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.
In multifarious offices, where social interaction is necessary in order to share and locate essential information, awareness becomes a concurrent process that amplifies the exigency of easy routes for personnel to be able to access this information, deferred or decentralized, in a formalized and context-sensitive way. Although the subject of awareness has immensely grown in importance, there is extensive disagreement about how this transparency can be conceptually and technically implemented. This paper introduces an awareness model in order to visualize and navigate such information in multi-tiers using semantic networks, and Web3D. To support this concept we introduce two different algorithms. The first algorithm is able to guide individuals to relevant information and topics. The second one is able to infer hidden groups (clusters) in a large company network, representing various communication channels between individuals. Both algorithms produce very promising results.
Although most enterprises nowadays increasingly employ digital informa-tion management in all areas, there are still many organisations – e.g. in the Public Sector – where much of formal and informal information is documented on paper only. This work lays out the concept of a set of digital metaphors for entities in the “paper world” and argues that they will ease the adoption and acceptance of digital informa-tion and knowledge management solutions.
We furthermore describe how the metaphors are linked with each other. We place a special focus on the relationship between informal, unstructured information and formally structured one, as well as on collaboration and knowledge sharing enabled by the metaphors. These aspects have been combined into a prototype that is described and illustrated in some detail
The importance of comprehensive annotations for learning resources is widely recognized. However, it is often unclear how these annotations should be created. A promising solution might be that learners annotate learning resources during execution of learning processes. This paper examines tagging as a learner-driven approach that can be used to get annotations on a collaborative level. The characteristics of learner-generated annotations in learning scenarios and the applicability of these annotations to describe learning resources are investigated. As empirical grounding, the results of three independent experiments are presented in order to inform decisions concerning the establishment of stitutionalized settings deploying tagging approaches.
In this paper we propose a classification and systematic description structure based on the pattern paradigm for interaction scripts in Second Life that aim at facilitating knowledge sharing and knowledge integration in groups. We present eight examples of such interactions, a description structure to formalize them, and classify them into four classes according to their design scope and added value. Based on this classification we distinguish among sophisticated 3D collaboration patterns, seamless patterns, decorative patterns, and pseudo patterns.
The concept of co-production was originally introduced by political science to explain citizen participation in the provision of public goods. The concept was quickly adopted in business research targeting the question how users could be voluntarily integrated into industrial production settings to improve the development of goods and services on an honorary basis. With the emergence of Social Software and web-based collaborative infrastructures the concept of co-production gains importance as a theoretical framework for the collaborative production of web content and services. Current research in human computation has adopted the concept for the semantic enrichment of web content by collaborative tagging. This article argues that co-production is a powerful concept, which helps to explain the emergence of user generated content and the partial transformation of orthodox business models in the content industries.
We explored how the intended purpose of a knowledge model can influence the modelling process and in particular, how it impacts on the choice points of the underlying modelling methodology. We introduce a classification of knowledge models according to their intended scope, expressiveness and degree of acceptance. As a result, we aim to define critical success factors of methodologies for ontologies that are built by domain experts and that can be used as a basis for knowledge enabled (software) systems
The paper proposes a way of characterizing the Next-Generation Web in terms of some ‘social middleware’, composed of social software technology supporting its emergence and some process ‘fabric’ that permeates from the individual’s interaction and innovative usage patterns. We will be especially interested in its impact on the educational environment, briefly presenting a converging approach for adult learning in both corporate and institutional environments extracted from the initial stages of iCamp project. It is intended to show you how the key elements under this new stage in Web evolution impact the educational environment, not only in higher education but in adult learning and professional training. It is intended to be useful in managing the changes we are putting up with in educational institutions and all kind of organisations.
Intellectual capital reports usually consist of descriptions of various non-financial capital forms, such as for example “relational capital”. Considering relational capital as knowledge networks we explain the creation, transformation and re-use of knowledge with the help of the theory of social systems where knowledge is seen as a cooperative social construction. As a method for visualizing and analyzing relational capital based on co-authorships and co-content, respectively, we present BibTechMonTM and conclude with suggestions how the results of the knowledge network analysis may be utilized in organizations.
Strategy development is a rational decision making process, carried out by a group of managers aiming to match the organization’s resources to the opportunities arising from its competitive environment. We argue that, in order to develop successful strategic plans, contemporary business organizations should exploit features from diverse disciplines to attain a synthesis of the strategists’ highly specialized state-of-the-art knowledge. In this paper, we present a collaborative framework where Decision Support Systems and Knowledge Management Systems features are integrated for the appropriate handling of strategic management issues. Based on a well-defined ontology model that interweaves concepts from the Knowledge Management, Argumentation Theory, Decision Making and Multicriteria Decision Aid disciplines, our framework enables strategists to collaborate and accomplish a common understanding of different user perspectives. Furthermore, it assists them in reaching a decision by exploiting the organization’s knowledge resources.
PRO-TEACH-NET is a German e-learning project that aims to construct an internetbased learning environment for five partner universities based upon common teaching contents in product development for mechanical engineering. Existing courses are redesigned, transformed into multimedia format and made accessible over the internet. In order to prepare students for working conditions similar to engineering cooperation of international companies, the concept offers project work in virtual teams, geographically distributed among the partner universities. For example, an engineering design project is realised by a virtual team of five local teams at each of the partner universities. The concept offers a combination of traditional team working exercise in engineering design with internet based collaboration techniques. The students experience teamwork with local peers as well as in virtual teams with students from other universities. The tasks are shared and the students develop the product using technologies like internet-based collaboration and communication.
In many organisations, conservation of specialised expertise is picked out as a central theme only after experienced members have already left. The paper presents the SELaKT method, a method for Sustainable Expert Localisation and Knowledge Transfer based on social network analysis (SNA). It has been developed during a project co-operation between the Department of Information Science at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Free University Berlin, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK, Berlin. The SELaKT method uses recent insights into network analysis and pragmatically adapts SNA to suit organisational practice. Thus it provides a strategic tool to localise experts, to identify knowledge communities and to analyse the structure of knowledge flows within and between organisations. The SELaKT method shows its advances and increasing relevance for practical use by integration of specific organisational conditions and requirements into the process of analysis.
Knowledge management case studies in most cases focus on one or a few applications. Typically, the discussion is limited to what has been found out in the past. On the other hand, numerous authors have reported on the technological aspects at a high level of abstraction, where no specific business cases were taken into account. There are polls and surveys to identify potential future trends, but these typically investigate a serious of market segments without making specific statements about KM in the automotive industry. In this paper we hope to bridge this gap: in order to identify the potential benefits of KM, we will survey some of the literature describing recent, current, as well as expected future developments in the automotive industry. In particular, expand on three key trends in order to discuss potential benefits from Collaborative KM: the supply chain, improvements in engine development, and providing the industry with skilled workers. We found that the following are interesting applications from the point of view of Collaborative KM: (1) collaborative partner extranets (to support the supply chain), (2) inter-company collaboration, training to be tied into every-day work, KM to support Quality Management (to assist in the improvements of engine performance), and (3) e-learning combined with helpdesk automation and a knowledge base (in order to help provide the industry with skilled workers).