KM Overview

Technologies & Tools

©   Fred Nickols  2000
The best-known example of knowledge management tools might be Lotus Notes, a member of the "groupware" family. Among other things, Lotus Notes allows document sharing among work teams. In KM jargon, Lotus Notes is a heavy-duty "document handler." But there is more to the technology supporting knowledge management than Lotus Notes -- much more -- not the least of which is a "lighter" document handler called Domino.

Technologies supporting KM initiatives include intranets, videoconferencing, intelligent agents, hypertext, executive information systems (EIS), expert systems in support of call centers and help desks, data and knowledge warehouses (along with data mining), search engines, and a host of others. Even e-mail and discussion lists can be used to support knowledge management initiatives.

The technology readings section below contains links to some articles found on the Internet that deal with KM technologies. These in turn provide many leads to the companies providing these technologies. The article by Amy Malloy provides an excellent overview of the technologies currently being use to support knowledge management initiatives.

KM Technology Readings

Five technology-specific readings are included here. Each is briefly described below.

"Does KM = IT?"  In a September 1999 issue of CIO Magazine, senior editor Carol Hildebrand asks the question serving as the lead into this paragraph.   Her answer is a resounding "No!"  In answering her question, she touches on three big myths about KM:

  1. KM Technologies deliver the right information to the right person at the right time.
  2. Information technologies can store human experience and intelligence.
  3. Information technologies can distribute human intelligence.

"Enterprise Knowledge Management (PDF)  In this article, from Computer Magazine (March 1998), Daniel E. O’Leary, of USC, provides a brief overview of knowledge management and then spends the bulk of the article reviewing supporting technologies.   He also provides several links to KM-related sites in three categories: Data Warehousing, Knowledge Management and Knowledge Discovery.

"Technologies, Techniques and Disciplines in Knowledge Management."  Phil Murray provides an excellent overview of the many technologies now being brought to bear under the general heading of knowledge management. These include:

  1. computer-supported collaborative work (includes groupware)
  2. distributed and open hypertext systems
  3. document management
  4. geographic information systems (GIS)
  5. help desk technology
  6. intranets
  7. knowledge representation (including concept mapping, semantic networks, hypertext and information modeling)
  8. knowledge sharing
  9. metadata
  10. ontologies

"Knowledge Management - Knowing What We Know (.doc)"  This article, by Justin Hibbard, was originally obtained from the Information Week archives (October 20, 1997) but is no longer available.  This is a Microsoft Word version of the original article. Hibbard provides a broad overview of the current state of knowledge management with emphasis on supporting technologies.

"Supporting Knowledge Management: You Have It Now."  Amy Malloy, in the February 1998 issue of ComputerWorld, reviews the basic technologies involved in knowledge management systems and provides a list of vendors.

The next and last section of this KM Overview touches on some factors underlying the emergence of KM as a field of endeavor and as an issue of such great importance to organizations.

Go to Knowledge Management: What's It All About?

 
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Fred Nickols may be reached by e-mail at nickols@att.net.

 
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This page last updated on September 5, 2004