This keynote reflects on the value and potential of social networks, interlinked data, semantic web and data-mining. At the same time I would like to elicit new research directions, which are only enabled by the sheer mass of data, sensors, facts, reports, opinions and inter-linkage of people.
Our objective is to support reasoning tasks in heritage architecture with graphics enabling analysts to visualise and share their understanding of how, from a given set of information, alternative scenarios or evolution can be inferred. The paper comments on the nature of the cognitive processes in historical sciences, and on factors that need to be weighed when interpreting sets of information. Visual solutions are proposed, and illustrated on real cases in Kraków Poland. They help spotting where alternative explanations should be considered in order to avoid unjustified assumptions and certitudes on the evolution of artefacts. The contribution expects to demonstrate that reasoning on uncertainties in historical sciences can be fruitfully backed up by concepts and practices from the infovis community.
When studying heritage artefacts, and trying to represent what we know of them, it is important to portray not only key moments in their evolution, but also processes of transformation. In this contribution, we introduce a methodological framework of description of architectural changes, and investigate diagrammatic representations as means to visualize the above mentioned framework. We introduce two types of diagrams (diachrograms that distribute along a time axis transitions and states, variograms that detail the nature of the changes) that should help better understanding, how changes over time affect architecture. The paper also underlines key aspects of data in “historical sciences”: uncertainties, incompleteness, long ranges of time, unevenly distributed physical and temporal stratifications.
In this paper we analyze the meanings and relations of frequently used terms in knowledge management (KM). We start with an overview of the terms data, information, and knowledge, which are mostly seen to be in a hierarchical relation with either knowledge or data on top of the hierarchy. Afterwards, we present the concepts that underlie tacit knowledge, implicit knowledge, and explicit knowledge. Since the meaning of all of these terms varies depending on the author, we give working definitions of the terms and integrate them in a coherent framework, which clarifies and visualizes the relations between data, information, and
different types of knowledge. The framework allows researchers to build on a clear terminology concerning frequently used terms in KM, and helps readers of KM literature to gain a better understanding of their meanings and relations.
Our goal is increasing the users’ value and experience and decreasing the implementation time for web portals. To achieve this goal we adopt a subject-centric perspective on information architecture. The fundament of this approach is that portals should be driven by subject-centric models of the portals’ domains. Out of these domain models, the interaction and interface design of the portals is self-evident. Amongst others, the international industry standard Topic Maps is a portal technology and an implementation of the subjectcentric modelling paradigm. With ActiveTM we introduce a technology, which implements a Model-driven approach to automatically create domain-customised, subject-centric portal engines, based on Topic Maps. ActiveTM has proved as technique for reducing the implementation cost of portals enormously and the implied subject-centricness increases the users’ value and experience significantly.
Although collaboration is widely accepted as the most efficient method for creating value some important barriers of knowledge sharing arise leading to the creation of noncollaborative environments. Especially in developing countries, universities have to face new challenges that rise from shifts in the knowledge production paradigms and from frequent changes in policies. Considering these particularities, we believe that some measures have to be taken to ensure a leap to knowledge sharing, a leap over usual knowledge sharing barriers that arise on traditional approaches to knowledge management implementations.
There are many technologies calling themselves knowledge management systems in the market but most of them deal only with information management. The main difference between them is that knowledge management systems are oriented into people and participated in tacit knowledge capturing. The paper describes set of information technologies which could take part in all process of knowledge management and especially in collecting tacit knowledge.
Analysing and understanding the evolution of historic artefacts requires the crossexamination of indications ranging from specific pieces of data (remains of the edifice, archival materials, etc.), to generic pieces of knowledge (historical context, comparable cases, theory of architecture, etc.). This research is based on the premise that the artefact’s acts as a media allowing the integration of the above-mentioned heterogeneous indications. Consequently, they may enable information visualisation and retrieval through 2D/3D dynamic graphics. In this contribution, we discuss four SVG-based graphic tools aiming at exploiting visually the relations between an artefact and the above-mentioned indications, i.e. its documentation.
The main idea of this paper is the combination of the following two declarations: (1) There is a variety of different models, tools and techniques in the area of knowledge management, but there is no framework for finding the right tool in combination of the strategic alignment of the company and the technical/cultural infrastructure. (2) A lot of research in the field of knowledge management is done for large companies or international concerns. A very interesting and important kind of business is neglected: the small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper shows a model for describing the flexible process finding the right tools and techniques with the adequate focus on IT support for a SME to efficient implement knowledge management cost-efficient.
