Knowledge Sharing Network

Cur­rent­ly, Design Man­age­ment is rep­re­sent­ed so incon­sis­tent­ly that there is both an oppor­tu­ni­ty and a need for Design Man­agers to define our field and chart a course for the pro­fes­sion. The devel­op­ment of a cen­tral net­work enti­ty is the per­fect way to allow Design Man­agers to share their knowl­edge, projects and expe­ri­ences.

This forum of knowl­edge sourc­ing will serve prac­ti­tion­ers and the curi­ous alike, demon­strat­ing cred­i­bil­ity and rel­e­vance in the world of com­merce. The net­work and its mem­bers will dis­tin­guish Design Man­age­ment as a viable and unique pro­fes­sion that pro­vides gen­uine suc­cess in its method­ol­ogy and prax­is.

The Process

The 720 Design, Inno­va­tion, Devel­op­ment and Mar­ket­ing Strate­gies class­es at Savan­nah Col­lege of Art & Design was assigned to research inno­va­tion in print pub­lish­ing in order to devel­op a pub­li­ca­tion for Design Man­age­ment. As the project pro­gressed, the idea of knowl­edge-shar­ing became a key point of focus, and ulti­mately our deliv­er­ables devel­oped around it.

Over the course of ten weeks, we explored and estab­lished para­me­ters to define our dis­ci­pline. We cre­ated a com­pre­hen­sive plan to con­nect with key con­trib­u­tors in both in the aca­d­e­mic and pro­fes­sional worlds to enable strong con­tent gen­er­a­tion. We devel­oped a lead­er­ship struc­ture that is empow­er­ing based on cycli­cal lev­els of engage­ment of our key part­ners and mem­bers. We have tak­en the first of many steps from a strong roll-out plan that accounts for the exist­ing resources of our depart­ment and our peer group.

Website Launch Presentation

On March 14, 2011, we invit­ed all stu­dents and fac­ul­ty in our depart­ment to a launch par­ty for our web­site. We want­ed to intro­duce our blog to stu­dents and pro­fes­sors in hopes that it will grow as a knowl­edge-shar­ing plat­form in the Indus­tri­al Design depart­ment and beyond.

The fol­low­ing video that recaps the project was played dur­ing the web­site launch par­ty:

 

We set up lap­tops along a cen­tral table to allow peo­ple to explore the web­site as they moved through the room learn­ing about our project.