Monday, September 02, 2002

September 11, the .COM Crash and Knowledge Management

This article titled "Why Knowledge Management Systems Fail?" starts by outlining the similarities between the failure to detect the terrorist involved in September 11 and the failure of the "new economy". His thesis is that both occurred because of incorrect assumptions in knowledge processes.

This article contrasts the traditional model (Model 1) of "the information systems themselves -- not the people -- can become the stable structure of the organization" with an adaptive model (Model 2) taking into consideration human decision making and processing.

"Developing an information-sharing technological infrastructure is an exercise in engineering design, whereas enabling use of that infrastructure for sharing high quality information and generating new knowledge is an exercise in emergence."

"Next generation KMS will need to accommodate the managers need for ongoing questioning of the programmed logic and very high level of adaptability to incorporate dynamic changes in business models and information architectures. Designers of information architectures will need to ensure that they deliver upon the need for efficiency and optimization for knowledge harvesting while providing for flexibility for facilitating innovative business models and value propositions."

In "Weaving the Web", Tim Berners-Lee gives the example of a tax program to describe a use for RDF - being able to ask why and to correct faulty assumptions.

http://www.kmbook.com/

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