This paper describes our work on developing an ontology-based software infrastructure for retaining and maintaining theoretical Knowledge Management (KM) Maturity Models (ONTOKNOM) by using a KM Maturity Model Ontology. Moreover ONTOKNOM provides technical means for designing a web-based system that supports the form-based selfevaluation of an organization with regard to its current maturity level, as well as for providing concrete organizational recommendations and measures in order to achieve a higher one. A description of including the existing KPQM model into the system is also provided.
Semantic Technology is well established and mature enabling challenging and novel applications, but is rarely brought into real business applications. The EU-Project AsIsKnown (FP6-2005-028044) implements a show case of semantic flow systems in European home textile industry to solve two major challenges: (a) enable a homogeneous knowledge flow and (b) provide trend analysis. State of the art Semantic Web Technology is used for context, semantic and syntax transformation. One major challenge is the transformation from human knowledge into Ontologies. The PROMOTE approach has been selected for the transformation from the expert knowledge into Ontologies. This paper introduces the project AsIsKnown and discusses the PROMOTE approach to transform expert knowledge into Ontologies.
Organizational procurement is a process of information exchanges and price bargaining between buyer and seller. The process and its outcome are both influenced by the professional experience of the relevant agents, the cognition of the agents concerning market risk, the analysis of contingency in the bargaining process, etc. Decisions of an enterprise are composed by the individuals in the company. How to congregate and motivate the individuals to make good decisions for running the business in a company, are challenging issues today. A consulting model for the evolution of an organizational market is built, based on literature review of inter-organizational negotiations, and in-depth interviews with top-level executives in a few leading Taiwanese companies engaged in organizational procurement. An experimental study is conducted based on the proposed model, and the empirical data is collected to gain knowledge of organizational procurement decision making. TOVE and Protégé are applied in designing the ontology for creating valuable information for marketplace administrators building appropriate strategies for their businesses.
Currently, it is a common understanding that most chances for growth of the economy lie in the area where new knowledge and the enlargement of the knowledge base are focused on the creation of new products and services. Hence, knowledge stands out as the basis for the creation of new and innovative products that result in added value in the economy. This paper discusses aspects of knowledge management within innovation processes and presents a software program to support innovation management. The innovation software described provides support with a process model that is structured according to the requirements of companies, by a systematic storage and management of accurate information for innovation processes and by the integration of already well-known innovation methods for the support of each phase of the innovation process.
In this article the focus lies on the modelling of knowledge processes for small and medium-sized enterprises. In the first part of this paper an empirical study conducted at the Department of Information Systems (University of Innsbruck) illustrates the key knowledge processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge allocation, knowledge conservation, knowledge disposal) for SME. The result of this survey was a knowledge process model which links efficient methods of knowledge management to SME.
This paper describes our work on identifying relevant indicators for the characterization of Best Practice Cases (BPCs) for Knowledge Management (KM) introduction projects and for the assessment of their portability to other organisations. We scanned relevant KM literature and web pages for generating a basic set of indicators and verified these indicators through an open internet survey (n=103). For that purpose, we developed a web-based questionnaire where the respondents could prioritize the proposed indicators and assign them to one or more predefined classification schemes. We distinguished between indicators for the general description of an organisation, critical KM success factors, and indicators for the transferability of KM BPCs to other organisations. The evaluated results of the survey were used as an input for the development of an ontology-based reference model (description schema) for KM BPCs.
The ELA-LogNet is an educational network of persons and institutions involved in logistics education and training and interested in supporting it by use of multimedia and information technologies. It focuses on enabling logistics educators and trainers to introduce any kinds of educational multimedia and technologies to their educational processes as knowledgeable consumers or well acquainted supervisors or even to become enthusiastic multimedia developers. For this, not only an appropriate technological infrastructure is required, but also an organizational basis and culture encouraging collaboration and exchange to the benefit of all of the network’s members. The paper will discuss these aspects on the basis of experience gained within the ELA-LogNet to help educational networks to encourage knowledge sharing and overcome knowledge hiding despite competitive situations.
Knowledge-intensive work goes beyond classical workflow with respect to flexibility and integration into the personal task management. The necessity of such integration is demonstrated considering the example of Engineering Change Requests (ECR), handled by an integrated workflow as provided by SAP’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). This solution is discussed with respect to additional requirements that occur in ECR processes. This is compared to current approaches as provided by projects at the DFKI and others. An approach is presented that carries on the existing ideas on a more flexible basis, making more extensive use of knowledge management methods.
