Eek...I have a real job now!

I've been in my new role for a whole two months now. I've been to lots of events, met lots of knowledgeable people, read lots of interesting reports, attended lots of meetings, browsed lots of websites. So, I've settled in, I know what I'm doing and I'm raring to go, right?

Well, yes and no. I now have a good understanding of what we're all about and of where my role fits into that. However, I am still wrestling with regeneration as a definable subject area. There are lots of different definitions and it's a term that can mean different things to different people. A definition I like is from Newham Council's website:

"Regeneration is about transformation and revitalisation - both visual and psychological. This transformation can be physical, social and economic, achieved through building new homes or commercial buildings, raising aspirations, improving skills and improving the environment whilst introducing new people and dynamism to an area. Regeneration also seeks to provide the right kind of community facilities at the right time."

So that's pretty much everything then?!!

For the purposes of actually getting on and delivering regeneration, the definition isn't really that important. It's only really a problem for my librarian brain that wants to classify and categorise everything!

Anyway, I'm on firmer ground with the Knowledge Management stuff. And there's plenty of that to be getting on with! We currently have 3 main online channels of interaction/communication with our users. We have a (currently fairly static) website, we have 3 communities set up on the IDEA Communities of Practice plaform, and we have a electronic bulletin. At the moment we don't have a coherent strategy for the way we use each of these channels and there's minimal integration between them. We have a vague notion that the website is about tools and resources; the online CoPs about discussion/conversation; and the ebulletin about (one-way) communication. So I have to draft a strategy which will articulate the how, why, when and what of these 3 channels and how we integrate them.

If anyone has produced something similar they'd like to share, I'd be ever so interested. :-)