Knowledge Management (KM) is a social activity. More and more organizations use social software as a tool to bridge the gap between technology- and human-oriented KM. In order to create interoperable, transferable solutions, it is necessary to utilize standards. In this paper, we analyze which standards can be applied and which gaps currently exist. We present the concept of knowledge bundles, capturing information on knowledge objects, activities and people as a prerequisite for social-focused KM. Based on our concept and examples, we derive the strong need for standardization in this domain. As a manifesto this paper tries to stimulate discussion and initiating a broad initiative working towards a common standard for the next generation of knowledge management systems. Our manifesto provides with eight recommendations how the KM community should act to address future challenges.
1. Manifesto for a Standard on Meaningful
Representations of Knowledge in Social
Knowledge Management Environments
Bick, M., Hetmank, L., Kruse, P., Maier, R., Pawlowski, J.M.,
Peinl, R., Schoop, E., Seeber, I., Thalmann, S
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5. Knowledge Management Focus Areas
Intellectual Enterprise
Asset Focus Effectiveness Focus
Maximize building and Maximize use of knowledge
IV. value value reallocation of
intellectual capital
assets; operational
effectiveness
III. process
knowledge balance sheet, knowledge-intensive
scorecard, skill data bases business processes,
citation & impact analysis knowledge processes,
workflow patterns
IV. collaborative
Maximize effectiveness of Use IT to maximize capture,
people-centric learning transformation, storage,
organization retrieval and development of
knowledge
competencies, motiva-
I. human tion, roles & responsi-
bilities, task patterns
semantics, knowledge
workplace and infrastructure,
II. IT
services, tools
People IM & IT
Focus Focus
After Wiig 1999, 158
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7. The challenges
Knowledge management trends
Connecting human and technology orientation
From document/repository orientation to
distributed resources and activities
Social software as a central concept for
connecting resources and activities
How do we represent knowledge and connect
activities, resources and people?
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8. The role of social software in knowledge
activities
Knowledge cannot completely be codified and shared
Knowledge transfer can be improved by capturing information
about the current and historical context and the underlying
activity.
Social media (SM) and social software (SSW) support knowledge
transfer and construction of knowledge through social
interactions between people.
Contextual information of interactions can be tracked by using
existing SM and SSW functionalities such as activity streams,
tagging and commenting
SM and SSW are mostly limited to personal and content metadata
Standardization remains a key task for improving the handling of
large and complex information
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9. Current standardization efforts
Technical standards (document formats,
metadata)
Dublin Core
Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
Business Process Model Notation (BPMN)
IMS Learning Design Specification
Contextualized attention metadata (CAM)
RDF, OWL
OOXML, PDF, ODF
Human-oriented standards (guidelines and good
practices)
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10. Knowledge activities
To deal with the (automatic ) detection of the users’ task and activities based on collected contextual data a
better understanding of potential knowledge activities and their connection and traceability is necessary.
Author Knowledge (Management) Activity Author Knowledge (Management) Activity
Aurum et al., knowledge creation, knowledge Alavi 2001 Creation, storage/retrieve, transfer, apply,
2008 acquisition, knowledge identification,
knowledge adaptation, knowledge
organization
knowledge distribution, knowledge
application
Newell et al., create knowledge, integrate Fong and Acquisition, creation, storage, distribution, use,
2009 knowledge, share knowledge Choi, 2009 maintaining
codify knowledge
Hädrich, 2008 Identification, acquisition Holsapple, acquisition (identifying appropriate knowledge,
Codification, combination Singh, capturing identified knowledge, organizing
Distribution, search & retrieval 2001 captured knowledge, transferring the organized
application, development knowledge
archiving & deleting, learning selection (identifying appropriate knowledge,
networking capturing identified knowledge, organizing
Nonaka & Socialization, externalization, captured knowledge, transferring organized
Takeuchi, combination, internalization knowledge)
1995; Nonaka generate (monitor, evaluate, produce, transfer)
& Toyama, assimilation (assessing, targeting, structuring,
2003 delivering)
emission (targeting, producing, transferring)
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11. Activity Stream
Activity Streams allow applications to publish a live stream of a persons’
working, learning (or social) activities by aggregators that serialize items into
a sequence of posts, making actions visible to other users of the service.
Motivation
participants better understand boundaries
of their actions
groups better manage & coordinate activities
people decide with whom to collaborate
attracts attention and signals
enhances knowledge sharing, asking &
answering questions, solving problems
enhances mechanisms to demonstrate
competences
(Olson et al., 2006)
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12. Active Documents
An electronic document which includes data as well as metadata and
application logic. Alternatively, an active document can be directly
connected with the application logic.
Metadata and application logic will be transferred with the active
document and be able to activate, control and execute functionalities.
[Trög07]
Integration of Ability to react Ability to initiate and Ability to take
Transformation metadata on an event control functions decisions autonomously
characteristic
Passive Enriched Reactive Active Proactive
Document Document Document Document Document
Sort of document
<creator>Muster</creator> <creator>Muster</creator> <creator>Muster</creator> <creator>Muster</creator>
<date>11-01-2006</date> <date>11-01-2006</date> <date>11-01-2006</date> <date>11-01-2006</date>
Requirements
regarding system Specific system
Specific system environment interpreting
environment Standard system enviroment environment
metadata and application logic
using autoactivation mode
[Trög07]
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13. Current findings
Knowledge management changes towards
distributed, social, interactive environments
Current standards do not allow appropriate
representation of social KM
E.g. activities
New ways of knowledge representations are
needed (and approaches are available)
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14. The Manifesto
New ways of knowledge representation
Key aspects
Represent activities and interactions
Represent context: in which environment do
knowledge activities happen?