Formalised service innovation is a central tenet of enterprise systems lifecycle phases. Event driven process models extended with knowledge objects are found to be not useful in early lifecycle phases. When an upgrade is required, a map of the knowledge infrastructure is needed to better design further service innovation because functional maps no longer adequately describe the context adequately. By looking at formal changes to business processes as service innovations, and recognising the knowledge infrastructure inherent in services generally, changes driven through technology such as ES can be better understood with the application of frameworks such as B-KIDE.
Knowledge is a very key in nearly every business process. The flow of knowledge in process is supported by various so called knowledge assets which embody either implicit knowledge which is bound to persons or explicit knowledge which is incorporated in organizational documents, handbooks or code artifacts. A large store of knowledge assets, however, is worthless, if these assets stay unused. Thus, the hot-spots of creation and distribution of knowledge have to be identified and assigned to the respective assets. As a consequence, the techniques used to store knowledge assets and to make them available has to go hand in hand with the support for the organizational distribution of knowledge assets in business processes.
Organizations can be defined as knowledge-based systems with the objective to influence all knowledge processes. Defining and measuring the knowledge value of the company are key strategic concerns in contemporary companies. First, this paper discusses the basic knowledge measurement approaches. During the process of knowledge identification the interviewing method is a commonly used tool. The paper portrays the impact of the interviewer bias to the quality of knowledge measurement processes. The refection theory is the basic framework to measure interviewer bias associated with the knowledge measurement processes. Six case studies conducted by the author form the data bases for presenting improvement implications of the interviewer bias to knowledge measurement.
Although mobile knowledge management is being perceived as an emerging R&D field, its concepts and approaches are not well-settled, as opposed to the general field of knowledge management. In this paper, we try to fill this gap by establishing a definition for mKM, specifying the abstract use cases of mKM systems, and introducing a reference model as a basis for verifying and comparing concepts and system architectures.
This paper explores a process view of call centres and the knowledge infrastructures that support these processes. As Call centres grow and become more complex in their function and organisation so do the knowledge infrastructures required to support their size and complexity. This study suggests a knowledge-based hierarchy of ‘advice-type’ call centres and discusses associated knowledge management strategies for different sized centres. It introduces a Knowledge Infrastructure Hierarchy model, with which it is possible to analyze and classify call centre knowledge infrastructures. The model also demonstrates different types of interventions supporting knowledge management in call centres. Finally the paper discusses the possibilities of applying traditional maturity model approaches in this context.
This paper introduces a new viewpoint in knowledge management by introducing KM-Services as a basic concept for Knowledge Management. This text discusses the vision of service oriented knowledge management (KM) as a realisation approach of process oriented knowledge management. In the following process oriented knowledge management as it was defined in the EU-project PROMOTE (IST-1999-11658) is presented and the KM-Service approach to realise process oriented knowledge management is explained. The last part is concerned with an implementation scenario that uses Web-technology to realise a service framework for a KM-system.
This paper focuses on knowledge management in organizations going beyond traditional boundaries, through collaborations based on intangible assets. The analysis has been focused on the implications generated from the blend between the network organizational structure and knowledge management. A theoretical framework is provided in order to evaluate the impact of knowledge networks on knowledge management systems, identifying the most appropriate knowledge management strategies and processes, on the basis of network characteristics.
Within a business environment, where the fast and reliable access to knowledge is a key success factor, an efficient handling of the organizational knowledge is crucial. Therefore the need for methods and techniques, which allow to structure and maintain complex knowledge bases according to the requirements emerging from the daily work have a high priority. This article provides a business process oriented approach to structure organizational knowledge and information bases. The approach was developed within applied research in the industrial, service and administrative sector. Following this approach, three different types of knowledge structures and their visualization have been developed by the Fraunhofer IPK and are currently applied and tested in organizations. Beside the approach itself, these three types of knowledge structure and the cases of application shall be introduced here.
This article depicts the idea of service based Knowledge Management and introduces a method to design an Enterprise Knowledge Management System (E-KMS). We assume that each organisation already uses an E-KMS but only few organisations are aware of it and even less organisations design their E-KMS properly to manage their internal processes. These internal processes of an E-KMS are seen as Knowledge Management Processes (KMP) that describe the knowledge exchange between knowledge workers in a process oriented manner. This article introduces the concept of KM-Services to manage heterogeneous KMtools based on Web-Service that are organised by KMPs. The design process of these KMPs is discussed introducing a method that derives KM-Services out of knowledge goals and briefly mentions an evaluation framework using the Balanced Scorecard concept (BSC).
