Knowledge Management Systems
• Week 1 Schedule
- Web Site
• http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i385q
- Syllabus Review
- Personal Introductions
- BREAK
- Readings Discussion
The Big Question(s)
• How can KMS help people coordinate,
discover & organize information and
knowledge?
• How can intranets, groupware, weblogs,
wikis, instant messaging, search engines,
PIMs & email in both individual and
organizational contexts help us manage
knowledge?
• Are certain types of KMS suitable for certain
types of tasks, groups or roles?
Syllabus and Topics Overview
• Weekly Work
- Readings
• Primary
• Secondary
- Blogging
- Class Work
- Discussions
• Participation is the key to getting something
out of this course
• Cooperation & Collaboration with others in
class
Assignments
• Discussions
- Class discussions
- Class blog
• Presentations
- Book report (see Assignments page)
- Weekly topic (Secondary readings)
• KMS evaluations
- Examine a KMS for utility, practicality & potential
- Use the KMS for an extended period
• Research Papers
- Gradual, weekly assignments for full paper
Rules for Assignments
- All assignments due at the absolute beginning of class (do
not be late)
- Late assignments are penalized 20% per 24 hour period after
the beginning of class
• You are responsible for making sure the assignment is
received
• E.g. Due at Noon today, turned in tomorrow at Noon = 20%. Turned in a week later = 0.
• Arrangements can be agreed upon for known issues
- Travel, Serious Illness or Work
- Do not mail attachments to me unless agreed upon
- Make assignments Web accessible
• When required, notify class of your assignment via blog
or class listserv
• Posting or sent email times count as submission times
Tools for KMS work
• Web browser (HTTP)
- Firefox
• News or Feed Reader (RSS, Atom)
- Web Based
• Google reader
- Windows
• FeedDemon
• Thunderbird (also for email)
- Macintosh
• NetNewsWire (Lite version)
• Blog posting tool (XML-RPC)
- MarsEdit
- Ecto
Tools for Graduate School
• Text creation & editing tool
-
Spell & Grammar checking (not a substitute for proofreading)
Formatting & Style markup
XHTML Output (not MS Word)
Learn one tool well, rather than many tools a little
• Bibliography (Information Database)
- EndNote
• Notes, Information Management tools
- OneNote
- OmniFocus
- Text files
• Analysis
- Calculations
- Charts
KMS & Tools
• Tools make the rules
- The functionality of what you use defines the possibilities of
your work
- Learning a few tools well makes work more productive
• Use tools that support collaboration
- Open file formats
- Easy availability
• Where to find tools
-
iSchool IT Lab
Campus Computer Store
Versiontracker.com & Download.com
Sourceforge.net
Types of Blogging Systems
• Why not blog yourself?
• Putting Weblogs to Work
• Blog Tools
-
Blogger
Movable Type
TypePad
LiveJournal
Radio Userland
WordPress
• Class Blog: WordPress
Personal Introductions
•
•
•
•
•
Why KM?
Tools you use to organize your information
Tools you use to organize your knowledge?
Background that might be applicable
Anything else
Readings Discussion
• Prusak, L. Where Did Knowledge Management
Come From?
• Ruggles, Rudy. (1998) The State of the Notion:
Knowledge Management in Practice.
California Management Review. Vol 40, No. 3.
pp 80-90.
Where did KM come from?
• Replacement for Info Mgmt or MIS?
• Globalization (Competition)
• Ubiquitous Information Technology
- Organizing information to get to knowledge
- IT Costs are small(er)
• Support & training vs. Hardware & software
- We can capture knowledge as developed
• Knowledge Centric Organizations
- Personal knowledge more valuable than before
- “judgment, design, leadership, better decisions,
persuasiveness, wit, innovation, aesthetics, and humor” i.e.
more focus on people than before
- Strategic Approach for Working with Knowledge as Core
Function of the Organization
Where did KM come from? (2)
•
•
•
•
Not just about moving data around
Help organizations do things (k centric)
Focus on Users, not Technology
Sociology
- “Human Capital”
- Social Networks
• Philosophy - “know how” & “know what”
• What other fields apply to KM?
So is KM just recycled?
• Back, but to the Future?
- Is the pendulum swinging away from KM?
• Information Management
- User focus
• Quality Movement
- Information development & coordination quality
• Human Capital
- Individuals are the assets
- Improve personal and group work
• Not re-engineering the organization
- Cutting and optimizing without much future focus
- IT can replace people
• Outsourcing non-critical (KM producing) tasks
State of the Notion: KM in Practice
• 1998, Broad Study of 431 Corporations
• Activities
-
Generating new K
Accessing K from outside
Using K in Decision Making
Embedding K in work
Representing K in technology
Facilitating K growth
Transferring K
Measuring K (p 81)
KM Efforts Underway
Accomplishing KM
- How can any one, any group do all these?
• Is the Journey to KM the Reward?
• Does making people aware of Knowledge help
to establish KM?
• Can a focus on rewarding and acknowledging
KM work enable KM in an organization?
• How can a KMS help or hinder the KM
process?
KM Project Priorities
KM & KMS Challenges
•
•
•
•
Is it possible to get beyond a buzzword?
Can technology solve everything?
Can people solve everything?
Can organizations and groups solve
everything?
KM Difficulties
KM Barriers
A new view of KM
• Technology
- Innovation
- Adoption
- Implementation
• People
- Behavior
- Personality
• Organizations
- Culture
- Industry
- Environment
KM as a Network
• Networking metaphors are apt
-
Routing (around damage)
Frequency
Latency
Information Gain
Entropy
Chaos and Complexity Theory
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• is the greater than Knowledge?
Questions about KM or KMS?
•
•
•
•
•
Terminology
Theories
Empirical studies
System descriptions
Organizational environments
Class Work: what’s a KMS?
• Features that a distributed knowledge collection tool
should have
-
Collaboration
Coordination
Creation
Collection (retrieval)
• What would you look for to determine whether to
build or buy for a blog system?
-
Platform
Content Management
Open format
Extensibility
• Group blogs or individual blogs
- Feeds, trackback and guest accounts
- Tracking multiple blogs - specialized vs. generalized
Topic Selection (next week)
• Choose a topic (week) to overview & lead the
discussion about our readings
-
What was interesting about the readings?
What were the great ideas?
What were bad ideas?
How can the concepts be used by people or
organizations?
• How can a KMS help coordinate, discover,
organize information & knowledge?
• Your own point of view about KM, KMS + the
practicality & promise of these tools and
procedures