Judith de Jong

by Judith de Jong
(The Netherlands)

My level of experience:
I am the co-ordinator of the Knowledge and Information Centre. In this role I am responsible for the Knowledge Mangement strategy and implementation within the R&D community.

My KM interests:
- Communities of Practice
- Learningcycle
- Information Management (federated search)
- Facilitation of meetings

MY KM needs:
- Advice how to support communities of practice
- Advice on how to stimulate people to share knowledge
- Advice for setting up a federated search (with FAST technology)

Something more about myself:
A space where I can do the things I believe in makes me happy. I like variation in my work. In my current job I am the co-ordinator of the Knowledge and Information Centre (KIC). I like the role as manager and coach, to help my colleagues improve their work. My focus is working smarter, not harder.

In my work I give advice to researchers and developers regarding knowledge and information exchange and re-use. In cooperation with my colleagues I am looking for improvements of their primary working processes.

I am a member of the CoP support team. As a team we help Communities of Practice with running their CoP and celebrating their success. I have a regular meeting with CoP leaders to discuss their needs and help to run their CoP.

For the KIC I am one of the internal account managers. By visiting and working together with colleagues of different locations, I learn the needs of the researchers and developers in their specific roles. This helps me to support my colleagues in a way that works best for them. I use this knowledge to my advantage in being the linking pin between ICT and R&D regarding information and collaboration tools.

Another thing I really like is being a facilitator. I can contribute to the effectiveness of workshops and meetings by first setting up a good programme that fits the needs of the principal and then lead the meeting.

The KIC has a lot of contacts with other parties. I keep contact with suppliers (e.g. databases, search companies, agents) to feed the interaction between supply and demand of the needs of FrieslandCampina and new developments by the supplier.