Algorithmic research is an established knowledge engineering process that has allowed researchers to identify new or significant problems, to better understand existing approaches and experimental results, and to obtain new, effective and efficient solutions. While algorithmic researchers regularly contribute to this knowledge base by proposing new problems and novel solutions, the processes currently used to share this knowledge are inefficient, resulting in unproductive overhead. Most of these publication-centred processes lack explicit high-level knowledge structures to support efficient knowledge management. The authors describe a problem-centred collaborative knowledge management architecture associated with Computational Problem Solving (CPS). Specifically we articulate the structure and flow of such knowledge by making in-depth analysis of the needs of algorithmic researchers, and then extract the ontology. We also propose a knowledge flow measurement methodology to provide human-centred evaluations of research activities within the knowledge structure. This measurement enables us to highlight active research topics and to identify influential researchers. The collaborative knowledge management architecture was realized by implementing an Open Computational Problem Solving (OpenCPS) Knowledge Portal, which is an open-source project accessible at http://www.opencps.org.
Knowledge creation and organisational learning are as much about questioning assumptions as they are about harnessing what is already known. We describe a procedure for expressing knowledge, theorising from it, identifying data suitable for testing theories, and the value to a business of the outcomes it produces. This technique, called ‘theorise-inquire’, supports the validation of knowledge once it is expressed in a shareable form and draws attention to gaps in data and to information quality generally. We illustrate the ideas presented with examples drawn from work with profit protection specialists working in large retail organisations in the UK.
The present state of research on competence management does not provide any suitable model that can be used in practice. This article presents a model for integrated competence management, which gives approaches from both cognitive science and organizational science a practical framework of action.
An Example of a Group Memory System for the Management of Group Competencies
Knowledge Intensive Organisations (KIOs), that is organisations built on their use intellectual capital, need to create an environment that facilitates the effective deployment and reuse of existing organisational knowledge. As people transform data, information and experiences into shared knowledge, the management of individual competencies has become increasingly important to these organisations. Knowledge gained during the normal execution of daily tasks is easily lost in the dynamic environment of modern business. The ability to find versatile employees and to be able to leverage their knowledge to meet differing corporate needs, is a matter of vital importance for KIOs. This paper describes an ontological framework focused on competence elements that are modelled as knowledge assets in a group memory. A group memory is taken to be a specific example of an organisational memory. The dynamics of group competencies as a key organisational resource is emphasised and a model for a group memory system to manage corporate competencies in a KIO is presented.
Knowledge Flow Management is our newly proposed knowledge sharing and knowledge management approach, which can realize the tightly coupled and efficient knowledge sharing by optimizing the knowledge flow process. Incorporating the knowledge flow with the loosely coupled knowledge-sharing paradigms is a solution to balance the efficiency and flexibility. This paper first presents the concepts and methods of the Knowledge Flow and the Knowledge Grid and then presents the approach to incorporate them. The case of applying the approach to realize knowledge management in distributed software development team is studied.
This paper describes experience gained in implementation of Knowledge Management models and instruments in a cross—organisational research setup. concretely in a case of Delft Cluster Knowledge Centre. The role of Knowledge Management and in particular of Communities of Practice in Delft Cluster is outlined, followed by an extended list of Lessons Learned.
This article introduces the EC-project PROMOTEQ (1ST-1999-11658) [PRO99]. [Kar0O], [TeI0l] where an overall framework for process-oriented knowledge management, starting by modelling knowledge intensive business processes in a web-environment and focusing on the knowledge management processes such as identification, validation, distribution usage and evaluation of knowledge is being developed. The conceptual ideas are briefly mentioned, examples of knowledge models are depicted and the realisation within a test scenario to enhance the quality of a software development process is briefly discussed.
ln this paper, we address the problem of integrating answering queries using views (and more generally query folding) with semantic query optimization into one optimizer that uses the semantic knowledge about information sources expressed as integrity constraints to support the query processing and optimization of knowledge management applications.
The efficient management of knowledge has become imperative for almost all types of organizations. Many approaches exist for dealing with knowledge management at a corporate level. But there is also a need to support knowledge management also at an individual level, a level which takes the specific needs, experiences and skills of knowledge workers into account. While largely unexplored within the field of knowledge management, in the field of digital libraries advanced personalization and customization concepts exist. Within this context, this paper examines these concepts and how they can be exploited to address the challenges which are typical for knowledge management. As the paper will show, many synergies exist, if knowledge management at an individual level is dealt with in combination with personal digital libraries.