Knowledge management can be defined as the organisation, sharing and analysis of knowledge in terms of resources, documents and even people skills (SearchDomino). Gotcha describes it as an interdisciplinary business model dealing with knowledge creation, codification, sharing of knowledge and how these processes help to promote learning and innovation. Rudy Ruggles, a renowned knowledge management thinker says that generating new knowledge, accessing valuable knowledge from outside sources and using that knowledge in decision making, embedding the knowledge in processes and products and representing that knowledge in documents, databases and software. NASA, however, has simply defined knowledge management as getting the right information to the right people at the right time so they can act upon that information in ways that will measurably improve performance.
According to David Gurteen, an independent knowledge management consultant (with experience in CAD engineering, software developing for Prime Computer and Lotus Development) ,Techno-centric knowledge management started in 1995 and consisted of the Internet, Intranets and E-mails etc. and was the management of unstructured information. The information was stored in a database which is accessed via search terms which, for many organisations, is what knowledge management is about. Gurteen says that there is another type of knowledge management which is people centric. This type of knowledge management uses certain tools such as Communities of Practice, After Action Reviews, Open Spaces etc. Both types of knowledge management are used today, however it is not driven by the 'traditional' knowledge management community and is constantly evolving.
Steve Kelmen, professor of public management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Communities of practice can be developed using social tools which are a practical collaboration tool, however successful collaboration stems from have psychological comfort with members of the community i.e. if people try to collaborate with each other with vast distances between them without having known each other previously, it will be difficult.
Knowledge management 2.0 has become extremely powerful and has 'changed the game' so to speak. Power over information has been transferred to the masses, although this can be seen as unruly and even dissident at times.
Social tools are used for connecting with people, building communities and sharing knowledge and in essence that is the same as what knowledge management tools do. Weblogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and even Microblogging are among the various social tools that can be and are used for knowledge management purposes. This is essentially what gave rise to knowledge management 2.0, taking the techno-centric approach adding social tools, which has been possible solely due to web 2.0, in the mix. This means that knowledge management is no longer a central corporate function meaning that it is not controlled centrally, control and ownership of knowledge management 2.0 is distributed throughout the organisation.
Joitske Hulebosch says that within social media there is an influence of how homogeneous or heterogeneous a community is. The idea is that the more heterogeneous communities will encourage learning from very different perspectives however the members may not view other members from different backgrounds as equals and this is essential for any 'community' to work and function together. Using social media can help to make conversations more continuous and therefore make learning occur in an ongoing manner. Boundaries also tend to be more open which helps with getting input from outside sources, however, the use of private tools allow to control membership. Social media in a knowledge management context helps to keep people up to date with the latest initiatives of a company, without the members having to wait till the next formal meeting.
Twitter allows for tweets to have hashtags which is sort of a keyword for your post and this allows people to search for anyone posting something with that tag or search for all posts by a specific person or organisation. Facebook also allows you to create an online space inviting people to join and share their knowledge and experiences. Wikis and blogging can also be made for people within an organisation to collaborate and expand their knowledge base.
Zheng et al. say that social media is a type of bottom up media that promotes personalised contributions which comprises of knowledge gained from various sources. Social media allows people to share information and even control the form (text, audio, video etc.). You can even choose the platform that suits you and your organisation best. Social media allows for scenario based encounters so the knowledge gained can be applied to other situations. Social media also plays on people's egos, research has shown that if a person has more 'followers' he/she is likely to post more valuable information more often.
In addition to microblogs, Wikis can be used for knowledge management 2.0. Wikis allow for people to collaborate and add their own experiences. Sebastian Schaffert, senior researcher and head of the knowledge and media technologies group (KMT) at Salzburg Research in Salzburg/Austria,saysthat Wikis can serve many different purposes from content creation to learning. Creation of content is usually a time consuming task, however, by using a wiki, there is an easily modifiable content pool created, which allows for content to be generated by anyone at any time. This removes the difficulty and workload of creation from one responsible person to the entire community. Learning is catered for by constructing experience based knowledge which allows users to connect, collect and structure whatever information they consider relevant to their specific needs. Wikis also allow for easy supervision and support by a mentor.
