Abby Clobridge
Founder of FireOak Strategies
Meet Abby Clobridge
Abby Clobridge is the founder of FireOak Strategies, a boutique consulting firm specializing in helping organizations enhance and improve their knowledge management and information security capabilities.
Abby has a unique background that includes over twenty years of professional experience at the intersection of knowledge management, information management, data/information governance, libraries, and technology. She has worked with a wide range of organizations, including United Nations agencies; colleges and universities; not-for-profit organizations; the news media; and private sector companies.
Before founding FireOak Strategies, Abby was the Associate Director of Research and Knowledge Services at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government where she developed a knowledge management program and supported the school’s Open Access policy. From 2003-2009, Abby was the head of the digital initiatives program at Bucknell University (Pennsylvania) where she launched the university’s digital repository and supervised metadata initiatives. Earlier in her career, Abby worked as an investigative researcher and news librarian for CNN.
At FireOak Strategies, Abby oversees client engagements and serves as the lead consultant for many of our projects. She’s often traveling around the world to visit clients and speak at conferences.
Abby holds a B.A. (Cum Laude) in History from Tufts University and an M.S. in Library Science from Florida State University.
In her spare time, Abby can be found putting together a puzzle, swapping war stories with other entrepreneurs, or hanging out with Twitch, her oversized Maine Coon cat, and Maisey the Dog.
Awards & Certifications
FireOak Awards & Certifications
Under Abby’s leadership, FireOak Strategies has been named the Knowledge Management Consulting Services Company of the Year by CIO Review (2019).
FireOak Strategies is a certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled, and operated by women in the U.S.
Additional Awards
Over the course of her career, Abby Clobridge has been awarded two prestigious awards. Along with her former colleague, David Del Testa (Associate Professor, Department of History, Bucknell University), Abby won the 2009 ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award for the development of the “paper and pixels” model of teaching as demonstrated in the World War II Poster Project. Two distinct pedagogical models were developed as a result of this project; both have been replicated at other colleges and universities.
While at CNN, Abby was part of the CNN Investigation Team which won First Place, National Headliner Awards (2002) for CNN’s continuing coverage on “Attack on America and Aftermath.”
Research, Writing, and Presentations
Abby Clobridge is the author of over fifty articles about knowledge management, information management, and open access; two book chapters; and a book, Building a Digital Repository Program with Limited Resources (2010). She’s currently writing a new book about knowledge management.
Selected recent presentations & panel discussions
- “Good Practices throughout the Research Data Lifecycle,” a panel moderated by Abby Clobridge at the CGIAR Big Data in Agriculture Convention in Hyderabad, India
- “Organizational Considerations for Data Transparency and Information Security,” a panel discussion with Kait Maloney (Catholic Relief Services) and Forrest Wilhoit (NetHope) at ICT4D Conference in Kampala, Uganda
- “Data Horror Stories: 5 Stories from the Field,” a session at the CGIAR Big Data in Agriculture Convention in Nairobi
- “Strategic Expansion of Analytics Capacity through Knowledge Management,” with Joe Kimura (Atrius Health) at the HIMSS Conference in Orlando
- “Balancing Security and Sharing: Tips for Information & Knowledge Managers” at KMWorld in Washington, DC
- “Diagnosing Taxonomy Challenges & Other Knowledge Management Tales from the Field,” Special Library Association Annual Meeting
Selected articles from The Open Road, Abby’s column in Online Searcher:
- “ The Dark Side of Open Data” Abby Clobridge with Eric Hinsdale
- “40 Reasons to Share Your Knowledge”
- “Open SharePoint”
- “Open Behind Closed Doors (Internal Knowledge Sharing)”
- “Securing Open Knowledge” with Eric Smith
Other selected articles:
- “Open Access and Open Data at CGIAR: Challenges and Solutions” with Medha Devare, Megan Zandstra, and others in Knowledge Management for Development Journal
- “Meaningful Metadata for Findability and Discoverability,” in Taxonomy Times
- “Let’s Encrypt the Internet: From HTTP to HTTPS” in Information Today
- “Open Access 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Open Access” in FUTURA: The International Journal of Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (BI Fonds)
- “Open Access: Progress, Possibilities, and the Changing Scholarly Communications Ecosystem” in Online Searcher
- “Libraries and MOOCs” in Against the Grain
- “Students Take Action in Support of OA: The Open Access Button & Student Advocacy Efforts” in Against the Grain
From the FireOak Blog
News and insights from the FireOak team about managing, securing, and sharing knowledge
Manipulative by Design: An Introduction to Dark Patterns
Dark patterns are deceptive techniques used in web design and marketing, which are designed to manipulate users into doing things they didn’t intend. Read on to learn more about Confirmshaming, The Roach Motel, and other dark pattern techniques.
Continue Reading → Manipulative by Design: An Introduction to Dark Patterns
FireOak’s Recommended Bitwarden Settings
Bitwarden is a great password management tool. Following are FireOak’s recommended Bitwarden settings, all of which we strongly recommend enabling for enterprise accounts. If possible, configure these organizational policies and settings before deploying for users.
It’s Time to Retire Your File Servers
While on-premises file servers (i.e., the S:\ drive) may have been the go-to solution in the past for collaboration, they pose several knowledge management and cybersecurity challenges – as well other operational issues – for organizations. It’s time to retire file servers in favor of more modern technologies.