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 Fr
om?
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: whats 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