Semantic-Web-Based Knowledge Management

From IEEE Internet Computing, Sept./Oct. 2007

John Davies • British Telecommunications

Miltiadis Lytras • University of Patras, Greece

Amit P. Sheth • Wright State University

Hundreds of millions of users can now access several billion documents on the Web, and even larger data sets reside in organizations’ intranets and Web-accessible databases (the so-called deep Web). As the amount of available data continues to grow rapidly, it’s increasingly difficult for users to find, organize, access, and maintain the information they require.

At the same time, the notion of the Semantic Web1 promises to make Web-accessible data more amenable to machine processing. The Semantic Web is about labeling (annotating) information so that computer systems (and humans) can process it more meaningfully. The semantics underlying such annotations usually come from ontologies, which encapsulate agreement among information creators and users with help from common nomenclature and the use of rich knowledge representation. Just as the Semantic Web (also called Web 3.0) is beginning to empower and energize content on the Web, the underlying principles and technologies can energize and enhance the long-standing knowledge-management discipline. In this special issue of IC, we’re particularly interested in the new possibilities the Semantic Web affords for improved knowledge management...

Trends in knowledge management... Semantic-based knowledge management... continue reading

See also in this issue - IEEE Internet Computing, Sept./Oct. 2007:
The five articles selected for this special issue summarize our view of the Semantic Web’s strategic role toward more effective knowledge management. They provide sound propositions for supporting knowledge management at several levels. At the individual and artifact level, they highlight the concepts of automatic metadata extraction and service-oriented metadata management; at the group and organizational level, they promote the significance of peer-to-peer networks; and at the interorganizational level, they investigate ontologies’ significance.

In “Requirements and Services for Metadata Management,” the authors identify general requirements for metadata management and describe a simple model and service to address these requirements, with specific focus on RDF metadata.

In “Extracting Relevant Attribute Values for Improved Search,” the authors propose a new kind of metadata—relevant values—that provides a synthesized view of an attribute’s values directly extracted from the data.

“GridVine: An Infrastructure for Peer Information Management” describes a semantic overlay infrastructure based on a peer-to-peer access structure. In GridVine, users can query heterogeneous but semantically related information sources transparently using iterative query reformulation. The authors discuss their experiences using GridVine as a substrate for sharing semantic information.

“Using Semantic Web Technologies to Analyze Learning Content” demonstrates how Semantic Web technologies can improve the state of the art in learning environments and bridge the gap between students and learning content authors or teachers. The authors' ontological framework helps formalize the notion of learning object context.

Finally, in “Harvesting Wiki Consensus: Using Wikipedia Entries as Vocabulary for Knowledge Management,” the authors show that standard wikis are suitable platforms for the collaborative development of vocabularies that can be used to annotate documents. They prove that Wikipedia entries’ URIs are surprisingly reliable identifiers for conceptual entities.

The latest Semantic Web developments and insights in knowledge management challenge the new era of semantic-based knowledge-management systems. Semantic Web tools and applications contribute significantly to knowledge management’s performance, providing a definition for flexible reference mechanisms to knowledge objects and knowledge contributors;7
integration of knowledge creation and use;8,9
integral human involvement in information- and knowledge-management activities;10 and
a definition for and the exploitation of social networks, including social activities and context.2,11 continue reading

On the same shelf & aisle: A. Sheth and S. Stephens, “Semantic Web: Technologies and Applications for the Real World,” World Wide Web Conf. tutorial, 2007. (Also available at http://knoesis.wright.edu/library/presentations/WWW2007-Sheth-Stephens-Tutorial-Final.ppt.)

Do Knowledge Managers Really Want to Share Knowledge?—Sharing as a Mating Game

Posted by Patrick Lambe:

I’ve had a creeping suspicion for some time that knowledge managers are fine about encouraging others to share knowledge, but that dictum doesn’t apply to them. In my role as President of iKMS I am always trying to get knowledge managers to share, and the ones who do are in the brave minority - even then, they tend to be far more reluctant to share in a public forum than in a private one. They have reasons, of course: lack of experience and confidence, lack of clear progress and successful results to show, restrictions by employers. But in such a young profession, with such instability of career progression and continuity of KM staff, with extensive inexperience among managers who are responsible for KM, sharing is about the only way to get access to experience faster. The obsession with success is an illusion born of that inexperience. We learn fastest through examining lack of success, and the more mature professions such as medicine and law and engineering recognise that. They have rituals for anatomising failure, and it’s not for fun, it’s because that’s how they learn and survive. Continue reading the Guru's words Categories: Communities, Expertise, Ignorance Management, KM Competencies, KM Critiqued, Knowledge Sharing Permalink

See also Patrick Lambe's new book:

Librarians as Knowledge Managers - Profiles of emerging leaders

NB. This page will be continuously updated (last update Dec 13, 2011). Bookmark it. And, if you know a KM Librarain, send me his / her profile, and it will be posted here.

Who's in this room:
Prasannna Mnazhiyil Kesavan; Vandana Ranjan; ; Uma Narayan ; Vijaya C. Menon; Deb Rash; Bhojaraju D Gunjal; Susan Braun; Ben Skinner; Ginny Browne, Karen Huffman Dennie Heye.

Prasannna Manazhiyil Kesavan: INFORMATION OFFICER- Motorola India Electronics, Ltd. (MIEL) Hyderabad. (April 2000 to the present).

"My strength lies in maintaining a fine balance between being a user friendly support based on sound professional foundations. I am known for conceptualizing library & non-library initiatives and cultivating a holisitic work culture; as well as leveraging maximum knowledge and support from varied resources to help make informed decisions and implementing initiatives with maximum efficiency. I am interested in contributing to Elearning / Training Management, Enterprise Information Management, Facilities Management, Team building and corporate social commitments. My other interests are in the fields of Digital Library, Content Management and Knowledge Management."

