Knowledge Management, in an enterprise context, is concerned with managing all knowledge about the enterprise by capturing, processing, and querying the corporate knowledgebase.. Knowledge management is a large and active area of work at present with many books, articles and journals devoted to this topic (see below for a partial list of the references). The following brief discussion defines and explains knowledge and then discusses knowledge management in corporate setting.
What is Knowledge (From Data to Knowledge)
Knowledge, as shown in the figure is, on the continuum from data to wisdom. In its simplest form, data is an observation or an event without context, information is data plus context that leads to an understanding of the relations between data -- it is a relationship between data, knowledge is information plus the rules that explain the interrelationships, and wisdom arises from knowing the "true" knowledge that separates it from superficial knowledge. In other words, information represents to what, knowledge to how and wisdom to why. The following table attempts to explain the main ideas through an example.
| What is it? | Example | |
| Data | Observations without context | 30, 55 |
| Information | Data with context and links | Minimum speed limit is 30, maximum speed limit is 55 |
| Knowledge | Information plus rules | If you violate speed laws, you will get a ticket |
| Wisdom | Knowledge plus when and how to use it | Under bad weather conditions, the speed laws do not necessarily apply (e.g., if snowing then you can travel at speeds lower than the minimum speed limit) |
Knowledge Management in Enterprise Settings
: Knowledge management systems (KMSs) in enterprises handle some sort of communication between themselves and other areas, convert data into knowledge, analyze and present it so that it can be used effectively in managing organizations, and support some form of query processing. KMSs in enterprises are generally supported through the following business processes:Partial References on Knowledge Management
- "The Knowledge Management Resource Center", A good site for knowledge management (KM) resources including major KM sites, KM periodicals, KM news, KM forums, etc. Weblink: www.kmresource.com
- Loshin, D."Enterprise Knowledge Management: The Data Quality Approach", Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition, 2001.
- Alavi, M. and Leidner, D., "Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research", MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 107-136, March 2001
- Bellinger, G., "The Knowledge Centered Organization", link:http://www.systems-thinking.org/tkco/tkco.htm
- Davidson, M., "The Transformation of Management", Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996.
- Senge, P., "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization", Doubleday-Currency, 1990.