18-08-2012, 11:43 AM
An Introduction to Knowledge Management
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Objectives for this session
To explore the history & theory of Knowledge Management (KM)
To understand the controversies around KM
To learn about how KM programs are implemented through different models
To discuss the ideas in the readings
What is Knowledge Management?
What are your ideas?
What have you read?
What have you heard?
What do you imagine?
One Perspective of KM
“KM [Knowledge Management] involves blending a company’s internal and external information and turning it into actionable knowledge via a technology platform.”
Susan DiMattia and Norman Oder in Library Journal, September 15, 1997.
Understanding KM
Understanding Knowledge Management requires an understanding of knowledge and the knowing process and how that differs from information and information management.
Documentalists as Knowledge Managers
In Europe and America in the first part of the twentieth century, documentalists had grand visions of collecting, codifying and organizing the world’s knowledge for the purpose of world peace.
Information Professionals as Knowledge Managers
The documentalists were the original multimedia professionals.
Paul Otlet – began the International Federation for Documentation. He wanted libraries to stop being depositories and to become more dynamic in information transfer.
Under the leadership of Otlet the Europeans not only collected and codified documents, they developed networks and worked to exchange knowledge among people.
Documentalists and Special Librarians
Suzanne Briet, sometimes called “Madame Documentation” drew the comparison between American special librarians and European documentalists after a visit to America in 1954.
Briet & the Documentalists
“In Qu'est-ce que la documentation? Briet brilliantly defined documents in terms of indexical signs. In this, she was adopting an
argument that previous documentalists of her time had suggested and which was present in the cultural air, as she states, through
‘linguists and philosophers,’ surely in the form of structural linguistics and semiotics.”
Professor Ron Day in the Preface to Qu’est-ce que la documentation? http://www.lisp.wayne.edu/~ai2398/briet.htm
Caution
It would be a mistake, though, to define Knowledge Management as solely the domain of documents and documentalists.
KM as a Technological Solution
Is KM
Big business?
A competitive advantage?
Intellectual capital?
An intranet solution?
An asset dimension?
A technological infrastructure?
Contentnets have a role to play in KM
As knowledge repositories for tacit knowledge that has been made explicit
For best practices databases
For expert “yellow pages”
Online learning and knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing “boards”
Peoplenets &Processnets have a role to play in KM
For group learning applications
To connect individuals with each other for mentoring and knowledge sharing
For decision support & decision making
To sense, share, and respond to the “signals” coming from the environment
To capture ideas and turn them into action
Caution
It would be a mistake, though, to define Knowledge Management as solely the KM technology infrastructure.
The Challenges of Electronic Collaboration in Knowledge Sharing
“Focusing exclusively on the technical issues of electronic collaboration is a sure way to a very expensive failure.”
“A focus on the people issues dramatically increases the potential for success.”
David Coleman, IBM Manager, San Francisco in Knowledge Management, a Real Business Guide, London:IBM, nd.
The Learning and Communication Process Model
Innovation is a way of life
Flexibility and the ability to act quickly is necessary in a changing environment
New projects can benefit from alliances and learning from in-house experts and creative thinkers.
KM: Learning and Communication Process
In simple language KM is an effort to capture not only explicit factual information but also the tacit information and knowledge that exists in an organization, usually based on the experience and learning of individual employees, in order to advance the organization's mission. The eventual goal is to share knowledge among members of the organization.
So…what is knowledge management?
“Knowledge management (KM) is an effort to increase useful knowledge within the organization. Ways to do this include encouraging communication, offering opportunities to learn, and promoting the sharing of appropriate knowledge artifacts.”
Some other key ideas
Knowledge as a Social Value
Knowledge artifacts
Knowledge as an intellectual activity & the mind/body connection
Common knowledge
Process & things
KM as a fad
Access Log
An access log is a list of all the requests for individual files that people have requested from a Web site. These files will include the HTML files and their imbedded graphic images and any other associated files that get transmitted. The access log (sometimes referred to as the "raw data") can be analyzed and summarized by another program.
an access log can be analyzed to tell you:
The number of visitors (unique first-time requests) to a home page
The origin of the visitors in terms of their associated server's domain name (for example, visitors from .edu, .com, and .gov sites and from the online services)
How many requests for each page at the site, which can be presented with the pages with most requests listed first
Usage patterns in terms of time of day, day of week, and seasonally