of resources related to community-based research and the World Social Forum:

Office of Community-based Research at the University of Victoria

Living Knowledge Conference in Belfast UK

Fondation Sciences Citoyennes in Paris, France

I am also including a couple of articles that may be of some use to them:

Levesque P. Government support for community-campus research: Building infrastructure to gain greater value from the utilization and implementation of research findings. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, Vol1 (2008)

Levesque P., Davidson, S. & Kidder K. Knowledge Exchange for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Research: An Integrated Evidence and Knowledge Exchange Framework Leading to More Effective Research Dissemination Practices. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 16:2 May 2007

Levesque P. Democracy and socio-active software: can open source help youth become better citizens? Principals Online 2005(Dec);1(2):36-40.

Levesque P. You’re Blogging My Wiki: Can electronic communication tools improve information sharing, professional development, and access to professional child and youth mental health services? Ottawa: Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health; 2005.

Melanie Barwick at 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:28:50 -0500

It is my pleasure to announce that Melanie Barwick from SickKids Hospital in Toronto will be joining us as a commentator at the 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp on Human Resources for Knowledge Mobilization, February 20, 2009 at the Hilton Toronto Airport.

Melanie Barwick, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Health Systems Scientist,
Community Health Systems Resource Group
Director Knowledge Translation,
Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute
The Hospital for Sick Children
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Dr. Barwick is a Registered Psychologist with a primary role as a Health Systems Scientist in the Community Health Systems Resource Group at SickKids. She is Associate Scientist and inaugural Director of Knowledge Translation in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program of SickKids’ Research Institute, and holds appointments as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Since joining SickKids in 2001 she has lead Ontario’s outcome measurement initiative to implement an outcome measure in 117 children’s mental health service provider organizations across the province, requiring the reliability and clinical training of over 5,000 practitioners. Her team supports training, implementation, and data analysis for the province and service providers.

In this practice context she studies innovative health knowledge translation strategies and has developed the Scientist Knowledge Translation Training program. She is now funded to lead a 5-year CIHR Emerging Team in Knowledge Translation for Child and Youth Mental Health that will develop and evaluate an innovative implementation model to bring evidence-based practices into both the children's mental health and education sectors. Her program of research is in the areas of knowledge transfer, implementation science, and organizational change, with a particular focus on the transfer of evidence-based interventions and research to mental health practice and the development of innovative knowledge translation approaches. She consults to the child and youth mental health sector and is a regular contributor to the CBC Health Weekly Check Up.

Register for the event here:
http://www.regonline.ca/63364_683901D

Amy Coupal at 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:21:40 -0500

It is my pleasure to announce that Amy Coupal from Curriculum Services Canada will be joining us as a commentator at the 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp on Human Resources for Knowledge Mobilization, February 20, 2009 at the Hilton Toronto Airport.

Amy is the Executive Director of Curriculum Services Canada (CSC), a not for profit organization that accredits, evaluates, develops and implements learning products and programs in the education and healthcare systems and The Curriculum Foundation (TCF),

CSC’s charitable arm, which supports grants for teachers to develop classroom resources. Prior to taking on the role of Executive Director, Amy served as the Director of Professional Learning Services at CSC where she oversaw the production of multimedia and e-learning materials including online course development, videos, web conferencing and net meetings.

Amy discovered her passion for online and adult learning while managing a bilingual early screening and intervention program known as the Web Based Teaching Tool at the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario. She is a former teacher of the Toronto District School Board where she worked in diverse roles including teaching multi-grades in a psychiatric assessment facility and as an Itinerant Resource Teacher developing student-specific and school-wide programs for students with special needs. She also taught in a secondary school in Japan, teaching Japanese language teachers to develop English fluency and instructional design skills.

Amy has a Masters of Education degree in Workplace and Adult Education from the University of Calgary and is an Adler trained coach presently completing the certification process. Amy has served as an author/contributor for the “When Something’s Wrong” series for the Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation.

Register for the event here:
http://www.regonline.ca/63364_683901D

Thank you & Evaluation Report of Boot Camp #1

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:20:48 -0500

Good Evening,

It was such a privilege to work with you all last Friday in Ottawa. It is my opinion that the first Mobilizer Boot Camp was a success. As I was reflecting on the day, I gave it a rating of 75%. It was a strong pass but there are some areas to improve. Your comments on the evaluation form were very helpful and generous - thank you.

