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PROCESS TO PRODUCT:
CREATING TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

2. INTRODUCTION

Experts in intelligence have striven to create improved systems for information collection, management, and analysis under various guises since the 1940ís (Crevier, 1993, Minsky, 1986). They have been aided by advancements in mathematics, linguistics, and neuroscience that have contributed to improved electromechanical machines (Chomsky, 1968, Pansky, 1988, Turing, 1936,) The widespread availability and adoption of computers during the past three decades has brought more highly evolved systems for constructing, acquiring, storing, and representing knowledge. We now see possibility for devices that mirror cognitive human behaviors and allow new methods of interactivity and association. The wealth of opportunities presented by technology tools has resulted in divergent methods for their application within organizations, especially businesses, in order to increase value.

Identification of knowledge as a recognized field of principal investigation for business use, in addition to academic research, has spurred continuing demand for information systems (Conarty, 1997, Snell, 1998). Worldwide expenditures on information technology has generated significant, if sometimes varying, benefits for the ìknowledge workersî and is growing in importance (Drucker, 1994). As organizations grow they are challenged by rapidly changing economic forces for which they must develop faster, more accurate, responses. At the same time the explosion of information threatens to overwhelm individual and corporate response mechanism with information overload.

It is impossible, within a brief paper, to examine more than cursorily the relevant issues surrounding information and knowledge. To even delve deeply into a few practical aspects of knowledge management technology requires a great deal of reduction. This paper is a synthesis of a twelve-month examination of software and technology approaches currently in use for knowledge management. It is the result of a qualitative investigation of software products from 59 companies (Appendix A) ranging from small component technologies such as search engines to large commercial groupware systems. It relies heavily on current marketplace technology standards that have global reach and does not include technologies that have only achieved regional dominance, such as MiniTel (France Telecom) or Ichitaro Office8 (JustSystem, Japan). Note: the authorís selection of technologies is biased towards products that are sold within dominant markets therefore there is an overwhelming emphasis on companies in the U.S. It can be expected that companies in other parts of the world will be included as technology becomes more evenly distributed.

The paper is divided into four general sections. The first section explores the definition of knowledge management. The second section describes the environment, or context, in which technology is being considered. Third is a description of some of the current architectural approaches to development of knowledge management software. Finally there is a brief overview of some technology considerations.