Bhojaraju D Gunjal lives in Bangalore, India and serves as the Assistant Consultant (KM Practice) at TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) - one of the world’s leading information technology companies. He has more than eight years of professional experience in Knowledge/Content Management & Library Administration in IT Sector. [source]

Vandana Ranjan is Knowledge Management Specialist at Bates WorldWide. Prior to that she worked at the Brooklyn Public Library's fast paced Telephone Reference Center.
Vandy has several years of experience in reference and library management. She worked as a solo librarian in India and built, from the ground, up, two successful libraries -- one academic library and one special library.
She came to the United States in pursuit of online information retrieval skills and received her second Master's in Library Science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
In her spare time she enjoys nature-gazing, biking, photography and classical music. [source: sla.org]

Mrs. Uma Narayan, Currently: Board of Directors, International Association of Law Libraries (2007- to date); Chief Librarian, Honourable Judges Library, Bombay High Court, India (1998- to date)
Previously: Knowledge Manager, Nishith Desai Associates: Legal and Tax Counselling Worldwide, India (2007).
Was invited by the U.S. Department of State to participate in the Individual International Visitor Programme in June-July 2003. Was awarded Professional Development Bursary by International Association of Law Libraries to attend their 23rd Annual Course in International Law Librarianship in August, 2004 at Helsinki, Finland. Was awarded Commonwealth Professional Development Fellowship tenable at Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London between January 6, 2006 and April 5, 2006. Was also awarded Visiting Fellowship in Law Librarianship by Institute of Advanced Legal studies, University of London for the period of Commonwealth Fellowship.

Ben Skinner: After a first degree in mathematics Ben moved into librarianship, working in the universities at Bath and Salford and gaining his Masters at MMU.

Moving to Brighton in 2004, Ben took up the post of Evidence-Based Knowledge Management Librarian at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. This role focuses on the running of a unique information service aimed at supporting evidence-based practice (EBP) throughout the local trusts.

As part of this service Ben has taught both critical appraisal skills and literature searching for EBP, initially to NHS staff and more recently for the Brighton & Sussex Medical School. [source]

Vijaya C. Menon is the Knowledge Management Head - Grey South Asia at Grey Global Group, Mumbai, India. An experience spanning 15 years, Vijaya started her career with University & College libraries and changed streams to manage corporate libraries. Her previous work experience includes positions at J. Walter Thompson, & Arthur Andersen (now Ernst & Young) where she worked as a solo librarian.
Vijaya holds a B.A. in Economics, Bachelor in Library Science and a Diploma in Marketing & Advertising Communications from the University of Mumbai. She is currently pursuing her MLIS degree from the University of Aberystwyth, Wales via Distance Learning. Vijaya has been a member of SLA for the last 6 months.
Leading a team of two, her work at Grey includes overseeing collection development at all branches in South Asia, handling industry information queries & disseminating advertising & marketing data. Currently she is involved in setting up the library intranet at Grey.
Outside of work Vijaya enjoys gardening, exercising, traveling and watching movies. [source: SLA.ORG] see also Award

Deb Rash joined Iconoculture as their Knowledge Manager in May 2006.

Previously, Deb was the Knowledge Manager at Carmichael Lynch. Her prior advertising career included working as a media planner at several agencies in Minneapolis.

She graduated in May 2004 with an MLIS from Dominican University/College of St. Catherine where she has returned as an Adjunct Instructor to team teach the class "Issues in Special Libraries." Deb has held the Membership Chair position for the Advertising & Marketing Division and Secretary and Continuing Education Chair positions for the Minnesota Chapter. She was a recipient of the MN Chapter�s Quality in Action Award in 2004.

Deb earned her BA in English from Carleton College. Outside of work, her passions are baseball and running. source]

Susan Braun, Manager, Lauritsen Library Research Services, The Aerospace Institute

{picture/ details awaited}
see also: [il2007] Librarians as Knowledge Managers

Ginny Browne is OCLC's Knowledge Management librarian. She runs OCLC's internal website, called C-Web, and manages internal knowledge transfer. Ginny also is one of the three editors of this nifty little glossary that we have behind our firewall (sorry) that defines library jargon, acronyms, initialisms, and, especially, OCLC-speak. (...) For her day job, Ginny works in our Library and Information Center, and serves as the recorder for the Members Council's State Academic Libraries group. [source]

Karen Huffman,
Vice President, KMPro DC Chapter; SLA member since 1999. Currently a member of the Washington, DC/SLA Chapter and Knowledge Management division

National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 1985 to Present. Information Systems & Technology: Senior Applications & Database Administrator (June 2008 to Present); Libraries & Information Services: Manager of Knowledge Initiatives (March 2005 to May 2008); Senior Librarian (April 2002 to March 2005); and Systems Specialist (April 1998 to March 2002). Administrative Services division: Administrative Assistant with managerial responsibilities (September 1994 to April 1998);

Dennie Heye is global knowledge manager for the Human Resources IT division at Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands. He has a LIS degree and a university degree in marketing, which he thinks makes a strong combination of skills to succeed in an organisation. He has worked in different library roles in Deloitte & Touche and Royal Dutch Shell, most recently as library portfolio manager for scientific & technical electronic sources and library innovator.
As knowledge manager for the Human Resources IT division he is responsible to define and implement a strategy covering the technical, content and organizational aspects of knowledge management.
He has written two books: "Characteristics of the Successful Twenty-First Century Information Professional" and "obnoxious librarian from hades". You can read more about him at his website.

Digital pens more trouble than they're worth

Oct 29, 2007 Robert Cribb Toronto Star
No matter how modern technology advances, our most ancient devices seem to remain with us.

