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KIMIZ DALKIR Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Butterworth

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368 pp. Hardbound.

Article  in  The Computer Journal · May 2006

DOI: 10.1093/comjnl/bxl012 · Source: OAI

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 Book Reviews
full potential of MDA, which allows for models at multiple
layers of abstraction, and which has a meta-modelling and
model interchange framework enabling the use of multiple
modelling languages, is only hinted at. That said, the author
does provide a catalogue of patterns-based transformations
that is very useful in the preparation of a Java implementation
skeleton from a UML design.
However, some sections make one wonder whether the
words ‘Advanced Systems Design’ in the title are justified.
There is a superficial introduction of methodology, while no
discussion is given to separation of concerns or information
hiding, and only a cursory mention is made of three-tiered
architectures. The designs shown given range across GUI, OO
implementation and databases without the role of MDA in
separating these viewpoints being discussed. An object-
relational mapping is described, but it avoids all the difficult
issues related to the mapping of subtypes.
Chapters seven and eight diverge from the stated subject
matter of the book by introducing a grab-bag of web and
mobile technology discussions. In particular, J2EE is given
shallow treatment, apparently due to lack of space consumed
by discussions of .net, Bluetooth, and semantic web, among
other topics, which adds little to the main thrust of the book.
In summary, the book is a very good introduction to the use of
UML within a limited MDA framework. It provides an emphasis
on completeness using constraints, which is vital to MDA, where
the more semantics a model contains, the more completely
designs can be transformed into implementations. The rules
highlighted in the text, the catalogue of transformations and
the guidelines for modularization alone make this book valuable.
The book’s digressions into non-core topics are a shame if only
because the space could have been used to better expand on
MDA, J2EE and other core areas.
KEITH DUDDY
SoftMetaWare
Australia
Email: keith.duddy@gmail.com
doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxl010
Advance Access published on April 24, 2006
XIAOFANG ZHOU, STANLEY SU, MIKE P. PAPAZOGLOU,
MARIA E. ORLOWSKA AND KEITH G. JEFFERY
Web Information Systems Engineering—WISE 2004.
Springer—Proceedings Series: Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Vol. 3306 (2004). ISBN 3-540-23894-8. £34.55/
$117.00. 745 pp. Softbound.
Web information utilization has become a critical emerging
research area due to the exponential increase in the infor-
mation circulation and dissemination over the Web. Many
challenging problems must be solved in order to utilize and
The Computer Journal Vol. 49 No. 4, 2006
501
exploit Web information that is both heterogeneous and
dynamic in nature. This book constitutes the proceedings of
the 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems
Engineering, WISE 2004, held in Brisbane, Australia in
November 2004. The purpose of this book is to identify the
challenging problems facing the development of Web infor-
mation systems, and to shape future research directions and
development activities in this area.
Overall, this book has a quite interesting collection of papers
which include original work in the area of Web information
systems engineering and which are quite intuitive in terms of
understanding and progressing research activities in this field.
In particular, this book contains 74 papers (45 full papers and 29
short papers) which are organized in 16 topical sections on Web
information system modelling; payment and security; infor-
mation extraction; advanced applications; performance issues;
linkage analysis and document clustering; Web caching and
content analysis; XML query processing; Web search and per-
sonalization; workflow management and enterprise information
systems; business processes; deep Web and dynamic content;
Web information systems design; ontologies and applications;
multimedia, user interfaces and languages; and peer-to-peer and
grid systems. Moreover, this book includes three interesting
invited keynote papers which highlight the most challenging
and current issues in this area.
The broad range of topics of this book makes it a useful
reference for both researchers and practitioners on Web
information systems. Specifically, this book presents novel
solutions and approaches to Web systems engineering in the
dynamic, diverse, distributed and ever increasing volume of
Web-based data and applications. Each paper presents enough
theory and concepts and it is accompanied by a wide range of
examples to show the applicability of the proposed techniques
or methodologies. Because each paper is self-contained, readers
can focus on the topics that most interest them.
To conclude this is an interesting computer science text
book which is ideal for anyone interested in most popular
recent research and practicing outcomes in the area of Web
information technology.
