Posted by Reilly Atkinson on August 23, 1999 at 22:08:42:

In Reply to: the truth, the only truth and nothing but KM posted by Daan de Koning on August 20, 1999 at 05:20:16:

Mr. de Konig;

Your comments about the debate are right on. I should add that I've never succumbed to the siren call of the display of erudition.

Getting people to contribute is one of many difficult problems related to building a knowledge base. There's also issues of classification schemes, access modes -- who and under what circumstances, updating protocols, and so forth.

But take heart: academia, the professions, the trades, the Catholic Church have figured all this stuff out. The have been doing KM for centuries. And, for better or worse, much of the contnets of their knowledge base have been vetted.

The plain fact is that no modern corporation has the resources to do KM, except at a superficial level. To do so, they would need to fund and staff a powerhouse academic department devoted to the careful study of knowledge and all its ramifications. Knowledge is real complicated stuff--about the same level of complexity as human behaviour. And, any way, after a few months of participating in this forum, I still don't have a clear idea of what KM is in the business world.

Some of your comments touch upon a thirst for shared knowledge and so forth. My not entirely cynical answer is: deal only with small organizations. Large ones will eat you alive.

Regards
Reilly

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Follow Ups:

• Re: the truth, the only truth and nothing but KM Daan de Koning 04:50:14 8/24/99 (7)
  • Re: there are exceptions (small fish eating the bigger fish) Kees de Vos 17:53:26 8/25/99 (0)
  • Less is More Martyn R Jones 12:16:12 8/24/99 (5)
    • Re: Less is More Reilly Atkinson 19:55:59 8/26/99 (4)
      • Re: Less is More Richard 07:29:03 8/29/99 (3)
        • Re: Less is More Reilly Atkinson 20:25:28 8/29/99 (2)
          • Re: Less is More Richard 15:00:08 8/31/99 (1)
            • Re: Less is More Reilly Atkinson 16:05:02 9/01/99 (0)

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