And when it comes to the written word, that's a good thing.
Computerized writing devices that double as mini computers are an attempt to merge the primitive with the contemporary. continue reading

See also: Future Technology- Are digital pens something to write home about? "Saying that, it is hard to imagine how the convenience and portability of the pen could be bettered. Stuff a pen and notebook in your pocket and you can write a novel in a cafe or in the middle of a desert. The same is true of digital pens -- although you would need to carry a mobile phone to transmit the data to a storage device for processing later. In the future, though, it might be possible to store gigabytes' worth of text and image data in the pen itself. A development like that could see the (not so humble) pen living on for a further 5,000 years...

The long road towards subject guide 2.0

By Meredith Farkas October 24, 2007
Here were some of the tools I looked at that seemed at least remotely feasible for me to take on:
Research Guide - From the University of Michigan. Wayne State also uses it. Looks good. Was updated in 2006. Was just concerned about how to set up the authentication stuff.
LibData - from the University of Minnesota. Hasn’t been updated since 2003 or 2004. library is not using it anymore. (update: looks like they are still using it; not sure where I got the idea that they weren’t)
Pirate Source - This one was developed at Eastern Carolina University, but is used at a bunch of libraries. The install script didn’t work so I had to create the tables and SQL queries manually. Had trouble trying to get it to work with PHP5. Not sure I like the initial page since people are inundated with choices and it may confuse some.
Subjects Plus - my personal fave. This is an enhancement of Pirate Source developed by Ithaca College. It’s great-looking though it takes up a lot of screen real estate. In the sidebar you can put info about the liaison, links to tutorials, call numbers and syndicated news feeds. I love the “Try these First” feature since students usually just want to know what the very best resources are. I still don’t love the initial page where they choose the guide and then have the option to select the types of resources they are looking for. It’s good to give people options, but sometimes less is more, I think. continue reading the full post

PS. Thanks to Calvin Truong, (http://www.prepme.com/) who informed me that Librarians as Knowledge Managers is listed by Meredith Farkas in her Favorite blogs - List and Commentary. See also: The Top 10 in making in her list.

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

"Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous."

"In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children's teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands..." continue reading

The 18 commandments of Knowledge-conscious managers

By Martin Dugage

"I like the idea that Knowledge Management is really about Knowledge Conscious Management, or to put it differently, Managing in the Knowledge Age as Professor Klaus North puts it. Incidentally, this explains why it is so difficult to introduce in 20th century organizations, which do not recognize mastery of knowledge flows as a source of competitive advantage.

The HR department of my company asked me to write a short memo and call it "the ten commandments of knowledge management". I thought it was a good idea -KM is a faith with its manifesto (e.g Cluetrain)-, but couldn't find enough time to reduce everything to ten commandments, and I have eighteen!

Let me know your thoughts...

1. Don't always challenge. Welcome one another's thoughts and opinions.
Rehabiliate casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice that should take at least half of your time. Don't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff.

2. Experiment constantly. Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of flawless intellects
You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, but then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. Regularly stop to reflect on the action and repeat the process. click here to continue reading all the Eighteen Commandments ...

The roles of knowledge professionals for Knowledge Management

65th IFLA Council and General
Conference

Bangkok, Thailand,
August 20 - August 28, 1999

Code Number: 042-115-E
Division Number: VII
Professional Group: Education and Training
Joint Meeting with: -
Meeting Number: 115
Simultaneous Interpretation: Yes

The roles of knowledge professionals for Knowledge Management

Seonghee Kim

Faculty of Library and Information Science
Dongduk Women's University
E-mail: shkim@www.dongduk.ac.kr

---

Abstract

Knowledge and Knowledge Management have emerged as a current 'hot issue' for many organizations. This paper starts by exploring the definition of knowledge and knowledge management. It then considers the partnership for knowledge management, and especially how librarians as knowledge professionals, users, and technology experts can contribute to effective knowledge management. It is concluded that knowledge professionals will have to move from the background to the center of the organizational stage, to jointly hold the reins of knowledge management. Read the Full article

On librarians as knowledge managers

PS. This is a very good analysis of why and how of "librarians as knowledge managers" by Brad Hinton @ plain speaking:

"I had a fruitful discussion a short while ago about librarians and web 2.0, and research and knowledge management. In the same vein, a recent post from Dave Pollard with a link to his presentation on “librarians as knowledge managers” posits some interesting thoughts. Pollard presented at the recent Special Libraries Association conference in Denver, Colorade, USA. In the presentation slides, Pollard recognised the skill of the librarian to acquire, add value, store and disseminate information. He then asked whether librarians were any good at connecting, synthesising and applying their knowledge to the information they had researched..." continue reading

see also:

• Sharon E. Herbert, Librarians: best knowledge managers for our new world: From the b.eye Business Information Network, Dr. Ramon C. Barquin has an informative article about the role that modern librarians can play in the brave new information world.
• Sheila Pantry, and Peter Griffiths, Librarians or Knowledge Managers? What’s in a Name, or is there a Real Difference? Business Information Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, 102-109 (2003)
• Priti Jain, An empirical study of knowledge management in academic libraries in East and Southern Africa, Library Review, 2007, 56: 5, pp. 377 - 392
• [ppt] Dave Pollard, Librarians as Knowledge Managers: The View from the Executive Suite SLA Annual Conference, June 6, 2007
• Cathie Koina, Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?
  The Australian Library Journal, Manuscript received July 2002
• [pdf] D. Gayatri, Opportunities for Librarians/Information Managers in managing explicit knowledge in the internet era
• Working Woman Prediction: Knowledge Managers Rise, Librarians Fall, Staff -- Library Journal, 2/12/1999
  
• Librarians as Knowledge Managers, Literature Survey - Trends and Prospects

Relationship of KM with other functions in an organization

Interesting insights on holistic approach to knowledge management, as well an integrated perspective that is within the framework of an organizational culture, is presented by Sujatha Das @ Learning & Knowledge Center

Knowledge Audit: Is it Necessary for Your Organization?

KnowGenesis is a freely available, international, scholarly journal, dedicated to making accessible the results of research across a wide range of information-related disciplines under Technical Communication. KnowGenesis publishes both referred papers and working papers in the fields of technical communication, documentation, information science, information and technology management, information systems and information policy.

