KMS

Knowledge Management Approaches

Interaction

Codification

Resources Required +-

Self service

Communities of practice

“My KM is spelled with 6 letters, and they are...”

The problem of Google as a KMS

You lead a consulting company

You find out that your employees do not use your internal KMS

Instead they go to Google to find presentations

What do you do?

Current solutions to perennial problems

e-KMS is hard on the brain

People have different learning styles

Identity work hampers knowledge sharing

Different knowledges are incomensurable

Power is at stake in knowledge

Social bookmarking

Rank and pride

Build communities

Use boundary objects

Social bookmarking

User created tags

Social bookmarking

No standardizationNo hierarchy

Social bookmarking

Independent of record-keeping practicesRanked by popularityAvailable through RSS feeds

!

"Tags are windows into people’s memory and

thought

Rank and pride

No classificationOpen to manipulationPossible flame wars

Draws on identity (super power)Implicit social capitalSupports expert ‘yellowpages’

!

"Ranks are the

motivators of online contributitors at

digital windows into their knowledge

Rank and pride

Build communities

Domain

Community

PracticeCoP

Domain

*the area of knowledge that brings the community together, gives it its identity, and defines the key issues that members need to address.

A community of practice is not just a personal networkit is about something.

Its identity is defined not just by a task, as it would be for a team, but by an "area" of knowledge that needs to be explored and developed.

*the group of people for whom the domain is relevant, the quality of the relationships among members, and the definition of the boundary between the inside and the outside.

community of practice is not just a Web site or a library:

it involves people who interact and who develop relationships that enable them to address problems and share knowledge.

Community

*the body of knowledge, methods, tools, stories, cases, documents, which members share and develop together.

A community of practice is not merely a community of interest: It brings together practitioners who are involved in doing something

Over time, they accumulate practical knowledge in their domain, which makes a difference to their ability to act individually and collectively.

Practice

CoPs constitute strong sub-cultures Strong culture hampers learning

LPP protects identity and performancePeer pressure pushes for contributions

!

" Creates a social space to share at individual

boundaries

Build communities

Use boundary objects

Use boundary objects

Use boundary objects

Boundary objects are objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites.

They have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable means of translation.

Keeps CoPs separated

Addresses issues of powerAllows local and global knowledge sharing

!

" Creates an artifact to share at communities

boundaries

Use boundary objects

Knowledge Management Approaches

Interaction

Codification

Resources Required +-

Tagging+

Ranking

CoPs

B.Objs.

Knowledge Management Approaches

self-serviceCoPs

Inidividual knowing

Knowledge Management Approaches

Tagging+

Ranking

CoPs

B.Objs.

Inidividual knowing

Conclusion

“A knowledge management system is a boundary that intersects, but does not fully encompass agents’ knowing process”