In the area of Business Process Management (BPM), current tools for executing processes strongly focus on the handling of process instances and miss to create a user-centric environment to handle the tasks accruing due process execution. With the PROWIT Process Collaboration Service an integrated platform is created, which includes both process and user context to provide a collaborative environment for all participants of the process. In a web-based environment, the process handling is combined with collaboration, as well as knowledge transfer and knowledge persistence.
Intention-Aware systems are introduced as a system class which enables user support based on intention detection. Thereby, intention-aware systems build on the user-centric support approach of attention-aware systems and the environment-centric support approach of context-aware systems. A framework for intention-aware systems is proposed, highlighting the importance of a task model. We review 16 context-aware and attention-aware systems as foundation for the work on a task model for intention-aware systems.
We present iMapping, a diagrammatic zooming and nesting based approach for visually structuring information objects on the desktop with a special focus on personal knowledge management. It was designed based on a set of requirements gathered from the analysis of existing knowledge mapping techniques from a cognitive science point of view. We also briefly introduce a prototypical implementation.
A mining method for egocentric and polycentric queries in multi-dimensional networks is proposed. The method allows fast search for objects in sufficient proximity of other object(s) where the proximity is defined in terms of multiple relationships between objects. The method uses spreading activation technique. Other potential uses of spreading activation technique are also outlined and, in particular, include applications to collaborative filtering (community detection based on tag recommendations, expertise location, etc). Moreover, the spreading activation technique is combined with so-called ambient navigation. The advantages of such approach are high performance and high scalability in terms of size of multidimensional network. The proposed method is very practical and is implemented in IBM LanguageWare software products.
Nowadays, on the basis of a common standard for metadata representation and interchange mechanism in data warehouse environments, Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) – based ETL processes still has to face significant challenges in semantically and systematically integrating heterogeneous sources to data warehouse. In this context, we focus on proposing an ontology-based ETL framework for covering schema integration as well as semantic integration. In our approach, beside the schema-based semantics in CWM-compliant metamodels, semantic interoperability in ETL processes can be improved by means of an ontology-based foundation to better representation, and management of the underlying domain semantics. Furthermore, within the scope of this paper, a set of CWM-based modelling constructs driven by ontology for the definition of metadata required for ETL processes is defined, facilitating the extraction, transformation and loading of useful data from distributed and heterogeneous sources. Thus, the role of interconnecting CWM and semantic technologies in populating data warehousing systems with quality data and providing data warehouse an integrated and reconciled view of data is highlighted.
Even though knowledge management has been around for more than a decade, so far concrete instruments that can be systematically deployed are still rare. This paper presents an optimization solution targeted at flexible management of office space considering knowledge management criteria in order to enhance knowledge work productivity. The paper presents the Flexible Office conceptual model and optimization solution and discusses the theoretical foundation, assumptions and reasoning. A corresponding prototype was field-tested, successfully introduced, evaluated with the help of a series of interviews with users and improved according to their requirements. The paper also reflects on the organisational impact and lessons learned from field test and practical experience.
Although co-located project teams from within one organisation can have difficulties to work together effectively and efficiently, the challenges are significantly increased in a team that consists of people from different organisations that work from different physical locations. In this paper we share our experiences of introducing new software tools (a project wiki and Skype) to support distributed project work and describe good practices, tips and tricks for the use of the new tools, also in relation to the existing toolset.
We believe there is great learning potential in education involving shared, studentgenerated knowledge bases. However, it is not yet clear what architectures are most appropriate for such shared knowledge bases in order to facilitate an effective exchange, collection, organization, and sharing of knowledge. In this paper, we discuss the concepts of “liquid ontologies,” to describe novel, dynamic structures for organizing, sharing and browsing knowledge. Liquid ontologies are flexible knowledge structures that are created by, evolve around and adapt to the learners’ interests and allow for a tighter coupling between the learners’ interests and the viewing and browsing structure of a knowledge sharing system. We present the key ideas behind liquid ontologies, and discuss these characteristics within the context of OpenD, a knowledge sharing environment we developed and its application in graduate courses at a design school.