Read the
Panel Discussion on " Knowledge Audit: Is it Necessary for Your Organization?" Led by Ginu George

PS. To access the journal online, you'll need your login ID and password.
For FREE registration, visit the registration page
(http://www.knowgenesis.net/journal/index.php?
journal=IJTC&page=user&op=register) or e-mail your registration
request to editorinchief@knowgenesis.org.

NB. Panelists: Prof. A. Neelameghan, Dr. L. J. Haravu, Mr. Bhojaraju D Gunjal, Mr. Ginu George, and Dr. Mohamed Taher

See also:
If We Can’t Even Describe Knowledge Sharing, How Can We Support It?

A pay wall falls, and the Web is watching

MEDIA: NYTIMES.COM ABANDONS SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
GRANT ROBERTSON
MEDIA REPORTER
September 24, 2007
They are among the world's most influential newspapers when it comes to setting the news agenda. But a push by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to abandon their subscription websites may now influence a broad - and irreversible shift - across the newspaper industry itself. continue reading Globe and Mail, Canada

See also Digg.com's Shelf and aisle: News » World & Business » Business & Finance

Digital divide revisited

Which is mightier, the pencil or the cellphone? U of T prof favours old-fashioned note-taking, bans camera phone shots of overheads, blackboards
Louise Brown, Education Reporter, Sep 14, 2007, Toronto Star
Forget film festival paparazzi – students' cellphone cameras are the latest photo faux pas. continue reading

For this UP village, COW is computer on wheels!

The Challenge for Health Sciences Librarianship...

We need--

A more focused research agenda

• Evidence-based librarianship

• A clear vision for librarians’ role in the knowledge management process

• A strategy for educating and training the next generation of librarian knowledge managers

Continue reading [ppt file]: Informationist and Expert Searcher: Critical New (Old) Roles for Health Sciences Librarianship? by Gary D. Byrd, Ph.D.,
University at Buffalo (SUNY)

See also on the same shelf: The health sciences librarian as knowledge worker
Library Trends , Summer, 1993 by Valerie Florance, Nina W. Matheson

PRODUCTIVITY: Brainstorming - Ten Guidelines

10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming




By Randah Taher

Brainstorming is a powerful tool, if used correctly, but just like any power tool, you must read the manual, follow instructions and use the thing correctly…or you’re wasting time. Randah Taher presents 10 guidelines to optimizing the power of brainstorming. source

The Ten Commandments (see also the pdf version):
1. Come prepared. And invite others to do so too.
2. Invite others to the party.
3. Think and re-think the real issue.
4. Record as you go.
5. Defer judgement.
6. Become a generator machine.
7. Force large quotas.
8. Elaborate and improve.
9. Enhance visuals.
10. Threaten yourself.

What others say about all-of-the-above:

@ LifeChurch.tv

Enterprise innovation made easy: Jenni Idea Management Software Service

Corporate DNA

Using Organizational Memory to Improve Poor Decision-making, by Arnold Kransdorff

Review:
Management consultant Kransdorff explains how corporations can make better use of their organizational memory and improve their decision-making capabilities. Likening this key component of intellectual capital to an organization's DNA, he contends that the information gained from experience needs to be transmitted from one "generation" to the next--if a company is to avoid repeating costly mistakes. He then outlines a low-cost knowledge capture and retrieval process that can be implemented annually. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis
For more than half a century, the developed world has been chasing productivity. It's financed our wealth but that part of output on which our continued prosperity depends - productivity growth - is petering out. The traditional scapegoat has been the dearth of worker skills. But the worker skills base has never been higher! The other explanation is that it is managers who are not giving full value to their employers. The way they're making decisions is conferring virtually no upside potential, which means they're leaving us wide open for experience-poor competitors to step into our experience-rich shoes. Exactly as Japan did in the 1960s and the so-called BRICK countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China (especially China) and Korea - are threatening now. If creeping uncompetitiveness is not to overtake us, where, then, are the next round of productivity gains to come from? Identifying some gaping holes in the way managers are taught to manage, this book outlines both the size of the problem and a solution. Businesses and other organizations, the author says, have to substantially raise the quality of their decision-making. For this to happen, they need to be much better experiential learners. And for experiential learning to take place, companies and other institutions have to better manage their corporate DNA, the institution-specific experiences otherwise known as Organizational Memory. OM, which characterizes any organization's ability to perform, is the single biggest influence on decision-making excellence. It is a factor of production that has already been paid for at great expense, yet is readily discarded in the backwash of the biggest change in workplace practice for more than a century - the actively-encouraged flexible labor market. This book explains why this key component of intellectual capital should be better managed, can be better managed and, particularly, how it can be used to help organizations reduce the pandemic of repeated mistakes, reinvented wheels and other unlearned lessons that litter modern living.

India to dominate global KPO market - Media Monitoring

"The ambit of knowledge services typically spans areas like Business Research, Market Research, Investment Research, Data Analytics and intellectual Property." says Bhaswati Chakravorty in New Delhi, Dataquest

KPO:
What is KPO: The work entails doing equity research for overseas investment banks, research houses, consultancies and other financial institutions. The range of services covered by KPO includes intellectual property creation such as patent research, data mining, database creation and updating and analytical services such as equity research, competitive intelligence preparation of company profiles, industry reports and financial modelling. Says, Amitabh Sharma Virtual bridge - The knowledge process outsourcing industry Jamaica Gleaner News, July 11, 2007.

India to dominate global KPO market The Times of India, 23 Jul 2007
NEW DELHI: India, already known as the back office of the world, will account for two-third of the global Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO) segment that could create up to 1.8 lakh new jobs here by 2011, a new study has said.

