Lifelong learning

In week one we were challenged to be lifelong learners. I've always been interested in learning new things and some of the organisations I have worked for have really encouraged continuous learning in their employees. It certainly helps to keep on top of one's game professionally.

I remember when there was a lot of hype about being "learning organisations" largely inspired by Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.
I guess with this training program we are putting into practice one of his principles by creating a common set of tools / methodologies and theories.

I'm quite excited about the possibilities - I know that within our organisation we have a lot of knowledge and skills in our staff. I'm impressed that it's so easy to use some of these Web 2.0 tools that with a little bit of support everyone can translate some of what they know into the online environment.

I'm very interested in the idea that Web 2.0 means collaborating with our customers and finding ways for them to contribute to the knowledge resources we create. We will have to try quite a few things I imagine before we find exactly the right mix of traditional and new services - but won't it be fun trying them out!

I think it's also a challenge for us to go into the places our clients look for information - if Wikipedia is so popular for example, wouldn't it be great if it included references to some of the unique items and information we have here?