Chapter 6

Knowledge Sharing Systems:

Systems that Organize and
Distribute Knowledge
 Chapter Objectives

 To explain how knowledge sharing systems help users

share their knowledge, both tacit and explicit:
 For tacit knowledge – systems utilized by
communities of practice, particularly those that
meet virtually
 For explicit knowledge - knowledge repositories
• To present the different types of knowledge repositories
• To demonstrate how sharing systems serve to organize
and distribute organizational and individual knowledge
 Knowledge sharing

• It is a two interaction of knowledge owner to

knowledge seeker
• Results in joint possession of knowledge
unlike information sharing
• Knowledge becomes useful resource of the
organization when it smoothly flows among all
members of the organization
• When knowledge is shared it becomes
amplified, crystalized and a shared resource
of the organization
 Knowledge Spiral

Individual Organizational
 Knowledge sharing

• How SECI model of knowledge creation is

used as platform for knowledge sharing?
 Socialization,
 Externalization
 Combination and
 Internalization
 Corporate Memory

• Corporate Memory (also known as an

organizational memory) is made up of the
aggregate intellectual assets of an
organization.
• It is the combination of both explicit and tacit
knowledge.
• The loss of Corporate Memory often results
from a lack of appropriate technologies for
the organization and exchange of
documents.
 What are Knowledge
Sharing Systems

• Systems that enable members of an

organization to acquire tacit and explicit
knowledge from each other.
• WWW is the main medium for knowledge
sharing
• Knowledge markets that must attract a
critical volume of knowledge seekers and
knowledge owners in order to be effective as
just other businesses do.
 Knowledge Sharing ...

• Knowledge owners
 want to share their knowledge with a controllable and
trusted group,
 decide when to share and the conditions for sharing, and
 seek a fair exchange, or reward, for sharing their
knowledge.
• Knowledge seekers should also
 not be aware of all the possibilities for sharing, thus the
knowledge repository will typically help them through
searching and ranking, and
 want to decide on the conditions for knowledge acquisition
 KS system ...

• Frequently mentioned system is document management

system.
• Has repository as its core module that affords multiple
access points.
• The document management system essentially stores
information.
• The repository can be centralized or it can be distributed.
• Builds upon the repository by adding support to the
classification and organization of information,
• Unifies storage and retrieval of documents over a
platform-independent system.
 Case Knowledge sharing
system -- Ernst & Young Org.

• Its knowledge sharing systems

 Has a collection of 22 standardized computer-mediated
tools
 Its KM infrastructure, KnowledgeWeb (KWeb), is home
to more than 4,600 databases and Web sites that
provide employees with access to internal and external
resources including business, knowledge, intelligence,
global news, and information.
 strong sociotechnical support system to help people
effectively engage with these tools in practice.
 Has Knowledge centres in 10 countries supported by
over 400 staff support employees.
 Requirements for the Success of
a Knowledge Sharing System

1. Collection and systematic organization of

information from various sources.
2. Minimization of up-front knowledge
engineering.
3. Exploiting user feedback for maintenance and
evolution.
4. Integration into existing environment.
5. Active presentation of relevant information.
 Barriers to the use of
Knowledge Sharing Systems

• Many organizations, specifically science and

engineering-oriented firms, are characterized by
a culture known as the ‘not-invented-here
syndrome’.
• Organizations suffering from this syndrome tend
to essentially reward employees for ‘inventing’
new solutions, rather than re-using solutions
developed within and outside the organization.
 Specific Types of Knowledge
Sharing Systems

• Knowledge sharing systems are classified

according to their attributes
1.  Incident report databases
2.  Alert systems
3.  Best practices databases
4.  Lessons-learned systems
5. Expertise locator systems
 Types of Knowledge
Repositories
Knowledge Originates Describes a Describe Describes Orientatio
Sharing from complete s successes n
System experiences? process? failures? ?