The worldwide KPO market is expected to grow to 16.7 billion dollar in revenues by 2010-2011 at an annual growth rate of 39 per cent. Of this, India would account for 11.2 billion dollars, according to the study by business research and analytics firm Evalueserve continue reading

Evalueserve Quarterly Sales Index Survey: What's Holding Back 'Small and Medium Sized Businesses' from Growing? Small Business Informer News, July 12, 2007

An In-Depth Analysis of the Indian Vendor Space along with Profiles of All Major Industry Players, July 10 2007 [Company Press Releases]

Gurgaon Bheja now Served Fresh in Wall Street, Puneet Mehrotra, Hindustan Times, July 19, 2007
Extract:

"Dogs and Indians not allowed"
Circa 1945, signboard outside the elitist British Club in Calcutta
"India is the 2nd biggest investor in London"
Circa 2006, small news snippet in the business page of a leading newspaper.
"Asathoma Sadhgamaya, Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya"
The above is a Sanskrit verse from an ancient Hindu text meaning from the unreal lead me to the real, from shadows lead me to the light. The great Indian brain is doing exactly that. Leading the world's largest money market into light. Yes, that absolutely right. Not talking about some mundane back office processing work. The work happening here is pure pundit-giri consisting of analysis and more, about which is a hot stock, where to invest, about mergers and charting the growth of the world's biggest financial market. In simple words brains at Gurgaon, out skirts of Mumbai and Chennai are actually running the Wall Street Market.

If that sounds like an understatement and too unreal to be real would somebody please answer what are companies like iRevna, Evalueserve, Fidelity, Copal Partners and others doing in India. Surely they can get cheaper labor in Philippines and perhaps many more countries. continue reading Gurgaon Bheja

PUNCHLINE - No Wonder:

Taj Mahal on a London visit with Shilpa, Dravid

See also on the same shelf and isle Knowledge Management aspects while Outsourcing Business Processes

The Angst of the "Knowledge Worker"

PS. This is an article and quote posted by Bill @ Faith Commons
Peter Drucker, who coined the term "knowledge worker," describes what might be the intellectual version of impoverished affluence in which the highly skilled knowledge worker (this was originally written circa 1969) finds her/himself, after striving years to climb the mountain of educational attainment, to be the king or queen of only one out of many, many mountains. It takes all you can give to be merely a cog in the machine.

This hidden conflict between the knowledge worker's view of himself as a “professional” and the social reality in which he is the upgraded and well-paid successor to the skilled worker of yesterday, underlies the disenchantment of so many highly educated young people with the jobs available to them. It explains why they protest so loudly against the “stupidity” of business, of government, of the armed services, and of the universities. They expect to be “intellectuals.” And they find that they are just “staff.” Because this holds true for organizations altogether and not just for this or that organization, there is no place to flee. If they turn their backs on business and go to the university, they soon find out that this , too, is a “machine.” If they turn from the university to government service, they find the same situation there. continue reading

What is KM?

"People keep looking at KM as something different from what businesses do everyday. I just wanted to prove that KM is nothing but an attitude....an approach towards work! And this map hopefully helps me do that?????? What?" Thus said: Nirmala Palaniappan's @ Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]

An Alternative for Search and Knowledge Management

Dan Ryan, 9/26/2005, Intranet Journal

"Due to the tremendous amount of content and knowledge nearly every company
generates, employees often depend on meta data and various search functionality,
such as full-text search and retrieval, to find desired information across a
variety of content repositories. This common process for locating relevant
content throughout enterprise-wide systems relies on some key assumptions that
may not hold true when users perform information searches.
These assumptions
include:
Users are able to create useful, optimal search terms
Users know the information they are looking for exists
Users are able to select appropriate metadata while searching for content
Search engines organize results in a logical manner that is most beneficial for the user
The search for content is relevant to the context of the business function being performed by the user.

An alternative to traditional search and knowledge management capabilities is
emerging that eliminates the reliance on these assumptions, making the process
of locating internal information more productive and successful. This
alternative is "Intranet Views." Continue reading

Link to the Journal courtesy of: Rajesh Setty @ blog.lifebeyondcode.com

Corporate librarian replaced by Web app ..? - InfoWorld

Info courtesy: Sukhdev's World

"I’m just back from the Web 2.0 Expo love-fest down the street here in San Francisco, where I stumbled into an interesting session on something I thought was ‘Taxonomy.’

I was hoping to learn about stuffing dead animals, such as the mockingbird that’s been waking me up at 4:00 a.m. for the past month. But that’s ‘Taxidermy,’ as it turns out. Taxonomy is what research librarians used to do -- and professionals who manage documents for corporations still do -- organizing and categorizing reference material. And today those meticulous creatures are running scared, because of the Web 2.0 development known as tagging..." continue reading: InfoWorld. 2007-04-19, By David L. Margulius

Thought for the day - Managers administer, leaders inspire

Info courtesy: Michael Y @ A Techno-Theologian
See also:

Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
Managers administer, leaders innovate
Managers imitate, leaders originate
Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo [anon., @ Passionate leadership- Excitement begets Excitement Source]

From Librarian to Knowledge Manager and Beyond:

The Shift to an End-User Domain
By Doug Church, Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. dougc@phase-5.com

Eight years ago, I met with an executive of a large communications company to talk about the impending rise of the end-user online market. During the
course of our conversation, the executive explained that his company's position
was that the market for online information and services had "peaked", and they
were not interested in channelling more resources into this area. continue reading

From librarian to knowledge manager

Jitendra Valera, Sweet & Maxwell Legal Online, 4-Oct-2004
New technology has made legal librarians think strategically, says Jitendra Valera
Senior legal librarians (SLLs) are increasing in importance at their firms as the new knowledge management technologies they govern become more crucial to delivering top-quality legal services. According to recent research by Sweet & Maxwell among the top 100 UK law firms, more than 20 per cent of SLLs now either report directly to the managing partner or chief executive officer, or sit on the most senior management board of their firms. continue reading

Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?