Knowledge management and its features should be considered as crucial assets in knowledge-critical organizations, such as innovative manufacturing firms, research centres, universities, service companies, etc. Traditional knowledge management approaches are often aimed at unveiling, distributing and sharing knowledge as a stable and standardized result of meaning negotiation and coordination processes. In this article we want to underline the fact that standardization is only one of the most important coordination processes within organizations, and two other processes are needed: coordination by plan and coordination by mutual adaptation. All these three coordination processes should be seriously taken into account within a knowledge management systems, allowing different strategies of meaning coordination processes. In particular, we propose an approach to meaning coordination that is based upon the adoption of a formal ontology as a means for managing the coordination itself. In practice, the approach requires that a centralised formal ontology have to sustain three different processes that reflect the organizational coordination processes: (i) guaranteeing reference to unique definitions (standardization of concepts), (ii) leaving the individuals of the organization free to use their own terms, with specific meanings (coordination by plan), (iii) allowing the individuals to continuously negotiate meanings and create their own ontology from scratch (mutual adaptation that takes place when the coordination between two or more subjects attempt at sharing the meaning of a single term). Finally, the paper underlines how a particular meaning negotiation process is correlated to the organizational coordination processes, which depend on the type of production, processes and technologies that are used
within the firm.
The term knowledge management (KM) has lost most of its magic during the past few years: While knowledge has been identified as an important resource and key factor for productivity gains and innovation in organizations, there seems to be no generally applicable way to utilize this resource. One central problem is that knowledge – in contrast to information – must be seen as an internal resource that is often implicit and bound to human actors. This makes it hard to identify, localize and evaluate knowledge, and even harder to share or transfer it. Another problem is the question of willingness: Are actors in organizations willing to share their knowledge? And why should they? In this paper we present results of a field study that was conducted within a major national industrial association. The study focused on knowledge intense processes among the association and its member companies.
Current trends in collaborative knowledge management emphasize the importance of inter- and intra-organizational business process support. Enactment of business processes has primarily been a domain of workflow management systems. In this paper we propose a hybrid architecture for reconciliation of knowledge management and workflow management systems in order to support process participants in organizations, who are increasingly distributed and need to share and distribute knowledge artifacts. Today one pressing challenge is to utilize software as to create, share, and exchange (knowledge) work in collaborative knowledge activities across locations, while still being business process aware. This paper develops a conceptual framework, discusses a software architecture, and presents examples of a software system implementation for activity-based knowledge management for global project teams.
Knowledge management solutions relying on central repositories sometimes have not met expectations, since users often create knowledge ad-hoc using their individual vocabulary and using their own decentral IT infrastructure (e.g., their laptop). To improve knowledge management for such decentralized and individualized knowledge work, it is necessary to, first, provide a corresponding IT infrastructure and to, second, deal with the harmonization of different vocabularies/ ontologies. In this paper, we briefly sketch the technical peer-to-peer platform that we have built, but then we focus on the harmonization of the participating ontologies. Thereby, the objective of this harmonization is to avoid the worst incongruencies by having users share a core ontology that they can expand for local use at their will and individual needs. The task that then needs to be solved is one of distributed, loosely-controlled and evolving engineering of ontologies. In this paper we present a corresponding process template and a case study.
IT support for knowledge management that builds on rather standard information systems architectures, e.g. a Web server with underlying database technologies, has proven beneficial in many situations where knowledge processes supported in this way were comparatively rigid and where the value of knowledge could be reasonably easily be assessed. However, these assumptions do not hold for less rigid knowledge processes; thus, more decentralised solutions have been proposed. With SWAPSTER we have built a Peer-to-Peer knowledge management platform that avoids some of the issues that detriment centralised solutions. This platform is surveyed here. We also show methods that support new ways of socialisation enabled by the Peer-to-Peer platform.
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.
The EXTERNAL infrastructure is described. The key idea is a model based approach to supporting knowledge sharing in extended enterprises. The infrastructure as a whole offers facilities for creating, visualizing, maintaining and executing shared process models. The process models are interactive, and may be updated by the user at any time during execution. The EXTERNAL infrastructure has been evaluated by the project use cases with promising results.
Humans are not able to cope with the exponential growth of information and the increasing speed of information and business processes fostered by information and communication technologies. Technical support not only for information storage and retrieval but also for information selection, process planning, and decision support is needed. Most of the ICT investments, however, do not foster innovation or productivity. Recent studies show that ICT-based training is the main instrument of knowledge management. On-line media and selfdirected learning environments are among the most effective training solutions in terms of cost, time and logistics. In the last few years, the percentage of employees participating in training courses increased. At the same time, there has been a decline of training budgets. E-Learning is able to deliver more valuable training for less money only if it is part of an integrated knowledge and skills management system. Two case studies of knowledge and meta data management systems are discussed.