Incident Reports Yes No Yes No Organizati

on

Alerts Yes No Yes No Industry

Lessons Learned Yes No Yes Yes Organizati

System on

Best Practices Possibly Yes No Yes Industry

Databases
Lesson Learned Process
 Purpose of LLS - to Support
Organizational Processes

• Collect the lessons:

Passive, Reactive, After-Action Collection, Proactive
Collection, Active Collection, Interactive Collection
• Verify the lessons
• Store the Lesson
• Disseminate the Lesson:
Passive dissemination, Active casting, Broadcasting,
Active dissemination, Proactive dissemination,
Reactive dissemination
• Apply the Lesson:
Browsable, Executable, Outcome reuse
 Expertise-Locator Knowledge
Sharing Systems

• Goal: to catalog knowledge competencies, including

information not typically captured by human resources
systems, in a way that could later be queried across the
organization to help locate intellectual capital.
• Significant challenge in the development of ELS,
knowledge repositories, and digital libraries, deals with
the accurate development of knowledge taxonomies.
• Taxonomies, also called classification or categorization
schemes, are considered to be knowledge organization
systems that serve to group objects together based on
a particular characteristic.
 Characteristics of Expertise-
Locator Systems
ELS Name CONNEX (HP) KSMS (NSA) SPuD (Microsoft)

Purpose of the system To share knowledge, for
consulting and to search for
experts
Self-Assessment Yes
To staff projects and match To compile the knowledge and
positions with skills competency of each employee
Yes, supervisors also No, supervisors rate employee's
participate in data gathering performance

Participation Only those who are willing Whole personnel Whole personnel in the IT group
to share

Knowledge US Library of Congress Department of Labor Own

Taxonomy INSPEC Index (O*NET)
Own

Levels of No Yes Yes

Competencies

Data Maintenance User (nagging) User and Supervisor Supervisor

Company Culture Sharing, Open Technology, Expertise Technology, Open

Platform HP-9000 Unix OS/2, VMS, and Programming SQL

Sybase Bourne shell. MS Access
Verity

Becerra-Fernandez, et al. -- Knowledge Management 1/e -- © 2004 Prentice Hall

 Case Study - SAGE

• The purpose of Searchable Answer Generating

Environment (SAGE) is to create a searchable
repository of university experts in the State of
Florida.
• www.sage.fiu.edu
 SAGE Architecture

UWF
Extractio
n
FAMU
Algorith Middle-
Extractio
m ware
n
UNF Client
Algorith
Extractio
m
n
FSU
Algorith
Extractio Web
m
n Server
UF
Algorith
Extractio DATA-
m
n BASE
UCF
Algorith
Extractio
m
n
USF
Algorith
Extractio
m
n
FAU
Algorith
Extractio
m
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FIU
Algorith
Extractio
m
n
FGCU
Algorith
Extractio
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State University n SAGE interface
System Algorith SAGE
m http://sage.fiu.edu
Sponsored Research Application
Standard Query
Technologies to Implement
SAGE
 Case Study – Expert Seeker

• Expert Seeker is an organizational expertise-

locator KMS used to locate experts at NASA.
• The main difference between Expert Seeker
and SAGE is that the former searches for
expertise at NASA (KSC and GSFC), while the
latter is on the Web and seeks expertise at
various universities.
Expert Seeker Architecture
 KM Systems to Share
Tacit Knowledge

• To create a cultural environment that

encourages the sharing of knowledge, some
organizations are creating knowledge
communities.
• A community of practice is an organic and self-
organized group of individuals who are
dispersed geographically or organizationally but
communicate regularly to discuss issues of
mutual.
 Conclusions

In this chapter you learned:

• What are knowledge sharing systems
• Design considerations for knowledge sharing systems
• Specific types of such systems: lessons learned systems,
knowledge repositories, and expertise locator systems
• Case studies of ELS:
SAGE Expert Finder, to locate experts in Florida.
Expert Seeker, to identify experts at NASA.
• Communities of practice are important to share tacit
knowledge.
 Chapter 6

• Register to Research gate which is a free

knoweldge sharing platform

1. Describe the main features of Research gate

2. How it can support knowledge sharing
3. How you can customize research gate to support
knoweldge sharing in your organization
4. Develop a prototype system based on research
gate
5. Can do it in group of two students
• Submission after one week from today
 Review questions

1. What is knowledge sharing

2. What is its importance to the organization
3. What are the different tools that can be used for
knoweldge sharing
4. What are the possible challenges and
motivators for knoweldge sharing
5. How Organization culture motivate or hinder
knowledge sharing
6. Do you think that web is a good technology for
knowledge sharing? What is its limitation?