G51IDB
Lecture 18 : Organisational
Connectivity and Knowledge
Management
Tim BrailsfordInteroperability and Standards
• Standards are essential for interoperability and theimplementation of a DNS • Standards may be open or closed
• Standards may be achieved by using integrated tools and infrastructure designed by a software vendor (usually Microsoft)
• Open source also provides standards, and is a viable alternative
Free Software
• Public domain software– given away to the world
• Open source
– Source code is published, rather than protected so the software may be modified
• Free software is free as in freedom of speech, not as in free beer!
• Various Licence terms
– Free Software Foundation / GNU – General Public Licence
– Other open source licences (eg Netscape)
Development of Open Source
Software
• Developers may be:
– amateur enthusiasts
– people or organisations with a special need – researchers
– commercial organisations looking to improve the software
• Collaborative development on the Internet (eg mailing lists, web sites etc).
• Examples
– Linux (operating system) – Apache (web server)
– Emacs (text editor / development environment)
Open vs Closed Source
Development
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar– Essay by Eric Raymond
• Closed source projects are large monolithic designs - the cathedral
• Open source projects involve a chaotic exchange of ideas - the bazaar
• In the bazaar there is a kind of “natural selection” of ideas - the best ideas survive
• This makes the open source methodology very suitable for large projects
Business Models for Open
Source
• The source code for open source software must be made available
• Usually any modifications must also be made publicly available
• However, open source software may legally be sold
– Value added package – As a part of a services deal
• Many large corporations are starting to become extensively involved with open source
Corporate IQ
• The sum knowledge of an organisation isinevitably greater than that of any individual within it.
• Organisations can be considered as intelligent “organisms” capable of:
– learning – remembering
– intelligent decision making
• Corporate IQ is the manifestation of these • Knowledge Management is based upon the
concept of corporate IQ
Organisational Memory
• Organisational memory is the collective memory of an organisation
• The history of an organisation is usually only stored in detail as organisational memory
• Rarely needed knowledge is often only stored as organisational memory
• Organisational memory is very vulnerable to personelle changes
• Organisational memory is difficult to define or disseminate
Corporate IQ
• Increasing corporate IQ is invaluable to anyknowledge lead company
• Corporate IQ is increased by sharing knowledge about both the past history and the current situation • An effective digital nervous system can serve to
increase corporate IQ
What is Knowledge Management?
• KM is not necessarily IT-based - it is a form ofmanagement that revolves around the effective sharing of data-information-knowledge
• Know what you know, and make effective use of this
• Recognise the obsolescence of knowledge before the competition, and profit by creating the challenges and opportunities others haven't even thought about
The benefits of a high corporate
IQ (1)
• During a crisis the right people need to have the right knowledge to be able to act rapidly and independently
• When corporate IQ is high, knowledge workers collaborate efficiently to keep key people well informed
• A team should be able to draw upon the best ideas from throughout an organisation
• Digital information flow can enhance all of this
The benefits of a high corporate
IQ (2)
• A collaborative culture, reinforced by effective information flow makes most effective use of knowledge workers
• “Critical mass” of intelligence leads to synergistic effects upon ideas and motivation
• A high corporate IQ leads to a high morale - this makes the recruitment and retention of high quality employees much easier
Criticisms of IT based KM
• Consider the following issues:• Can KM technologies get the right information to the right person at the right time?
• Can human intelligence and experience cannot be effectively stored in a database?
• Can human intelligence and experience be communicated by a computer?
Data / Information / Knowledge
• Data– The raw letter, numbers etc
• Information
– The meaning that is contained in the data
• Knowledge
– Information interpreted in the light of prior knowledge, in such a way that it can be effectively applied to achieve desired ends
Case Study: Answer Garden
• “Answer Garden” is an experimental software tool that was developed by Mark Ackerman in MIT• AG was designed to capture “Organisational Memory”
• AG was particularly intended to support isolated knowledge workers (eg technical sales staff in the field)
The Answer Garden System
• AG contains a database of frequently asked questions • AG asks a series of diagnostic questions about the users
problem
• The users descends into an increasingly specialised hierarchical database
• Eventually they either find an answer to their problem, or reach a dead end
• When the users reach a dead end, their problem is e-mailed to a human expert
• The answer is incorporated into the Answer Garden, causing the system to grow organically
Case Study: Knowledge Tree
• Knowledge Management in Education • Although this is not a business example, itillustrates an example of knowledge capture and information flow as it may be applied in business
Computer Assisted Learning
• Most CAL is very declarative• Declarative teaching only forms one aspect of the part of the learning process.
IT Based Teaching Strategies
Conceptualisation
Construction
Dialogue
Modified from Mayes & Nielson (1994)
IT Based Teaching Strategies
Lectures Essays Practicals Tutorials Discussions Conventional Teaching Conceptualisation Construction Dialogue
Modified from Mayes & Nielson (1994)
IT Based Teaching Strategies
Primary courseware Secondary courseware Tertiary courseware Computer Based Learning Lectures Essays Practicals Tutorials Discussions Conventional Teaching Conceptualisation Construction Dialogue
Modified from Mayes & Nielson (1994)
The Learning Process
• There must be a continuing dialogue betweenteachers and students.
• The dialogue must reveal both participants’ conceptions.
• The teacher should analyse the relationship between the student’s and the target conception to determine the focus for the continuation of the dialogue • This cycle is repeated until the target is achieved.
Collaborative Learning
• The social processes of interaction andcollaboration during learning should be modelled in CAL.
• Dialogue is important
– Student - Teacher dialogue – Student - Student dialogue
Knowledge Tree
• The unit of knowledge is an answered question • USENET - style threaded bulletin boardfunctionality
• Answer Garden - style expert mailing system • Concept-oriented hypermedia database
