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Last Update 02/01/05

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Best Practices - Sharing prior work and experiences using technology to archive written work in repositories. Also creating opportunities to capture tacit knowledge - this may require collaborative environments to help share that experience that is so hard to capture.

Collaboration - Technology is permitting people to easily share ideas, work together, brainstorm, collaborate.  People just need to be educated that the technology is available and easy to use. 

Culture - How do you get people to share and use knowledge instinctively? How to overcome the hoarding, and trust issues.  These issues can mean the difference between success and failure.

Filtering, Notifying, & Collabration - On-going additions to enterprise wide databases and document management is particularly difficult to manage.  End users will grow frustrated without the ability to learn about additions that could be of interest to them, helpful in their work.  But, they don't want to have to hunt for the information.  They want it delivered to them.  These tools are designed with that in mind. 

Intellectual Capital

Knowledge Management - Information or data management with the additional practice of capturing the tacit experience of the individual to be shared, used and built upon by the organization leading to increased productivity. 

Mailing Lists - An electronic bulletin board you can post comments, questions and generally interact with others on a related topic.  The listservs here regularly cover issues central to knowledge management.  The link from the name of the List Serv takes you to the archives so you can determine if the material covered would be useful to you before subscribing. 

Tacit Knowledge - Innovation, creation of new knowledge often comes from collaboration and interaction with experts.  These are some of the many ways to create a culture where there is greater collaboration, team work and sharing of ideas.

Value - Knowledge is the key differentiator between competing companies today.   That knowledge, or intellectual capital, can be very difficult to measure.   You'll want an inventory before and after initiating a KM project for evaluation purposes and to determine what projects to take on to maximize intellectual capital down the road.

INDUSTRY LEADERS

Industry Analysts - Several firms focus on evaluation of vendor products and reporting objectively on their results for consumers.  The firms typically publish limited results but have reports available for purchase or subscription services for more in depth guidance.  

ROLES (Definitions vary by institution.)

The Human Element - A KM project cannot be successful without careful consideration of the quality, value and packaging of content.  Implementation of technology without careful filtering, editing and organization frequently leaves a huge repository of useless information that is impossible to navigate and mine for knowledge. Human editorial processes ensure reliability, topical experts can review content to meet standards and add links for currency. They can add information like: author, source, date of creation, and bibliographic and supporting notes. 

What do the Teams look like? Some organizations hire a Chief Knowledge Officer to design and implement the KM strategy.  In other organizations, teams of knowledge management experts works closely with -or even is part of - the business units.

Chief Knowledge Officer - (CKO) to maximize the creation, discovery and dissemination of knowledge in the organisation.

Content Architect
Knowledge Manager
Knowledge Analyst
Knowledge Engineer
Electronic Resources Specialist

TECHNICAL

Artificial Intelligence

Text Mining -Argument: Labor for human filtering, editing and organization of knowledge is too expensive - text mining tools will do the trick. Counter - Argument: Implementation of technology without this careful filtering, editing and organization process leaves a huge repository of useless information that is impossible to navigate and mine for knowledge.

Web farming - Defined as systematic business intelligence by farming the information resources of the Web.

TOOLS

Asset Management - Many organizations own vast numbers of patents and do not necessarily leverage the costs of ownership as well as they could with the potential of their use for further innovation.  Many organizations have proven that doing the proper analysis of the portfolio's worth can bring one of the strongest immediate returns on investment as a knowledge management project.  

Extranets - An extranet is a centralized electronic repository of information (typically accessed via computer from a company's web site).  The users are specific clients who want an immediate tie to the company, the information it has, and their work with the company.  There is unlimited potential for the uses of extranets including access to static information like advertising, newsletters, client specific work product, and online resources.  There are also applications for interactive tools for collaborating and more.  An extranet is frequently a portion of a company's web site that is password protected for use by authorized clients.

Distance Learning - There are a variety of ways to educate members of your organization virtually rather than relying on travel into "in person" seminars.  Save time and money by considering technology that can simulate a physical classroom, electronic modules, and real-time lectures and synchronous sessions.

Intranet An intranet is a centralized electronic repository of information (typically accessed via computer on a company's network with a browser based for interface.   There is unlimited potential for the uses of intranets including access to static information like HR forms, work product, and online resources - as well as interactive tools for learning, collaborating and more.  Listed here are solutions for small businesses who want to build an intranet solution without tremendous expense either in infrastructure (technology or staff) and time. 

Information Audit or Knowledge Audit

Knowledge Map - Mapping the expertise of an organization is valuable for several reasons.   Easy access to a map of expertise of the organization can connect people when they need guidance resulting in quicker response rates, reduction of re-invention of the wheel, increased employee satisfaction and more.  Maps can be used then to pull people in to assist on current projects or for offering training to employees who have existing good basic skills to equip them with additional skills the organization will need for future projects.   Considerations include: skills, expertise, experience, and location.

Learning Histories A historical account of significant events in a company's recent past, described in the voices of people who took part in them.  What are the best ways to capture tacit knowledge? Corporate stories as a KM tool. 

Online Services - Current awareness products and reference tools.   Adding external content to your KM project can immediately enhance your organizations productivity.  Providing access to current resources on topics they are consistently learning about provides easily accessible current and thought provoking information.

Search Engines - A tool used to find documents in a database or repository by using key words or indexed topics.  There are a variety of these kinds of tools.  Two of the most popular kinds are those that use either Boolean operators (and, or) or Natural language.   Some permit the addition of language to their indices others do not. 

Taxonomy - A formal system of orderly classification of knowledge.

Visualization - Visual diplays of result sets of queries from a text mining tool.   Instead of simple text, graphical depictions of relationships between sets of concepts, permitting the end user to identify previously unrecognized or unknown relationships in the content. 

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