Posted by Jay Reay on April 04, 1998 at 11:16:07:

In Reply to: Re: Is KM an Oxymoron (Occidental and Moronic)? posted by Martyn R Jones on April 04, 1998 at 05:34:49:

Hi Martyn and Kevin
Your mention of buzzword brokering and all the other symptoms of witch-doctory in the KM business is apposite, even if the discussions on this site usually seek answers and pose questions beyond that old chestnut. I would like to pose a serious question related to the management of knowledge and to the burden of Martyn's last reply. If the answers could be couched in plain English (US, Brit, Aussie or other syntactical lexicography - your choice) rather than IT-speak, consultant Latin or the allusive (not to say elusive) style which has predominated this site of recent days, I would be grateful, because I seriously want to know the answer to:
creating sophisticated interactive libraries of specific knowledge in an organisation is a good use of the capabilities of IT;
the problem is that every such system I have seen demonstrated requires the inputting of knowledge (mainly information but also explicit and tacit experiential knowledge) gained from its owners by interview, direct input or documentation. Every one of the (mainstream, large) vendors I have spoken to ducks the pertinant issue:
HOW is this knowledge to be put in to the system;
how the essential, cross-referenced indices are created.
For example, I suggested to the CEO of one big vendor that the system might identify key words and pull out all documents with those words (just like a browser), but who selects the key words in the first place? If archiving backlogs of material, this task is immense and cannot be done by undergrads in the vacation - it is an important function which demands experience and knowledge.

So, how is the selection to be done;
how is the inputting to be done;
who is going to do it;
does any IT or KM executive include this in their budgetting and scheduling; and
why do the IT systems vendors consistently duck this people-resource issue?

Your comments please.

Regards to all on this great site, Jay

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• Re: Of instant cures, perfect solutions and other nostrums Yogesh Malhotra 15:13:25 4/04/98 (0)

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