The Australian Library Journal
Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?
Cathie Koina, Manuscript received July 2002

Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers. We all know that. After all, haven't we been the custodians of documented knowledge for centuries? Who could possibly do it better than us? Well, then why aren't people knocking down our doors, begging us to be the knowledge managers of the organisation? Are they just ignorant of how fantastic we are, or is it possible that librarians aren't the best people for the job? Most of the academic articles that deal with Knowledge Management (KM) in some way always start by trying to define it. This is because there is no standard or stable definition. I believe this is one of the issues causing confusion...

Bibliography

Bishop, Karen 'Leveraging our knowledge: the skills and attributes information service professionals bring to new roles in information and knowledge management'. ALIA 9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc2001/papers/bishop.2.html

Bonner, Dede 'Enter the Chief Knowledge Officer.' Training and Development, Feb 2000, pp 36-40.

Broadbent, Marianne The phenomenon of knowledge management: what does it mean to the information profession? 1998. Available online: http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/may98/broadben.html

Butler, Yvonne 'Knowledge management - if only you knew what you knew'. STRAIT to the future ALIA 8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc1999/papers/butler.html

Church, Doug. 'From librarian to knowledge manager and beyond: the shift to an end-user domain'. Available online: http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/courier/v36/v36n2a1b.htm.

Houghton, Jan, Barbara Poston-Anderson, and Ross Todd 'From obsession to power: changing the face of librarians'. Pathways to Knowledge, Australian Library and Information Association 5th Biennial Conference and Exhibition, 25-28 October 1998, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia. 313-318.

Marconi, J 'Outside the square: library and information services innovations within a knowledge management context'. ALIA 9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc2001/papers/marconi.html

Milne, Patricia 'Information professionals and the knowledge-aware, intelligent organisation: skills for the future.' Australian Library Journal 49 (2), May 2000 139-150.

Skills for knowledge management a briefing paper by TFPL Ltd based on research undertaken on behalf of the [UK] Library and Information Commission. 1999. Available online: http://www.lic.gov.uk/publications/executivesummaries/kmskills.pdf.

Todd, Ross and Gray Southon, 'Educating for a knowledge management future: perceptions of library and information professionals.' Australian Library Journal, 50 (4) Nov 2001 313-326.

See also in my blog:

Literature Survey - Trends and Prospects

Two Ideas for Access to Knowledge

The Infrastructure of Free Expression and Margins of Appreciation by Jack Balkin
[Address delivered at the Second Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K2), Yale University, April 27, 2007. My address at the first A2K conference discussing the basic theory of Access to Knowledge can be found here.] Continue reading @ Balkinization an unanticipated consequence of Jack M. Balkin

Google to Digitize 8,00,000 Books at Mysore University in India

Around 8,00,000 books as well as manuscripts from the Mysore University in Karnataka, India will soon be digitized by Google.

The Mysore University library has around 100,000 manuscripts that are written both on paper as well as palm leaves. These would include India’s first political treatise, the ‘Arthashastra’ written in the 4th century BC by Kautilya. Continue reading

[PS. Above info courtesy: David P. Dillard & Soundara Rajan]

PUNCHLINE:
"Publishing industry via a battle between technology that is predisposed to liberate information and business models that seek to lock information down. For better or worse, the future of innovation and ideas is being defined by the entertainment/publishing industry via a battle between technology that is predisposed to liberate information and business models that seek to lock information down." James L. Hilton, in Copyright Myths and Realities [see the first link below for full details]

When Worlds Collide: Copyright and Scholarship in the Digital Age James L. Hilton;

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, Nicholson Baker

Vandals in the Stacks?: A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries (Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science), by Richard J. Cox

Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution, Francisco Rodríguez. Ernest J. Wilson,

It's a steal: who owns what in the digital age

Google Books: Whats Not to Like?

See also Mysore University related posts:

Prof. Shalini R Urs's Contributions to Digital Librariansip

Dr. N B Pangannaya: Life and times

Mysore Univesity Library School Alumni

Body-Mind-Soul - KM initiatives

See also:

KM and Internal Communications based on Nirmala Palaniappan's @ Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]

Knowledge Management @ Multifaith Information Gateway

Knowledge Management, Reference Service, and Web 2.0 Tools

PS. If the youtube link is not active, click here: Web 2.0 with Eric Feola: Why Wikipedia Sucks


There is a growing connection between Knowledge Management (KM), Reference Service (RS) and Web 2.0 tools, such as, Wiki. I found a very interesting article by Angela Kille "Wikis in the Workplace: How Wikis Can Help Manage Knowledge in Library Reference Services."
And the cited sources help in understanding this nexus:

Clyde, L. A. (2005). Wikis. Teacher Librarian, 32(4), 54‑56. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Cohen, S. M. (2005). Wiki while you work. Public Libraries, 44(4), 208‑209. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Comparison of wiki software. (2005). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software

Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Fichter, D. (2005a, July/August). The many forms of e‑collaboration: Blogs, wikis, portals, groupware, discussion boards, and instant messaging. Online, 29(4), 48‑50. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Fichter, D. (2005b, September/October). Intranets, wikis, blikis, and collaborative working. Online, 29(5), 47‑50. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Frumkin, J. (2005). The wiki and the digital library. OCLC Systems & Services, 21(1), 18‑22. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Gandhi, S. (2004). Knowledge management and reference services. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(5), 368‑381. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from ScienceDirect database. [editor, abstract fulltext]

Gunnlaugsdottir, J. (2003). Seek and you will find, share and you will benefit: Organising knowledge using groupware systems. International Journal of Information Management, 23(5), 363-380. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from ScienceDirect database.

Jantz, R. (2001). Knowledge management in academic libraries: Special tools and processes to support information professionals. Reference Services Review, 29(1), 33‑39. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Leuf, B., & Cunningham, W. (2001). The wiki way: Quick collaboration on the Web. Boston: Addison‑Wesley.

