Journal of Information & Knowledge Management

This paper describes and evaluates the design of competence visualizer (CV), which is a competence system generating competence patterns of project groups. The system provides novel features that: (1) make it possible to survey competence status of teams in different sizes at a specific moment; (2) handle information about both existing competencies and competence interests; and (3) manage snapshots of a particular point of time and development over a certain period regarding existing competencies and competence interests. The results from the system evaluation include fields of application, future design challenges, and organizational issues. A first conclusion is that competence systems need the potential to handle flexible visualizations of existing competencies as well as competence interests of organizational members. A second conclusion is that organizational issues, such as incentives and management, are critical in order to attain data quality in a competence system.

Much research has been conducted on knowledge management (KM) in order to improve the organisations handle this valuable resource. Little is known, however, of how the providers of the knowledge management technologies, the organisation's IT people, handle their own KM. This study focuses on how IT departments and people "practise what they preach" in this area. A survey was conducted among large organisations, which reveals that there is a recognised need for KM, but it is not part of their formal goals. There are many KM technologies in use, however, and a positive. attitude exists towards their adoption in the IT departments of these organisations.

This paper presents an implementation framework for enterprise knowledge discovery and management using semantic knowledge processing technology. The developed solution gives the possibility of effectively organizing, controlling and updating knowledge portal content using the company's expertise and available semantic knowledge processing tools. The key concept has been to introduce blocking databases for filtering knowledge content returned from semantic knowledge processing tools with subject-action-object (SAO) knowledge presentation model. The architecture of the enterprise knowledge management solution and the example of using blocking databases with "CoBrain" semantic knowledge processing tool have been presented.

Although knowledge management techniques have been discussed and developed substantially during the last several years, only moderate success has been reported in terms of measurable business results. We show how human information exchange can be mapped to the investment processes of the modern portfolio theory. We argue that the presented theory is the major reason for the rather limited success of the computer-based techniques used for codifying knowledge. The theory should be taken into account during the implementation of knowledge management programs.

This paper explores techniques for maximizing organizational performance via the mapping of organizational knowledge and strategies of power. It explores the nexus between knowledge and strategies of power, envisioning knowledge as a practice of power embodied in organizational discourses. In order to trace organizational power-maps, Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge is adopted as a hypothetical model for mapping strategies of power and resistance embedded in organizational knowledge. It is hoped that this knowledge of how power and resistance operate will enable organizations to position and plan policies when organizational change and restructuring are desired. The essay provides guidelines on how to conduct Archaeology and concludes by suggesting potential ways in which Archaeology may be applied by organizations.

Organisational culture plays a significant role when considering the management of information. The culture of individual organisations is influenced by national culture, and this paper considers the literature relating to the various cultural models. Particular attention is paid to Hofstede's dimensions and the implications of them for information management are suggested.

Creating topic hierarchies that can be mapped to the source documents provide effective access to the required information. However, the exponential growth in the volume of information may be too overwhelming for manual approach to taxonomy building. Taxonomy software, with automated approach, but minimal human intervention, easy integration with other products, and effective taxonomy maintenance utility provide a practical and efficient solution. Many vendors serving this market segment offer a wide range of approaches and solutions, such as Semio, Autonomy, Verity, Quiver, Inxight, and SmartLogik. The aim of this study is to identify different types of taxonomy-building tools available in the market and study their features and characteristics. The selection criteria was based on the availability of an evaluation copy from the vendor along with detailed information about the products such as product manuals, white papers, and product data sheets. The findings showed that most taxonomy- building tools share common features such as hierarchical structures of the taxonomy (depth of the taxonomy), taxonomy maintenance, multiple taxonomy views (cross-referencing support), import/export utilities, taxonomy presentation and access (access points to the information), and being language independent (multilingual support). The results also revealed that visualization tools, personalization, product integration and industry-specific taxonomies were the value-added features to the taxonomy software.

Knowledge management, as a distinct discipline, has increasingly gained the attention of both practitioners and academics in recent years. However, even with the proliferation of knowledge management literature, an interested manager would still find that the process of implementing knowledge management is an elusive one. For this reason, this paper seeks to review recent knowledge management literatures with the aim of developing an integrated perspective on implementing knowledge management projects. This paper explains briefly the fundamental concepts of knowledge management, examines the seven fundamental archetypes of knowledge management implementation strategies and surveys the various categories of technology tools used in knowledge management. A framework for choosing the appropriate knowledge management implementation archetypes and the technology tools is developed. The framework is driven by two parameters, namely, the predominant knowledge form and the goals of knowledge management, and it guides managers in charting the initial direction of knowledge management projects in their organisations.