Deconstructing KM
Jaap Pels - Wednesday 23 March 2005
To me knowledge management means nurturing an environment where people can develop, share, apply and evaluate their knowledge to take action towards a goal.
Knowledge cannot be managed directly. Knowledge is personal. Key to transfer of knowledge is communication e.g. social interaction.
Management is a planned course for action. The ‘environment’ can be physical (club, organisation or face to face network meeting) or digital (website, e-mail or this e-conference). Action and goals imply change / improvement / reflection / learning.
WATSAN comes in when dealing with knowledge development, application of learning, action, goals and the people involved. Thus KM can be meaningful to preserve indigenous knowledge (goal), for example by organising story telling sessions (action).
Organisations enhance and constrain people’s ability to (inter)act; working hours, hierarchy, budgets, culture, systems, structure, possible face to face interaction, (not) working together etc. Here, KM tools and methodologies can be hand picked. The business world and development organisations have build a huge information base on what works and what not. Still, every organisation has to compose its own KM initiative.
Knowledge Management is a process
Cecilia Matanga - Thursday 24 March 2005
I have been a passive audience but I feel I should share with you how we in an HIV and AIDS NGO define knowledge management. We have tried to make it as simple as it can possibly be but we cannot run away form the fact that KM is a process and its all about managing the creation, usage, application organisation of knowledge as a way of improving efficiency. We cannot afford not knowing what we know so we need mechanisms that will help us learn and share what we know already.
Our definition is "Knowledge Management is a process. It consists of the identification, capture, enhancement, creation, evaluation, sharing and application of knowledge for effective decision-making and improved levels of performance.
This in turn will help achieve organisational objectives. The key to successful knowledge management intervention is knowledge sharing which will enable organisations to continually learn and innovate"
We have defined:
Data: as a set of facts and figures i.e. it is quantitative
Information: as data in a meaningful context. It is both qualitative and quantitative
Knowledge as information enhanced by experiences, ideas, and the study of factual information.