Prusak, L. (2001). Where did knowledge management come from? IBM Systems Journal, 40(4). Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/prusak.html

Stover, M. (2004). Making tacit knowledge explicit: The ready reference database as codified knowledge. Reference Services Review, 32(2), 164‑173. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Tonkin, E. (2005, January). Making the case for a wiki. Ariadne, (42). Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/

Wagner, C. (2004). Wiki: A technology for conversational knowledge management and group collaboration. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 13, 265‑289. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Business Source Premier database.

Wagner, C. (2005). Supporting knowledge management in organizations with conversational technologies: Discussion forums, weblogs, and wikis. Journal of Database Management, 16(2), i‑viii. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Business & Company Resource Center database.

See my related post:

Knowledge Capture - Librarians' Role

Wikipedia and Academia Hit News Headlines Again

Thought for the day - Three God's gifts with Ram Charan

"What he does is hard to describe. But the most powerful CEOs love it enough to keep him on the road 24/7 and make him the most influential consultant alive." Fortune's David Whitford reports.
God's Gifts:

"... this human being has a talent to figure out what the consumer really wants"

"... he has the will and the talent to find - no matter where it is! - the right technology that will deliver what they want."

"... he has the talent to create demand at the right time"
Extract from: The strange existence of Ram Charan, David Whitford, Fortune writer, April 24 2007 [Info courtesy: Thadakamalla Sujatha]

Ram Charan speaking:

Librarians and Knowledge Management

EXTRACT
GLIS 692 Assignment 1, Sept. 25, 2003

Introduction
Identification. Verification. Acquisition. Organization. Dissemination. These are the traditional services provided by librarians since the emergence of the field. The unspoken object of these actions has always been printed material: books, journals, newspapers, and so on. With the creation of audio and video recordings, as well as microfiche, librarians quickly expanded their discipline to include non-printed material, but the process for discovery, cataloging, and distributing library materials remained relatively unchanged. In the last few years librarians have again had to expand their area of expertise to include digital information, including areas of the World Wide Web. And they are being asked to redefine themselves again. This time to include the vaguely defined realm of knowledge itself...

Taxonomy ....
Classification and Cataloging ...
Technology ...
Liguistsics and Cognitive Science ...

Bibliography:
Allix, Nicholas M. "Epistemology And Knowledge Management Concepts And Practices." Journal of Knowledge Management Practice. April 2003. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Accessed September 25, 2003 http://www.tlainc.com/articl49.htm
Broadbent, Marianne. "The Phenomemnon of Knowledge Management." SLA Outlook. May 1998. Accessed Spetember 22, 2003 http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/may98/broadben.html
Bryar, J.V. "Taxonomies: The Value of Organized Business Knowledge." NewsEdge White Paper. NewsEdge Corporation (2001).
Church, Dough. "From Librarian to Knowledge Manager and Beyond: The Shift to an End-User Domain." Special Library Association. Accessed Spetember 22, 2003 http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/courier/v36/v36n2a1b.htm
Kanti, S. and Koening, M.E.D. "Knowledge Management for the Information Professional." Information Today (2002).
McCarthy, I. (1995) "Manufacturing Classification: Lessons from organizational systematics and biological taxonomy." Integrated Manufacturing Systems, (1995) 6: 37-48.
Satyadas, Antony. "Growing a Practical KM System." September 2003. Knowledge Management/Destination KM Accessed September 22, 2003 http://www.destinationkm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=1036
Weidner, Douglas. "Using Connect and Collect to Achieve the KM Endgame." IT Pro (2002).

PM and KM Culture

Eclectic Bill talks about a Project Management Case Study that he read on How Culture Affects Knowledge Transfer and quotes some important reasons why there is little knowledge sharing:
-Masculine values - compete and dominate rather than reflect and build relationships
-Perception of time as scarce
-No concern about the past and limited concern about the future
-Relationships based on respect and no unrequested interference
-Private ownership of projects
-Project managers don't need help

PS. For ages people struggle to understand how the work culture of PM and KM can be or should be integrated. And the above is an excellent telltale.

Quote of the Year 2007

Jean-François David in Knowledgable? says, Librarians are the historically first "knowledge managers" in organizations. Now, all managers are supposed to be ! Are librarians out? Or any manager is the librarian?*

*See more on this: We the librarian @ Macehiter Ward-Dutton: Blog on IT-business alignment and related things

See also:

Quote of the Year 2006

Librarian's Interface with Knowledge Management

Quotable Quote:
"I think all of [us] as academic librarians, whether we work in administration, collection management, reference, or technical services, must take on new roles as knowledge managers." Joseph J Branin, Director of Libraries at Ohio State, quoted in Knowledge Jolt with Jack

Interesting readings:

A librarian's perspective on knowledge management, 19 Jan 2007 by Jack Vinson
"The Ohio State University library system has been developing a Knowledge Bank since 2002. Without knowing much about the program, I found the article Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries: Building the Knowledge Bank at the Ohio State University, by Joseph J Branin, Director of Libraries, 2003."

Library 2.0 reference, by John Tropea @ Library clips, November 27, 2006
[includes themes, such as: Common needs for a reference file, Sharing culture, The web 2.0 way, Non web 2.0 reference knowledge bases] Filed under: library, km

More on Darlene’s presentation: how do we get there from here?
@ The Library Rebooted, Library Technologies: Blogs, Wikis, IM & More by Thom on the November 16th, 2006

Beyond the OPAC: The Semantic Library @ The Library Rebooted, Library Technologies

Knowledge Management in the Workplace: the Librarian as Knowledge Broker
Thaneerkulam, Chitra, STC NJIT Student Chapter 2005

See more via Google

My similar posts:

Nexus between Knowledge Management and Library Science

Learning Activities for Virtual Reference

Information Literacy (for all) - A useful gateway

Visualization - EBSCOhost’s cool new integration of Grokker

My related posts:

Collection Development Templates

Pull and Push Communications: Ranganathan's Laws re-interpreted

Semantic Web and Facet Analysis

Question with no answer - few CIOs move to become CEO?