Many of these ideas will make their way in the 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp in Toronto on February 20th at the Hilton Toronto Airport: http://www.regonline.ca/63364_683901D

If you would like to read the comments of your colleagues the Report is here:
http://web.mac.com/peterlevesque/Knowledge_Mobilization/Bootcamps_files/Report_Evaluation_Form_January_2009.pdf

The report is also in the files found on the Mobilizer Boot Camps Google Group:
http://groups.google.ca/group/kmbworkshops

You may also download all the materials provided at the workshop here:
http://web.mac.com/peterlevesque/Knowledge_Mobilization/Bootcamps.html

I encourage you to continue your discussions about knowledge mobilization. I think we went a long way on Friday towards building the community needed to support and grow these value producing activities. Please feel free to share any of the resources, suggest improvements, adapt them to your needs and organizations.

I also encourage you to attend any of the future events and to share your experiences with your colleagues and friends. Hope to see you again soon.

The report of our 4X4 exercise is still being developed but I should have it ready for you in the next two weeks.

All my best,

Peter Levesque
Knowledge Mobilization Works

Presentation on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:44:29 -0500

I am very honoured to have been asked to participate in this exciting event:

The International Development Week executive is proud to present our theme for this year, Development: a basic Human Right? Monday, February 2 to Saturday, February 7, 2009. We will present a number of activities based on the right to…Food, Water/Sanitation, Education, Health, and Security. There will be a final “day of action”, in which students can discover practical ways to channel the information they have gained into real and positive action. The conference, entitled Now What? Tools for Mobilization, will take place on Saturday, February 7, 2009 and will include a plenary speaker on knowledge mobilization as well as a series of skills-building workshops.

Speakers:
Alex Neve,
Secretary General, Amnesty International Canada (Feb .2)

Maude Barlow,
Senior Advisor to the UN on questions of water (Feb 3)

The Honorable Lloyd Axworthy,
former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Feb. 4)

His Excellency S.M. Gavai,
High Commissioner of India (Feb.5)

Alexandre Trudeau, Journalist (Feb. 6)

Peter Levesque, Knowledge Mobilization Specialist (Feb. 7)

Contact: hpihc@uottawa.ca or visit www.sdi-idw.uottawa.ca for more information.
Please join us!

Dr. Graham Dickson on Leadership

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:04:35 -0500

It is my opinion that Dr. Graham Dickson is one of Canada’s leading thinkers on leadership and one of the most creative presenters around. It is our pleasure to have Dr. Dickson as the opening speaker at the 3rd Mobilizer Boot Camp on March 20, 2009, on the topic of Leadership in Knowledge Mobilization, hosted in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia at Royal Roads University.

Register soon - our first Mobilizer Boot Camp in Ottawa sold out quickly.

http://www.regonline.ca/63367_694430J

Leadership is crucial, especially when organizations are on opposite sides

Dr. Graham Dickson is the director for the Centre for Health Leadership and Research at Royal Roads University. As former Director of the School of Leadership Studies, Graham provides guidance and support for graduate degree programs, executive development programs as well as graduate certificate programs in the School of Leadership Studies.

In 2004 Graham moderated an online dialogue that engaged Canadians from all walks of life in a discussion on the controversial decision by Canada to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases. The dialogue brought together scientists, researchers, professors, business leaders and activisits. The idea arose from one of RRU's mandates to engage in applied research in the public policy arena.

"It has been said Canada has taken an international leadership role in signing the Kyoto accord – and kudos to former prime minister Jean Chretien for being a visionary by doing so," Dickson said. "But that's the easy part. The hard part is finding the leadership vision, will, and resolve to implement Kyoto, and to do so in a manner commensurate with the spirit of the agreement. The Kyoto dialogues on leadership will discuss these issues."

Dr. Dickson has made a life of analysing leadership and how it affects positive and negative change in any organization. Earlier this year he was asked to appear on CBC Radio's All Points West to discuss the leadership skills of NHL president Gary Bettman and NHL Players Association lead council Bob Goodenow.