References
http://searchdomino.techtarget.com/definition/knowledge-management
http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is213/s99/Projects/P9/web_site/about_km.html
http://km.nasa.gov/whatis/index.html
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/ibm-km-workshops
http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-can-social-media-support-learning.html
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.ukzn.ac.za:2048/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5576725
http://fcw.com/articles/2008/07/10/kelman-knowledge-management-20.aspx
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.113.7070&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Proceed to Part 2 - Microblogs and KM
Back to Knowledge Management page
According to David Gurteen, an independent knowledge management consultant (with experience in CAD engineering, software developing for Prime Computer and Lotus Development) ,Techno-centric knowledge management started in 1995 and consisted of the Internet, Intranets and E-mails etc. and was the management of unstructured information. The information was stored in a database which is accessed via search terms which, for many organisations, is what knowledge management is about. Gurteen says that there is another type of knowledge management which is people centric. This type of knowledge management uses certain tools such as Communities of Practice, After Action Reviews, Open Spaces etc. Both types of knowledge management are used today, however it is not driven by the 'traditional' knowledge management community and is constantly evolving.
Steve Kelmen, professor of public management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Communities of practice can be developed using social tools which are a practical collaboration tool, however successful collaboration stems from have psychological comfort with members of the community i.e. if people try to collaborate with each other with vast distances between them without having known each other previously, it will be difficult.
Knowledge management 2.0 has become extremely powerful and has 'changed the game' so to speak. Power over information has been transferred to the masses, although this can be seen as unruly and even dissident at times.
Social tools are used for connecting with people, building communities and sharing knowledge and in essence that is the same as what knowledge management tools do. Weblogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and even Microblogging are among the various social tools that can be and are used for knowledge management purposes. This is essentially what gave rise to knowledge management 2.0, taking the techno-centric approach adding social tools, which has been possible solely due to web 2.0, in the mix. This means that knowledge management is no longer a central corporate function meaning that it is not controlled centrally, control and ownership of knowledge management 2.0 is distributed throughout the organisation.
Joitske Hulebosch says that within social media there is an influence of how homogeneous or heterogeneous a community is. The idea is that the more heterogeneous communities will encourage learning from very different perspectives however the members may not view other members from different backgrounds as equals and this is essential for any 'community' to work and function together. Using social media can help to make conversations more continuous and therefore make learning occur in an ongoing manner. Boundaries also tend to be more open which helps with getting input from outside sources, however, the use of private tools allow to control membership. Social media in a knowledge management context helps to keep people up to date with the latest initiatives of a company, without the members having to wait till the next formal meeting.
Twitter allows for tweets to have hashtags which is sort of a keyword for your post and this allows people to search for anyone posting something with that tag or search for all posts by a specific person or organisation. Facebook also allows you to create an online space inviting people to join and share their knowledge and experiences. Wikis and blogging can also be made for people within an organisation to collaborate and expand their knowledge base.
Zheng et al. say that social media is a type of bottom up media that promotes personalised contributions which comprises of knowledge gained from various sources. Social media allows people to share information and even control the form (text, audio, video etc.). You can even choose the platform that suits you and your organisation best. Social media allows for scenario based encounters so the knowledge gained can be applied to other situations. Social media also plays on people's egos, research has shown that if a person has more 'followers' he/she is likely to post more valuable information more often.
In addition to microblogs, Wikis can be used for knowledge management 2.0. Wikis allow for people to collaborate and add their own experiences. Sebastian Schaffert, senior researcher and head of the knowledge and media technologies group (KMT) at Salzburg Research in Salzburg/Austria,saysthat Wikis can serve many different purposes from content creation to learning. Creation of content is usually a time consuming task, however, by using a wiki, there is an easily modifiable content pool created, which allows for content to be generated by anyone at any time. This removes the difficulty and workload of creation from one responsible person to the entire community. Learning is catered for by constructing experience based knowledge which allows users to connect, collect and structure whatever information they consider relevant to their specific needs. Wikis also allow for easy supervision and support by a mentor.
References
http://searchdomino.techtarget.com/definition/knowledge-management
http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is213/s99/Projects/P9/web_site/about_km.html
http://km.nasa.gov/whatis/index.html
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/ibm-km-workshops
http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-can-social-media-support-learning.html
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.ukzn.ac.za:2048/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5576725
http://fcw.com/articles/2008/07/10/kelman-knowledge-management-20.aspx
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.113.7070&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Proceed to Part 2 - Microblogs and KM
Back to Knowledge Management page