Allow bundling, merging and connecting resources,
activities and people
Develop a standard for KM (systems) to enable
interoperability and re-use
A basis for discussion, discourse, community
building!
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15. New conceptualization to support
knowledge sharing
New Concepts Description
Knowledge Activity (KA) Goal directed actions within a user's context
Knowledge Activity Stream (KAS) Time-ordered list of knowledge activities (user-centric
view)
Knowledge Trace (KT) Codified representation of a user's action that captures
contextual information
Contextual Information Information, e.g. time, place, actions performed on
knowledge objects as well as related people and their skills
Knowledge Object (KO) Codified knowledge of externalized knowledge (e.g.
paragraphs, tables, figures, mind maps)
Knowledge Bundle (KB) Collection of knowledge traces that are affiliated to a
knowledge object (object-centric perspective)
Knowledge Container (KC) A set of knowledge objects and their corresponding
knowledge bundles
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16. Towards knowledge containers
KA1 KA2
A A A A A A
KO
KAS1
KO KO
KB
KAS2
reference
KA – Knowledge Activity
A – Action
KT – Knowledge Trace KO KO
KO – Knowledge Object
KB – Knowledge Bundle
KC – Knowledge Container
A KB A KB
KAS – KA Stream
KC
18. Predictions and Recommendations
1. Acknowledge KM as a social activity
• gap between technology and human orientation bridged by SSW and SM
• trend acknowledged by research community and practitioners.
2. Focus the active, not the passive
• we need a variety of ways to represent knowledge
• the focus should shift from document-oriented to an activity-oriented
view to better capture the dynamic process.
3. Context will be the key factor to understand KM
• context rarely analyzed or represented in both, research and
standardization communities, thus lack of transferability of results
• adequate specifications needed to represent context.
4. Stop using outdated frameworks
• standards in KM like Dublin Core do not take technological advances into
account
• widely agreed conceptual KM framework needed considering social
media as source for contextual metadata.
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19. Predictions and Recommendations (2)
5. Focus on specifications and standards
• KM community has ignored standards for decades.
• specifications and standards are important when designing and
experimenting with innovative systems.
6. Form an enterprise-research alliance for standards
• consensus of all stakeholders needed, in particular researchers and
enterprises.
• a balanced community needs to be formed from the very beginning.
7. Stand on the shoulders of giants
• KM community has specific characteristics, but standards do not need to
be created from scratch.
• build on existing base and similar standards already successful in use.
8. Create standards now
• KM and SSW are mature enough that we understand the key success
factors.
• KM community needs to create standards as an agreement in the
community for competitive innovative and interoperable solutions
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20. Summary
We need new ways of representing knowledge
management in standards
Key aspect: adding context and activities
Steps
Find (further) appropriate
approaches, standards and alternatives
Collaborate with standardization bodies
Discuss, test, improve!
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21. Contact Information JYU
Prof. Dr. Markus Bick
mbick@escpeurope.eu
Prof. Dr. Ronald Maier
ronald.maier@uibk.ac.at
Prof. Dr. Jan M. Pawlowski
jan.pawlowski@jyu.fi
Prof. Dr. Rene Peinl
rene.peinl@hof-university.de
Prof. Dr. Eric Schoop
eric.schoop@tu-dresden.de
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Notas del editor
TODO Stefan: Frageüberarbeiteneventl.
TODO Stefan: eventl. kombinieren mit slideActivity Streams
Szenario:(1) In einem typischen Projekt erstellen mehrere Personen kollaborativ eine PPT-Präsentation für ein kommende Konferenz. Diese Präsentation wird für die bestmögliche Teilung auf LiveLink gestellt (Dokumentenmanagementsystem)(2) Stefan führt eine letzte Änderung an dem Artefakt durch und stellt die PPT anschließend auf eine andere Plattform und zwar MSSharepoint um vor allem weitere Diskussionen im Team direkt am Artefakt zu haben – darauf hin ändern auch andere Personen die Präsentation innerhalb und außerhalb der Projektgruppe(3) Bevor das gesamte Projektteam sich face-to-face trifft wird noch eine skype-conferenz durchgeführt bei welcher weitere Informationen zum Thema gesammelt und in anderen Dokumenten gesammelt wird. (4) In Vorbereitung auf die Konferenz wird sie auf slideshare gestellt, um auch durch andere Wissenschaftler in einen breiten Diskurs einzuladen welcher über diese web2.0 platform unterstützt wird. (5) Während der Präsentation teilen viele Personen Einstellungen, Meinungen etc zu dem Thema über Twitter(6) All diese weiteren wertvollen Informationen werden weiter in die PPT aufgenommen nach der Konferenz(7) In einem ähnlichen Projekt benötigt Lars ebenfalls einen Teil der bereits vorgestellten Präsentation und entnimmt daher einen Teil dieser Präsentation in eine andere – dort wird die übernommene Information weiterbearbeitetAll dies ist ein komplexer Kollaborationsprozess welcher derzeit nicht leicht nachvollziehbar ist – allerdings besteht hier ein Reifungsprozess von Wissen welcher im Grunde genommen sehr relevant für alle Beteiligten wäre zu wissenTODO: Lars: eventl. die Folie animieren und Texte anpassen