IT Technologies for Knowledge Management

Egbu/Botterill 2002 Case study includes ethnographic interviews KM means much more than IT it includes QC, Story telling, learned lessons registers etc KM in this paper means the process by which K is created acquired, communicated, shared applied, utilized and managed

• Whereas information is seen as organized facts, KM is seen as beliefs, perspectives, expectations,etc

Therefore K is not deterministic or absolute but probabilistic of possible causal relationships. K adds value to data by adding selectivity and judgment

• k can exist in array of forms - symbolic, embodies, en-brained, en-cultured. This helps us to differentiate between catalog knowledge and context dependent k requiring skill and competence
• Encultured k is intrinsically ties to its context, therefore it is situated. For the information to be transmitted it needs to be decontextualized and therefore lose its special character.
• Edvinsson 2000. Internet is merely the enabler. The true asset is the brainpower of the workforce
• McCampbell 1999 In computer systems the weakest link has always been where machines and humans between the physical and the cognitive

IT systems have been used to transfer tacit k. HP Connex, Real Time K Systems such as Case-Based Reasoning (definition: Case-based reasoning (CBR), broadly construed, is the process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems. An auto mechanic who fixes an engine by recalling another car that exhibited similar symptoms is using case-based reasoning)- groups of individuals input a series of cases which represent k of a particular domain. When a user enters a problem they can select from a series of closest match solutions

• Semantic and Ontology

Case Study

• Face-to-face meetings was ranked the highest - social interaction - for KM
• Groupware and knowledge maps scored least

Using IT in Context

From interviews

• Formal IT use backed up with informal
• Over reliance on IT may subdue potential for interaction
• Rozzel and Gardner 2000- email speeds up communications but reduces interaction
• Must be complemented with the willingness to share and build new Intellectual capital.

IT Technologies for Knowledge Management

Author Kazi 2001

• IT and KM important for exploiting emerging technologies
• Knowledge is fact overtaking assets and labor as key economic resource. Does not have use IT can use Quality Circles, Story telling
• KM should be understood to mean processes by which knowledge is created acquired, communicated
• Information and organised facts and knowledge as beliefs, perspectives concepts, judgments expectations
• It can be symbolic, embodied, embrained encultured, context dependent, learned through socialization, Communities of Practice
• Knowledge is situated. When it is communicated it is decontextualized and loses its special character

Browning IT 1990 is not just a business resource - it is the business environment

• Knowledge Management conceptual framework
• Inner Circle - People, Content Process Technology
• Next Circle Culture, communication commitment, trust, Politics, Core Competence
• Outer Circle - PESTAL (knowledge circle, schools of thought, Knowledge types
• IT should be seen less in its capacity to store info and more about its ability to aid collaborate, tacit knowledge exchange etc

Examples

• Video Conferencing
• Email
• Case-based Reasoning technologies
• Conference calls
• Group ware
• Neural networks
• Data Mining
• Semantic engines
• Ontology

Case Study compares uses with effectiveness of the above