I was having a conversation with a well renowned columnist, writer, TV presenter, activist  and coordinator of ‘Reading Books’ campaign in Bangladesh during my last visit to Dhaka. He is in his 70s and still very passionate about learning and growth. He was telling me about the new building that his organization (Bissho-shahittro Kendro) is constructing and the facilities it will provide to middle-class young people striving for knowledge. At one point, he mentioned, he is planning to organize a series of interviews with him- to talk about his own life, his work, his vision for the society, issues, opportunities. The vast experienced that he gathered throughout his life would definitely help young people to move forward, to implement some ideas and improve. This series of interviews will be recorded and stored in the organization’s library.
I was very touched by this concept- Capturing knowledge, experiences of senior citizens, experts, activities, authors, evangelists in a digitized format and store it in a public place for the citizens to access, explore and build on. It is kind of ‘expert knowledge transfer’ in a National level.
I am not aware of any such initiatives anywhere in the world but I believe, it can add values to any society. The interviews can be done in a very simplistic way- through ‘Storyletting’, which will have better impact in the minds of the people. TV channels do lots of talk shows, but this initiative should focus on the person- his work, life, outlook, suggestions for improvements etc rather than focusing on a specific topic or theme.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Gayatri // Dec 23, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hi Naguib,
Interesting post. Since your friend is famous in Bangladesh, it is easy for him to sell his new initiative to his fans.
A lot of publicity is needed for this kind of initiative…
2 Naguib // Dec 23, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Yes. He is very famous and has thousands of fans, mostly young people.
His ‘Reading Books’ campaign is a nation-wide initiative active for the past 25+ years and very acceptable in the society. Now it’s time to move one step ahead.
3 KK Aw // Dec 31, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Story telling as a KM methodology may be considered by many people as pseudoscience. It is inaccurate, subject to exaggeration, lack context, have insufficient details for decision making, etc.
Okay, it scores high on the feel-good area. But that’s what snake oil vendors are very good at.
4 Naguib // Jan 2, 2010 at 8:06 am
Storytelling is just not a KM tool. Storytelling helps to create trust and can ensure good communication among staff.
5 KK Aw // Jan 2, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Story telling is good for motivation. No question about that.
As a KM tool, you have not address the issues I raise above.
Trust? Based on recent discussions, whenever the story is challenged, the context is reviewed or changed to deflect the challenges. Where is the trust?
6 Ali // Aug 24, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Companies use Mentoring to acquire senior people knowledge .However , the junior person has to be prepared by knowledge worker in a certain mind set to model expert way of thinking , acquiring and repository of tacit knowledge.
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