A very unexpected end-of-the year gift came from Eric Lesser at IBM’s Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum: a farewell gift, actually, the book Creating Value with Knowledge: Insights from the IBM Institute for Knowledge-based Organizations. The Institute began life as the IKM (Institute for Knowledge Management) over five years ago.

The book includes contributions from the Institute leaders and researchers themselves, including Larry Prusak, Eric Lesser, Rob Cross, and David Snowden. This book synthesizes some of the best thinking by from the IKM. The book is timely tribute. In the accompanying letter, I read that the institute has folded its wings, and flies no more. This was not a surprise, as the heart has been gone for some time (some would say it has always been endangered by its host, IBM).

In a personal note to Eric Lesser, I applauded his facilitation and leadership throughout the tenure of the IKM. I was privileged (thanks to my Nortel management) to participate as an IKM consortium member in 2001. That was a year of tremendous learning and growth for me, and the work I do today reflects the commitment of the IKM to bring its members to the bleeding edge in knowledge management thinking and approaches (social network analysis! complexity! partnerships and alliances!) as well as practical tool kits for COPs and much, much more.

These auld acquaintance will ne’re be forgot (they are in my network!); to them, I salute the new year.