Knowledge Management in the Information Age

A Summary

Belinda Allan

University of Southern Queensland

Information Age

"[S]ocial progress is lagging behind technological progress, and because of the rapid pace of change, the gap has never been larger between what could be and what is." ¹

There is a global problem of making sense out of and learning from the fast-changing, "kaleidoscopic pictures of our knowledge landscapes" ¹

To understand and respond to these kaleidoscopic pictures and recognise the opportunities and potential dangers within, "an organization must mobilize the distributed intelligence of its members and listen to the collective wisdom of the whole." ²

Essential Value Chain of the New Economy

Wisdom

is effective use of

Intelligence

which is effective use of

Knowledge ³

Wisdom

• Distills principles & truth
• Tells us what to pay attention to
• Forms an intuition about future events ⁴

Intelligence

• Is an ability to adapt to changing circumstances⁴
• Is the capacity to respond to opportunities and challenges as they emerge³
• Implies and guides the use of knowledge³

Knowledge

• Comes from productive conversations⁴
• Can be gardened by seeding, feeding and nurturing a knowledge ecosystem²

Knowledge Ecosystem

In its basic form it contains:

• A network of conversations both face-to-face and virtual
• A knowledge repository of tips, war stories, lessons learnt, reports, meeting notes, etc⁴

Knowledge Ecosystem

And seamless integration of the two⁴

Knowledge Ecosystem

Gain value from enabling networks to talk to each other.

• People Network - communities & conversations
• Knowledge Network - productive & cross-pollinating ideas and innovations
• Technology Network - electronic storage & communication⁴

Knowledge Ecosystem

Value is gained from integrating the 3 networks.⁴

Cycle of Increasing Returns

After integrating the 3 networks and networks of productive conversation can be stored in rich repositories, the organisation witnesses a cycle of increasing returns.⁵

Growing Intelligence

Knowledge Ecosystem

effective use of knowledge

Collective Intelligence

Growing Wisdom?

Benefits

The knowledge ecosystem benefits all involved.

• Individuals
  • Personal knowledge increased through the collective knowledge
  • Individuals can gain a higher reputation
  • Personal job satisfaction is higher⁶
• Organisation
  • Knowledge is externalised (for training)
  • The organisation gains competitive advantage through learning and innovation
  • The organisation gains a flexibility regarding the future⁶

References

1.    Por, G.  (2001).  Designing for the emergence of a global scale collective intelligence: Invitation to a research colloboration.  Paper presented at Global Brain Workshop (Brussels, July, 2001).

2.    Por, G. (2001). The knowledge ecology. BizEd, Nov, 30–33.

3.    Por, G. (2000). Knowledge to intelligence to wisdom: Essential value chain of the new economy.  Paper presented at ”Consultation Meeting on the Future of Organizations and Knowledge Management” of the European Commission’s Directorate-General ”Information Society Technologies” (Brussels, May 23-24, 2000).

4.    Por, G. (2000). Nurturing systemic wisdom through knowledge ecology.  The Systems Thinker, 11(8), 1–5.

5.    Por, G.  (2000).  The value of emergent value creation models in the knowledge economy: Towards a framework for analysis and action.  Paper presented at ”Consultation Meeting on the Future of Organizations and Knowledge Management” of the European Commission’s Directorate-General ”Information Society Technologies” (Brussels, May 23-24, 2000).

6.    Zboralski, K., & Gemnden, H. G.  (2005).  The impact of communities of practice. In E. Coakes & S. Clarke (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communities of practice in information and knowledge management (pp. 218–223).  Information Science Reference.