Chapter 11 - Managing Knowledge

Knowledge management is a set of processes to store, create, transfer and apply knowledge in the organization.  A large part of a companies value is dependent on the ability to manage and create knowledge.  There are three different types of knowledge management systems.  They are enterprise wide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems and intelligent techniques.

The types of systems used for enterprise-wide knowledge systems are used company wide to collect, store, distribute and apply digital content and knowledge.  Enterprise content management systems provide tools for organizing as well as databases and tools for organizing semi-structured knowledge, like email or rich media.  Knowledge network systems give directories and other tools for locating employees.  Enterprise wide knowledge systems usually provide significant information if they are designed well and give employees the ability to share, locate and use knowledge more efficiently.

Knowledge work systems (KWS) back up the creation of new knowledge and integrate it into the organization.  KWS need east access to an external knowledge base, computer hardware that can support software with graphics, document management, analysis, communications and a user friendly interface.  Computer-aided design (CAD) systems, virtual reality systems and augmented reality applications create interactive simulations that act and look just like the real world.

There are many important business advantages to using intelligent techniques for knowledge management.  Artificial intelligence is just as it sounds, so it lacks the breadth, flexibility, and general human intelligence; but it can be used to extend organizational knowledge, codify and capture.  The expert systems capture tacit information from a limited domain of human expertise and express knowledge in the form of rules.  Expert systems are best for problems of classification or diagnosis.  Case-based reasoning models organizational knowledge that can be consistently updated and refined.  Fuzzy logic is a software technology that expresses knowledge in the form of rules that use approximate or subjective values.  Neural networks consist of hardware and software that try to mimic the thought processes of the actual human brain.  They are great for their ability to learn without programming and recognize patterns that can't be easily described by humans.  Thy are currently used in science, business and medicine to discern complicated patterns.  Genetic algorithms create solutions using genetically based processed like fitness, mutation and crossover.  Thy are typically used for process optimization, product design and monitoring industrial systems.  Intelligent agents are software programs with built in or learned knowledge bases that carry out repetitive, specific and predictable tasks for users, business processes and software applications.  Intelligent agents can be used to navigate through data to find important, useful information for the user.