"Leadership is crucial, especially when two organizations are on the opposite side of a very public issue," Dickson says. "So this was a great opportunity to show that RRU teaches tangible skills that play an important role in the real world."

Dickson's work on Kyoto also posed some important leadership questions and attempted to generate a consensus on what directions could be pursued by our leaders. It asked participants to find the leadership qualities each of them may possess and make a decision whether to use them in support of Kyoto. It challenged particpants to truly see if there are better ways to set social direction than many of the traditional processes represented by our current decision-making structures in Canada.

Dr. David Phipps on KMb Human Resources

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:00:29 -0500

It is my distinct pleasure to announce that Dr. David Phipps, Director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange at
York University will be our opening speaker for the 2nd Mobilizer Boot Camp on Human Resources for Knowledge Mobilization, on February 20, 2009, in Toronto at the Hilton Toronto Airport.

Register soon - our first Mobilizer Boot Camp in Ottawa sold out quickly.

http://www.regonline.ca/63364_683901D

Dr. Phipps received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) and undertook post-doctoral studies in HIV research at the University Health Network (Toronto). After leaving the lab he built a career managing academic research holding successively senior positions at the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation (Manager of Biotechnology and Life Sciences), Canadian Arthritis Network (Director of Business Development) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Director of Partnerships). In 2001 Dr. Phipps completed his MBA from the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto). Dr. Phipps is the Director of Research Services and Knowledge Exchange at York University where he manages all research grants and contracts including and knowledge and technology transfer.

Dr. Phipps authored the first grant offered by the tri-council Intellectual Property Mobilization program funding knowledge mobilization in partnership with the University of Victoria to build the infrastructure for a KM network. He also authored York’s Knowledge Impact in Society grant piloting local KM operations. As Principal Investigator on these 2 grants funding York’s knowledge mobilization activities Dr. Phipps is leading York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit that provides services to researchers, community organizations and government agencies who wish to use policy and practice related research to inform public policy and social programming. Dr. Phipps has also been awarded a SSHRC grant to evaluate the utility of research summaries to communicate the outcomes of social sciences and humanities research to research users.

David J. Phipps, Ph.D., MBA
Director, Office of Research Services
York Lanes 214
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3
Phone 416-736-5813
FAX 416-736-5512
dphipps@yorku.ca
www.researchimpact.ca

Building the Knowledge Mobilization Community

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:48:36 -0500

This year is going to be a busy one for Knowledge Mobilization Works. As we enter into our third year of business, we are focusing on the theme of: Building the Knowledge Mobilization Community.

As such we are organizing our activities into several areas. We will still deliver consulting services on knowledge mobilization and provide perspective and expertise as speakers at events organized by others.

However, much of our activity this year will be on bringing people together through events and publications. We wish to share our collective intelligence and build a community of practitioners and researchers across Canada, the USA, and other jurisdictions internationally.

Here is a preview of what we have planned:

Ongoing projects include:

Knowledge Mobilization Boot Camps
Exploring select KMb topics through active participation and a focus on action and capacity building

Manifestation: Journal of community-engaged research and learning partnerships
www.manifestationjournal.org

Mind Your Words - Poetry as advocacy project
www.mentalhealthpoetry.org

And new projects include:

Conferences
Community 2.0: Technology to support community-university practice and research, Ottawa, November

Creating Networks of Outcomes, International Conference, Toronto, December

Awards
Community-University Awards Gala, Ottawa, November

Knowledge Mobilization Awards Gala, Toronto, December

New Journal
Mobilizer: Journal of Knowledge Mobilization Practice and Research

New Publications
Knowledge Mobilization: Sharing with the World, 2009 Edition, February 2010

Breathing 2.0: Health, Arts, and Technology, November

CUREO Summer Institute: Plugging into Sustainable Energy, September

Mind Your Words, August

CU Summer Institute
CUREO Summer Institute: Plugging into Sustainable Energy: The power of people, Ottawa

Manifestation Workshop
Creating Science Shops in Canada, September

New KMbW Workshops
Working the Wiki Way

Health, Arts, and Technology Roundtable

As I said, this is going to be a busy year - if you wish to be involved as a committee member or have ideas on how to make these events as useful and successful as possible, please do not hesitate to comment or send me an email: pnlevesque@gmail.com

Happy New Year!