First a quotable quote: "Librarians are being made CIO's less for our technical skills than for our organizational skills and our ability to manage the complex change that is fostered by or linked to technological change." [Source: Managing Technology, Managing Technologists, Shirley K. Baker]

An image tells a thousand words, in my humble opinion [image courtesy: blogs.idc.com/ie/].

"Knowing what we know about CIOs -- that is, that most are smart, hardworking, supremely aware of how the business works and increasingly savvy regarding the working of external customers' minds -- the failure of more CIOs to become CEOs has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age. If any readers can shed light on it, I'd love to hear what you have to say." Thus spake Thornton A. May, in the Computer World magzine, March 2 2007, p. 10

Others who reflect on this paradigm:

THE CIO'S ROLE IN THE CEO'S AGENDA, By D. Neil Gissler,
11.11.2004 Cutter Consortium, special to SearchCIO.com

Interesting thread at Slashdot, based on a vacuous article about why CIOs don't become CEOs.

Why don't CIOs become CEOs? by Espen

Google for similar problem of moving up on the ladder.

Much more @ Google

DESKTOP COMPUTING - Help for Librarians, BY LAUREN CAPOTOSTO [Editorial - CIO]

Any comments?

Role of Information Professionals in Knowledge Management Programs

NB. I found an excellent article, that highlights the role of library and information professionals in KM.]***

Role of Information Professionals in Knowledge
Management Programs: Empirical Evidence from Canada

[full article, in Adobe PDF]
Isola Ajiferuke
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
iajiferu@uwo.ca

Abstract
The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the role of information professionals in knowledge management programs. 386 information professionals working in Canadian organizations were selected from the Special Libraries Association’s Who’s Who in Special Libraries 2001/2002 and questionnaire with a stamped self-addressed envelope for its return was sent to each one of them. 63 questionnaires were completed and returned, and 8 in-depth interviews conducted. About 59% of the information professionals surveyed are working in organizations that have knowledge management programs with about 86% of these professionals being involved in the programs. Factors such as gender, age, and educational background (i.e. highest educational qualifications and discipline) did not seem to have any relationship with involvement in knowledge management programs. Many of those involved in
the programs are playing key roles, such as the design of the information architecture, development of taxonomy, or content management of the organization’s intranet. Others play lesser roles, such as providing information for the intranet, gathering competitive intelligence, or providing research services as requested by the knowledge management team.
Keywords: Knowledge management, information professionals, Canada, business organizations

***Serendipity brought me to this article. I was Googling for a recently published book,
The Executive's Role in Knowledge Management by Carla O'Dell

KM, IM, DM - Survival of the Fittest

NB. This is a continuously updated post--last updated Sept 2008 .

The Alignment of Information Management, Knowledge Management and Records Management Sally Gonzalez, Director of Navigant Consulting
John Szerkes, Director of Knowledge Management-Business Systems of Cleary Gottlieb
Peter Krakaur, Chief Knowledge Office of Orrick, Herrrington & Sutcliffe LLP
@ KM Space

Péter Jacsó1, University of Hawaii -- The Endangered Database Species: Are the traditional *commercial* indexing/abstracting & full-text databases dead?
In a word -- no! Commercial A&I/F-T d/bs are not extinct ... yet.
Depends on habitat. LiveSerials: Survival of the fittest

I think Knowledge Management (KM), Information Management (IM), along with archives and record management must evolve some ways to converge as part of future planning. Following are some value added resources in this perspective:

Can libraries replace or work as a KM center, Jaswinder Pal Singh Mehrok (2005) @ KnowledgeBoard:

Can library can work as KM center.I find some article that library in US use lotous notepad software.

REPLY: Denham Grey, @ KnowledgeBoard "Changing to a KM mindset is not about the software adopted. It requires a deep understanding of the differences between knowledge & information and a radical revision of traditional library dogma." Much more

Denham Grey (2005). KM in the library: "This is a thought experiment, applying KM principles to a library environment. My interest in this area stems from the work of Bonnie Nardi and Day, although I share their empathy with librarians as unsung backroom heroes, I find the library mindset to be a very limited view of knowledge work. Started by Denham Grey on 05/28/2000."
"Libraries need to shift their thinking to have a different orientation and value associated with knowledge management. This shift will be used to obtain a competitive edge. It should be a key focus to expand the access of knowledge for their users." Full article, bibliography and much more

Denham Grey (2005). KmWiki a collaborative persistent 'conversation' on all matters related to knowledge management.

More @ Google on this Survival paradigm

see also: Understanding knowledge management and information management: the need for an empirical perspective, by France Bouthillier and Kathleen Shearer, Information Research, Vol. 8 No. 1, October 2002

PUNCHLINE: Involving users and adapting newer knowledge sharing strategies:
David King (2006). Inviting Participation in Web 2.0. Quoted in The Changing Role Of Library Science

Previous posts:

Exact role of Knowledge Manager

Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

Tacit and Oral knowledge @ FaithCommons Forum

Fund an article* on social innovation in a Website that is (by my perception) on issues that are common by faiths, in a Multifaith perspective.

As a comment on the article I initiated a thread on the relation between tools and strategies of Knowledge Management (with special focus on tacit, tangible and cultural knowledge) within the context of corporate communications.

See the discussion at:

* Three scenario’s for social innovation Feed: P2P Foundation

What is this article in relation to the FaithCommons? by Mohamed Taher

Knowledge Management, by bill

Tacit and Oral knowledge, by Mohamed Taher

Mistaking Information as Knowledge, by bill

What Is Born of the Spirit is Spirit, by reido

NB. A bonus post I found, and wish to share with you:

Thinking Without Language, by Dave Pollard @ How to Save the World

My previous posts:

Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

What do you think? Any comments, suggestions?