GEORGE PALLIS
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Email: gpallis@ccf.auth.gr
doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxl011
Advance Access published on April 24, 2006
KIMIZ DALKIR
Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Butterworth
Heinemann (2005). ISBN 0-7506-7864-x. d44.95/$49.95/
£29.99. 368 pp. Hardbound.
Knowledge management (KM), as the author correctly writes
(p. 12), has been around for many decades. However, this
502 Book Reviews
takes into account only explicit KM. Implicit KM has existed
for millennia. Even primitive tribes collected and preserved
knowledge useful for their survival. Religions as ancient
organizations were developing diverse practices of KM. States
managed knowledge for better functioning. One of the oldest
examples of such KM is the Codex Hammurabi, in which
Hammurabi, ruler of a great empire in the Ancient Middle
East in the Old Babylonian time (
1850 BC), codified 282
laws on an 8 foot high stele made of black basalt. This Codex
demonstrates how tacit knowledge on jurisdiction in ancient
Babylon was made explicit.
Knowledge always has been important, but now its
importance has immensely increased. Life and death of orga-
nizations depend on their knowledge and how they manage
it. ‘Knowledge,—as the author writes (p. 16), has become
increasingly more valuable than the more traditional physical
or tangible assets.’ The reason is, as Nonaka and Takeuchi
write [1], that in ‘an economy where only certainty is
uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive
advantage is knowledge’. As a result, the notion of KM
entered popular usage in the late 1980s, books on KM
began to appear by the early 1990s, and the field picked up
momentum in the mid-1990s with the development of a
number of large, international conferences and workshops.
This started a process of KM transformation from a cluster
of practical knowledge and skills to a true scientific discipline.
The book of Kimiz Dalkir is a considerable step in this
direction. The book is interesting, has many merits and a
quantity of useful material. The author considers diverse
aspects of KM: KM and its history (Chapter 1); models of
the KM cycle (Chapter 2); models of separate KM processes,
such as knowledge conversion or creation (Chapter 3);
cognitive issues of KM, such as capture of tacit knowledge
and codification of explicit knowledge (Chapter 4); social
issues of KM, such as knowledge sharing communities
(Chapter 5) and KM teams (Chapter 10); practical issues
of KM, such as knowledge application (Chapter 6); the role
of organizational culture in KM (Chapter 7); KM tools
(Chapter 8); and KM strategies and metrics (Chapter 9). A
useful feature of the book is its Glossary. In conclusion
(Chapter 11), the author formulates future challenges for KM.
One of the challenges is to build theoretical foundations
for KM. They have to be rooted in cognitology, psychology,
sociology, as well as based on the theory of data and know-
ledge, system theory and information theory. Absence of
sound theoretical foundations is demonstrated by confusion
inherent to many books and papers (cf., for example, [2]) and
related to the distinction between data, knowledge and
information. It is interesting that at first, in his discussion
of how to distinguish data from information and
information from knowledge, the author does not give
definitions of these concepts but describes some examples.
Some of these examples actually add to the general
The Computer Journal Vol. 49 No. 4, 2006
confusion. For instance (cf. p. 7), data are ‘content that is
directly observable or verifiable’, while information is
‘content that represents analyzed data’. As content does not
exist by itself, a reader comes to the following question: ‘It is
content of what?’ Much later (in Chapter 3, p. 48), the author
introduces definitions of data, information and knowledge
from the book [3]. In particular, information is defined as a
message, usually in the form of a document or an audible
or visible communication. This definition is rooted in the
Shannon’s information theory and confuses information
with its carriers. In reality, information is contained not
only in messages. For example, databases do not, as a rule,
consist of messages but always contain information. Besides,
the definition from Chapter 3 contradicts to the definition
given in the Glossary of this book. There it is defined that
information is ‘analyzed data—facts that have been organized
in order to impart meaning’. Thus, information becomes a kind
of data, while knowledge is defined as subjective and valuable
information with additional properties. As result, following
these definitions, we come to a strange situation when
there is no objective knowledge in contrast to the main
assumption of epistemology that scientific knowledge is
objective.
Absence of relevant definitions results in other deficiencies.
