As pointed out by several scholars, inter-organizational collaboration is an important vehicle for knowledge creation. But the process of integrating knowledge across organizational boundaries entails great complexity. In this paper, we argue that visualizing knowledge in inter-organizational meetings is a conduit of knowledge sharing, and enables innovative re-combinations of organizational competences. We propose an experimental design to uncover the advantages and possible disadvantages of using visual techniques as a support for inter-organizational knowledge sharing. In particular, we compare the process and the outcome of knowledge sharing in inter-organizational teams supported with 1) software-based visualization, 2) poster-based visualization, and 3) text-based methods. The first results of our experiments suggest that software-supported teams outperform the control groups in knowledge-sharing tasks, and exhibit greater satisfaction with teamwork process and outcome. After discussing relevant implications for both researchers and practitioners, we point out limitations of our study and suggest directions for future research.
Technological change and high competitiveness are essential for organisations in today’s fast-paced society. Information and knowledge assets thus need to be current and easily accessible. With implementing core knowledge processes such as identification and accumulation, msg systems ag – a medium-sized IT and consulting company – introduced a knowledge management system with the aim to externalise implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge is intuitive knowledge that is generally gained through personal experience [Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995]. In this regard Probst et al.’s (2006) knowledge process concept helped identify and adapt these processes. The core knowledge processes were then implemented by the Codebeamer system, an OpenSource collaboration platform based on wiki technology. The system’s development was continuously adopted and improved by using a prototype-specific approach since its productive start two years ago. This paper describes this implementation project for a knowledge management system (KMS) in an IT consulting and system integration company.
The paper explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the engineering product development domain. Growing on data collected from a number of industrial development projects, related to several different products in various industry segments, the paper analyses the dichotomy between the prevailing hierarchical structure of CAD/PLM/PDM systems and the emerging principles of the Social Web, e.g. the self-organization of its users. It introduces the concept of Engineering 2.0, intended as a more bottom up and lightweight knowledge sharing approach supporting early stage design decisions within cross-functional product development teams. A set of scenarios related, for instance, to the application of blogs, wikis, forums and tags in the engineering domain are eventually presented, highlighting opportunities, challenges and no-go areas.
Ontology evaluation is an integral part of the ontology development process. Errors in ontology create serious problems for the information system based on it. To our surprise, the existing systems are unable to identify most of the errors. We evaluate some well known ontologies against the published error taxonomy and describe our algorithms to evaluate ontologies. The target errors include circulatory errors in class and property hierarchy, common class and property in disjoint decomposition, redundancy of sub class and sub property, redundancy of disjoint relation and disjoint knowledge omission. For the implementation, ontologies are indexed using a variant of already proposed and published scheme Ontrel. In addition to the previous errors taxonomy, the algorithms also cover recently extended error taxonomy. We evaluate our algorithms for performance and report errors detected in well known ontologies including Gene Ontology (GO), WordNet Ontology, OntoSem Ontology.
This paper looks at the convergence of knowledge management and Enterprise 2.0 and describes the possibilities for an overarching exchange and transfer of knowledge in Enterprise 2.0. This will be underlined by the presentation of the concrete example of T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH (MMS), which describes the establishment of a new portfolio element using a community approach “IG eHealth”. This is typified by the decentralised development of common ideas, collaboration and the assistance available to performing responsibilities as provided by Enterprise 2.0 tools. Regarding the collaboration of knowledge workers as the basis, a regulatory framework will be developed for knowledge management to serve as a template for the systemisation and definition of specific Enterprise 2.0 activities. The paper will conclude by stating enabling factors and supporting Enterprise 2.0 activities, which will facilitate the establishment of a expert knowledge management system for the optimisation of knowledge transfer.
Knowledge sharing between individuals has traditionally been conducted using faceto- face conversation. In the networked society – initially formed by telegraphs and the phone and nowadays powered by the Internet – many acts of knowledge sharing are carried out in a mediated fashion. While this typically introduces a number of problems in the knowledge sharing process, it also offers certain advantages. In this paper, we describe a framework for analyzing different modes of knowledge sharing. Furthermore, we line out the concept of “need-driven” knowledge sharing to address limitations in current mediated knowledge sharing approaches.
An internally developed knowledge transfer methodology ensures at Credit Suisse that irreplaceable know-how (implicit and explicit) remains within the firm – even when keypersons leave, e.g. retirement, internal job mobility, extended absence or general leaving. The methodology tested in theory and in praxis was developed by supporting over 70 keypersons and became part of the organisation in 2008. By covering general aspects of knowledge transfer as well as enhancing the human capital development in the business, the methodology provides a basis for organisational development: Due to transparent tasks and functions efficient and sustainable changes are possible.
With the advent of more light-weight technologies for connecting contents and functions provided by diverse application systems, called mashups, also individuals with their personal knowledge environments can benefit from arranging services flexibly to help them fulfil their knowledge needs. These personal, collaborative initiatives are often associated with trial-and-error, grass-roots level approaches which need an organizational and technical infrastructure to guide them without loosing the momentum created in these fragmented knowledge management activities performed by individuals, communities or in projects in an organization. Based on a discussion of these issues, this paper outlines the foundations for a knowledge service governance model to guide these activities.
In this paper we present a novel, semantic-based approach for supporting the software development process in a distributed environment. The approach is based on collecting and preserving knowledge used in the software development process in order to support its usage in similar cases later on. One of the main advantages of this approach is possibility to collect required knowledge automatically by observing the behaviour of a software engineer. The approach has been implemented in the TEAM software system and evaluated in three real-world use cases.
We introduce the concept of organizational knowledge maturing based on the idea of developing knowledge assets. We explain the dimensions that have to be considered and introduce the Knowledge Maturing Dimension Framework to measure the maturity level. Finally we describe service classes as the building blocks of a future organizational learning and maturing environment (OLME).
BREIN is an FP6 EC-Project dealing with the development of an intelligent grid infrastructure. A key knowledge management challenge to be addressed within the project is the distribution of the results from the project to the software development community, in order to foster the usage of the BREIN middleware. Therefore this project introduces the BREIN Roadmap. The Roadmap is realized applying the knowledge management approach PROMOTE that enables the knowledge transformation and distribution.
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.