KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

What is Knowledge?
• Data = collection of facts, measurements,
statistics
• Information = organized data
• Knowledge = contextual, relevant, actionable
information
▫ Strong experiential and reflective elements
▫ Dynamic
▫ Branches and fragments with growth
▫ Difficult to estimate impact of investment
▫ Evolves over time with experience
Information that changes something or somebody
—becoming grounds for action by making an
individual, or institution capable of different,
more effective action - Drucker, The New
Realities
Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge • Tacit knowledge

▫ Objective, rational, ▫ Subjective, cognitive,
technical experiential learning
▫ Policies, goals, strategies, ▫ Highly personalized
papers, reports ▫ Difficult to formalize
▫ Codified ▫ Sticky knowledge
▫ Leaky knowledge
• “Knowledge is power” Why people do not want to share
knowledge?
•  “I don’t have time”
•  “I’ve got too much real work to do”
•  “That’s not my job”
•  “You’re just using other people’s
ideas and taking the credit”
•  “I want to do things my way”
•  “This is how it’s always been done”
• “I’m already suffering from
information overload”
• “You should already know all the
answers”
•  “It’s just another management fad;
if I ignore it, it’ll eventually go away”
• “What’s in it for me?”
Knowledge Management in the Organization

• Systematically & actively managing and

leveraging stores of knowledge in an
organization
• Organizational learning mechanisms Processes
to create, gather, store, maintain, disseminate
knowledge
Why KM is Needed

• Traditional reasons for KM are:

▫ Improving Decision Making by reusing
knowledge
▫ Capturing knowledge from transient work
forces
• Additionally, we are finding we need KM
because of:
▫ Supporting knowledge communities
▫ Obsolescence/Innovation
▫ Knowledge persistence
Influence of Knowledge on Success
• Peter Drucker (the one factor)
• Toffler (Survival in Knowledge Age is not who
can read or write but who can learn and
unlearn quicker)
• Tom Peters (sum total of value-added)
• Handy, Drucker (primary factor of
productivity)
Foundation Principles & Building Concepts
• Knowledge Influences Success
• Knowledge Resides in the Heads of People
• Two Types of Knowledge
▫ Codified
▫ Personalized
• Knowledge Sharing Requires a Conduit to Happen
Systemically
• Technology is the conduit
• Knowledge Sharing Requires Trust
• KM embraces both the Knowledge Based
organization and the Learning Organization
• KM has planned architectural frameworks
Knowledge Requires Capture, Organization,
Access and Leverage
• OLD WAY
▫ Capture form is written,
auditory or graphical
representations
▫ Organization is via tables
of content, indexes,
classification systems
used by publishers,
libraries, etc
▫ Access when physical
body goes to where the
knowledge is located…a
library, a company, a
research laboratory, a
school
▫ Tacit knowledge rarely
tapped
▫ Leverage is a sum game
• NEW WAY
▫ Capture from is digits in
cyberspace
▫ Organization via software
programs designed upon
engineering principles,
mathematical equations,
word associations in
cyberspace 24/7/365
▫ Access wherever the
physical bodies link via
computers
▫ Tacit knowledge tapped
using many different
technological tools
▫ Leverage is exponential,
multiples upon multiples
Technology Changes
• KM is integrating technologies that aid
collaboration and/or knowledge storage
▫ Wiki, blogs, social networks
▫ Semantic Web
▫ GIS – Data Fusion - Integration technologies
(XML, SSE)
▫ Visualization technologies
▫ RFID and sensor networks
▫ Social Network Analysis
 KM Wikis Blogs & Social Networks
• Use of wikis for collaborative projects improves the ability of project
members to collaboratively author documents.
• Use of blogs or wikis to create virtual discussion spaces where discussions
can continue 24/7 with no physical boundaries.
• Use of blogs, wikis, Linkedin, or Facebook to create knowledge worker
spaces, communities of practice, and social networks. This allows
knowledge workers to discover the experts among them and to learn from
each other.
• Use of second life to create virtual worlds for knowledge transfer.
• Use of blogs or wikis to connect knowledge sources for new knowledge
creation and repositories of best practices and other artifacts.
KM and the Semantic Web

• Semantic web is a goal where everything on the

web is expressed in a common ontology
▫ Improves our ability to find relevant knowledge
▫ Facilitates knowledge storage
▫ Enhances knowledge creation
KM and Data Fusion

• Data fusion is about taking different data streams

and putting them together to add decision
support value
▫ Allows experts to create knowledge
▫ Utilizes RSS feeds, SSE, XML
• Main application is GIS which fuses multiple
data streams to create mapped knowledge
repositories
KM and Visualization
• Knowledge Visualization improves knowledge
transfer by providing tools that allow knowledge
workers to manipulate knowledge into
representations that have more meaning
(incorporates context and culture)
▫ Second life allows for avatar representations and a
virtual world where knowledge can be abstracted and
shared in a non-threatening environment
▫ Mapping technologies such as topic maps and GIS
create knowledge abstractions based on topics,
geography, etc. and to control overload by using
knowledge to determine what should be presented
▫ Knowledge portals to provide self directed visualization
of knowledge through customization.
KM and Mapping
• Knowledge Mapping allows for better
organization of knowledge to facilitate knowledge
retrieval
▫ Utilizes taxonomies and ontologies
▫ Mapping technologies such as topic maps and GIS
allows faculty to organize knowledge based on
some taxonomy
▫ Utilizes organizations based on topics, skill sets,
people, geography, subject, etc..
KM & Social Network Analysis
• Social Network Analysis provides a tool that
helps researchers identify knowledge sources and
flows
▫ Looks at formal communications such as reports
and email
▫ Looks at informal communications such as who
you go to when you need to know something
▫ Maps the two together to give a view of where
knowledge is and how it flows
Integrating Initiatives
• Trend is to combine KM with new technologies
into strategic organizational initiatives such as:
▫ Customer Relationship Management, CRM
▫ Supply Chain Management, SCM
▫ Data mining to discover knowledge
▫ Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP
▫ Project management mature processes
▫ Communities of Practice, CoP
QUIZ
1. Actionable information is called _______
2. Highly personalized, difficult to formalize and
sticky knowledge is called _______
3. Goals, strategies, papers, reports, codified, leaky
knowledge is called _______
4. _______ is about taking different data streams
and putting them together to add decision
support value
5. _______ allows for better organization of
knowledge to facilitate knowledge retrieval