The evolution of information technology has resulted in two important realities: The first is almost universal access to personal computers/appliances combined with continuous improvement in connectivity provides an unprecedented capability for information management and communication. The second is that companies are confronted by an exponential growth of information flowing through the Internet and intranets.

Discussions of information trends often fall under the heading of knowledge management. Although there is considerable interest in the subject, there is also disagreement about what knowledge management is or should be. The chat traffic in one of the larger knowledge management Web sites runs from skepticism, as in, "Can you really manage knowledge?", to help requests from individuals hoping to apply knowledge management to their particular problems. The literature similarly spans a wide range from relatively narrow information systems issues to philosophical discussions about enterprise operations and decision-making processes. Stepping away from the esoteric and definitional debates, the realities of exponential information growth and a networked society remain, and the question is, "how should a pragmatic organization respond?"

One answer is to do nothing. Most companies are happy with their decision-making processes, and major strides in communication via e-mail and the Internet have already occurred. Individuals can self-select from unprecedented information available over the Internet/intranets. The problem with this approach is that it underutilizes the technology that most companies have installed. Traveling down this road puts one at a disadvantage compared to those companies actively optimizing information availability and communication within the organization.

On the other hand, the decision to develop and deploy knowledge management systems comes with its own set of problems. The success of disciplines such as knowledge management depends on a culture amenable to what they can offer. Anyone interested in establishing a knowledge management function needs to think long and hard about the political and cultural environment in which it is expected to operate. If the intent is a corporate wide application, a central question is, who, at the executive management level, will champion the effort? In the absence of such support, proponents of the technology often have, beyond the obvious difficulties of developing and deploying any new system, ongoing political, funding, and general acceptance burdens. In such cases, the effort often has better success if confined to a subset of the company where there is more control over its development.

In most organizations, information is concentrated in corporate libraries, market research, finance, and other groups with funding to develop or acquire data. Historically, requests for information were funneled to librarians or research analysts who retrieved data. As the Internet developed, individuals have become able to access information at their desktop without going through the traditional information keepers. Since "data is power", the traditional information keepers are often in competition with each other and knowledge management can be seen as another threat to their historic power base. Achieving cooperation among such groups is important not just for information access, but for training, support, and the installation of new technology. The resources required for these activities are often underestimated and they can be substantial, costing more over time than software and programming.

Another significant consideration is the team who will be implementing the knowledge management system. Most important is the development of the taxonomy required for organizing database information. Since this is unique to the intended application and organization, it requires a thorough understanding of the business and the ability to seek input from stakeholders in the company. Knowledge management is not just a more sophisticated application of software, rather, it requires human interaction to determine the significance of information to the organization and to combine the disparate types of information.

Companies tend to vary in their method of deploying knowledge management systems based on culture. Some prefer to fully deploy in a given department or group and then migrate the technology to other groups. Another approach is to deploy across the entire organization using early adopters. Typically, it is fairly easy to identify the most influential people in the company, regardless of level, and select from that group, those who are early adopters. As opinion leaders, this group's usage of new technology can have high visibility and encourage others to emulate them. Early adopters often have characteristics helpful to the roll-out in that they are likely to readily grasp the potential of the new technology, are tolerant of start up difficulties, are often hands-on oriented, and are willing to provide constructive feedback.

One of the best applications for showcasing knowledge management is competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence involves significant amounts of information composed of both hard data as well as soft information, the latter being unwritten information residing with individuals of an organization as a result of conversations or experience. The collection and subsequent access to the hard data begins as a problem of improving information access. The process of teasing out soft information, its synthesis into a pattern, the coupling of it to known facts, and the synergy of the whole process constitutes the step from information to knowledge management ( A companion essay on this site addresses this application in detail).