Technological Solutions part 2: Knowledge Management Systems

In this section we will examine a different approach to the problems of Managing in The Real World: Knowledge Management. As with the previous section we will use a restricted definition of Knowledge Management consistent with Cell 2 in our model.

In the same way as the term Information Systems can mean many things, the term Knowledge Management is applied to many differing approaches - ranging from Expert Systems based on Artificial Intelligence to systems to support Distributed Co-operative Working. In this section we will restrict our consideration of Knowledge Management to what might be termed 'Hard' Knowledge Management, i.e. attempts to capture, codify and store the knowledge of a person, or a group of people, inside a computer.

The distinction between the terms 'Hard' and 'Soft' Knowledge Management is discussed in greater depth in The Duality of Knowledge. and Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory.

The paper The Knowledge in Knowledge Management may be of general interest for this section of the course and the sections on Communities of Practice and Knowledge Repositories.

Reading

Books

• See any of the books from the MIS books section

Articles

• Abecker, A., Bernardi, A., Hinkelmann, K., Kuhn, O. and Sintek, M. (1998) "Towards a Technology for Organizational Memories", IEEE Intelligent Systems, 13(3), pp. 30-34.
• Gill, T.G., (1996) Expert Systems Usage: Task Change and Intrinsic Motivation, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 20 (3), pp. 301-329.
• Brook Manville and Nathaniel Foote (1996) Harvest Your Workers' Knowledge, Datamation; July 1996
• Stein, E.W., (1995) Organizational Memory: Review of Concepts and Recommendations for Management. International Journal of Information Management. 15(1) 17-32
• Wong, B.K Chong, J.K.S Park, J. (1994). Utilization and benefits of expert systems in manufacturing: a study of large American industrial corporations. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 14(1), 38-49.
• El-Najdawi, M.K.; Stylianou, A.C. (1993). Expert support systems: integrating AI technologies. Communications of the ACM, 36(12), 55-103.
• Keyes, J. (1989) Why Expert Systems Fail, AI Expert, Vol. 4, pp. 50-53

Links

• If you wish to search for additional sources of information, use the MIS links page

• Expert Systems: A Technology Before Its Time
  This article reviews the past, present and future applications of expert systems - "The inventors of expert systems and those of us who left the laboratory to make our fortunes commercializing the technology, had a bad case of inventor's myopia. We knew exactly what the technology was good for - and we were wrong".
• Expert Systems and KM are a Natural Team
  "Although many knowledge management efforts have incorporated artificial intelligence into their processes, the potential synergy between the two fields has not yet been achieved," states author Judith Lamont.
• Towards a Knowledge Technology for Knowledge Management
  A framework has been developed which has allowed opportunities for Knowledge Technology to be identified in support of five key Knowledge Management activities: personalization, creation/innovation, codification, discovery and capture/monitor. In developing Knowledge Technology for these areas, methods from knowledge engineering are being explored.

• The Process of Knowledge Harvesting: The Key to Knowledge Management (word document)
  Knowledge Harvesting is an integrated set of processes that allow the often hidden insights into specific, actionable know-how that can be transferred to others through software. Valuable knowledge about a task or process can be made available to anyone in the organization who needs it.
• Harvesting Knowledge from an Organization's Information Assets
  Most of an organization's corporate knowledge is contained in documents or in the minds of its human resources. To make effective use of this corporate knowledge, organizations must be able to access, harvest, organize and redistribute it. This paper describes a system that claims to have the ability to identify and interpret information in XML documents
• Knowledge in Organizations: Definition, Creation and Harvesting
  This analysis presents an inquiry into effective transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge within organizations. Various technologies and their utilization in the externalization of tacit knowledge are discussed for their relevance and effectiveness. The concept of context is explored and a strong case emerges for a strategic, context providing knowledge transformation algorithm. Finally, knowledge harvesting, as one such available algorithm is described.

• Designing Organizational Memory (.pdf)
  This paper examines some of the challenges for the construction of organizational memories, e.g. (1) The knowledge acquisition problem (such as the capture of informal knowledge), (2) context preservation and (3) issues relating to temporal knowledge (such as relevance vs. time).
• Ontologies and the Dynamics of Organizational Environments: An example of a Group Memory System for the Management of Group Competencies. (.pdf)
  Outlines the concept of an Organizational Memory and discusses a high-level conceptual taxonomy that could be used in an Organizational Memory System which is based on a form of knowledge representation used in Artificial Intelligence: Ontologies.
• Scholarly Web Sites as Organizational Memory System
  Organizational Memory Systems enable organizations to exploit knowledge that resides in the collective memories of their employees and is not found in any of the formal documents produced by the organization.