For example, it is written (p. 28): ‘The information unit is
singled out as the formally codified atom of information to
be stored.’ As we do not know what is atom of information,
we cannot understand what information unit is. The problem
with this statement that resembles a definition is that one
unknown notion ‘an information unit’ is defined through
another unknown notion ‘an information atom’. In logic,
this is called the fallacy of the vicious circle in definition.
The definitions of knowledge given in the book are also far
from being adequate and consistent.
The book well reflects other misconceptions and contradic-
tions that exist in those areas that form foundations for KM.
However, it is always beneficial for the reader when the author
critically selects and thoroughly organizes ideas, concepts and
models taken from other sources. Without rational analysis
and, at least, reasonable synthesis, all this diverse material can
become very confusing. For instance, in Chapter 1, the author
gives (p. 5) the definition from [4] of knowledge as ‘. . . the
insights, understandings, and practical know-how . . .’ Then in
Chapter 3, the author uses (p. 48) given by Davenport and
Prusak [3] definition of knowledge as ‘a fluid mixture of
framed experiences, values, contextual information and
expert insight. . .’ On the next page, he writes that Nonaka
and Takeuchi [1] define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’.
So, the reader becomes very confused with the question ‘What
is knowledge—a process or a mixture’ If the reader goes to the
Glossary, she/he finds one more definition of knowledge as
subjective and valuable information. Trying to resolve these
inconsistencies, the reader goes to the term information, which
 Book Reviews
is defined as ‘analyzed data—facts . . .’ and comes to even
deeper confusion, wondering whether insights (p. 5) are
data or facts.
There are also problems with definitions of KM because
it is often confused with the whole body of organizational
practices. We can see this in the definition of KM as
‘the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organiza-
tion’s people, technology, processes, and organizational
structure . . .’ (p. 337) or in treating benchmarking as a KM
metric (pp. 272–275).
To be just, it is necessary to say that this is not the fault
of the author. He took only those materials that are given
in the most popular textbooks, monographs and papers.
However, utilization of the general theory of information
and quantum theory of knowledge systems (cf., for example,
[5]) makes it is possible to remedy shortcomings caused
by the traditional approach to definition of knowledge and
information, as well as to determine consistent and at the
same time, efficient distinctions between data, knowledge
and information.
As KM is only on its way to becoming a true scientific
discipline, many concepts, ideas and models in the book
demand further development. For example, one of the basic
issues in KM is distinction traditionally made between tacit
and explicit knowledge, which was extensively studied by
Polanyi [6]. A more detailed and fine classification based
on the systemic approach adds one more category to these
two, namely, implicitly explicit knowledge. The systemic
approach implies that it is always necessary to relate
knowledge to some system as knowledge carrier/container.
This allows us to give a working definition for all three
types of knowledge. Tacit knowledge of a system R is
unarticulated knowledge that can be used by R but is not
The Computer Journal Vol. 49 No. 4, 2006
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503
accessible by R directly. Explicit knowledge of a system R
exists in a form accessible/open to other systems. Implicitly
explicit knowledge of a system R exists in a form directly
accessible/open only to R. For instance, implicitly explicit
knowledge of company’s employees is not open to this
company.
To conclude, it is necessary to state that the book is well
composed and undoubtedly written with deep knowledge of
the subject. It does not only contain a lot of valuable material
in the field of KM, but also provides a base for the further
development of this field.
REFERENCES
[1] Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge-Creating
Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of
Innovation. Oxford University Press, New York.
[2] Burgin, M. (2003) Information: Problems, Paradoxes, and
Solutions, TripleC, v. 1. No. 1, pp. 53–70.
[3] Davenport, T. and Prusak, L. (1998) Working Knowledge.
Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
[4] Wiig, K. (1993) Knowledge Management Foundations. Schema
Press, Arlington, TX.
[5] Burgin, M. (2004) Data, Information, and Knowledge,
Information, v. 7, No. 1, pp. 47–57.
[6] Polanyi, M. (1966) The Tacit Dimension, Peter Smith,
Gloucester, MA.
MARK BURGIN
University of California, USA
Email: mburgin@math.ucla.edu
doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxl012
Advance Access published on April 27, 2006