Week 9 : Knowledge Management Systems

On 2 of August 2013 we had our lecture 10 of TKM 1291 Introduction to Knowledge Management . The topic of this lecture was Knowledge Management Systems. Basically as usual , we went through on the learning outcomes firstly. The outcomes that we must know are :

·         To explain the nature of systems thinking

·         To describe knowledge management systems and key drivers

·         To distinguish between the different types of knowledge management systems

·         To discuss how knowledge management systems contribute to the knowledge process

·         To discuss critical issues for successful knowledge management system development and implementation

 

  Madam  have discussed what a system all about is. We can say that a system:

 

·         Has elements.

·         Has relationships between elements; could be causal or feedback loops.

·         Has a limit.

·         Has an environment outside the boundary.

·         Has an input and an output.

Figure 1: General characteristics of a system

 

We can say that there was a high productivity and throughput in 1960s. Nowadays, the business strategy has been enhanced. This is in term of:

·         Enable knowledge capture and exchange

Ø  Openly, freely, readily.

·         Facilitate the acquisition, documentation, transfer, creation and application of knowledge.

·         Ensure greater knowledge functionality.

Ø  Maintain a record of all electronic assets.

Ø  Automatically indexing, and categorization.

Ø  Personal customization.

Figure 2

 

Basically there is a range of supporting technologies in four areas of activity. They are:

·         Business process management.

·         Content management.

·         Web content management.

·         Knowledge applications management.

In the aspects of technical:

·         Smooth the progress of development and construction.

·         Support organization’s business operation.

·         Technologically driven with complex databases and CMS.

·         The examples are: financial management, HR management, records management, CRM.

The strategic used are:

·         Guides and shapes the construction of KMS.

·         Builds commercial strategy.

·         Directly affects KMS.

Ø  Decides who will be able to access.

Ø  Which knowledge has highest priority.

Ø  How knowledge admission should be supported.

 

 

Figure 3

 

Figure 4

 

Figure 5

 

Figure 6

A part from that, we also studied about:

Ø  Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS). EDMS is a union of document processing, imaging and IT. It combines text with digital audio and video.

Ø  Decision Support System (DSS). DSS assists in decision making by combining data, analytical tools and models to support structured and unstructured decisions.

Ø  Group Decision Support System. It is an Interactive system to facilitate solution of unstructured problems working in a group.

Ø  Executive Support Systems (ESS): ESS usually helps senior managers with unstructured problems. The manager can keep away from information overload by filtering organisational data into graphical form.

Ø  Performance Support System (PSS): PSS assists groups or individuals to perform certain tasks and it might include multimedia delivery and use techniques such as expert systems and natural language recognition.

Ø  Workflow Management System (WMS): It allocates documents and other forms of knowledge to be routed among individuals and applications according to predefined processes.

Ø  Customer Relationship Management System (CRM): CRM helps to organize all business and technological processes dealing with the customer.

Finally we can conclude that KMS can significantly improve the knowledge management. Different kind if subsystems contribute a lot to the KMS. Knowledge user receiving is vital to the successful accomplishment of KMS.

 

 

 

 

Week 9 : Tutorial 9

On 30 of July 2013 we had our tutorial 9 of TKM 1291 Introduction to knowledge Management. In this tutorial Madam have gave us both the Mid-term paper and supplementary paper back to us to see our answers and she said that some of us have done better in the supplementary paper. Then she have show us how to focus while answering the case study questions and also revise with us the supplementary test answers . At the end of the class Madam have informed us that the classes on the week after Raya is canceled.

 

 

Week 8 : Knowledge Management Tools

On 26 of July 2013 , we had our lecture 8 and 9 of TKM 1291 introduction to Knowledge Management. Since Chapter is not important we just went through it .

 

Then Madam continued teaching Lecture 9 right after she finished teaching Lecture 8. The topic of Lecture 8 is Knowledge Management Tools . So basically there are few learning outcomes that we must cover as usual. They are : -

·         To describe different component technologies found in KM

·         To explain different technologies for capturing, organizing, storing and sharing new knowledge

·         To contrast the functions of different component technologies

·         To select appropriate KM technologies for particular needs

Basically we can say that, knowledge comes in a variety of form such as:

·         Structured: financial data, sales data, customer data, demographic data

·         Semi-Structured: cases, policies, procedures, action plans

·         Unstructured: documents, e-mails, presentations, video

The figure shows about the major KM Techniques, Tools and Technologies used.

 

Figure 1

 

We then studied types of capturing knowledge. They are:

·         Cognitive mapping tools: This mapping tool is a visual representation of the domain which makes explicit mentally the concepts that exist within the domain and the relationship between them.The map is probably to be tacit and unarticulated within individual or organization.

·         Information retrieval tools: There are 2 main processes basically, which are

¨       Create index – enables the location of a text and document structure (logical view); speed up retrieval & reduce computational cost

¨       Solve user’s information needs in the form of query through algorithms and ranking the results in some form of relevance to the user.

·         Search engines. Information retrieval principles are applied in a wide range of environments and for a range of purposes.

·         Agent technology. Agents are computer systems that are capable of autonomous action in a given environment in order to fulfil their design objectives. The applications used are:

¨       Electronic mail filtering

¨       Agent wrappers- update critical organisation functions periodically

¨       Processing text in documents to identify key sentences

¨       Business new feeds

·         Personalisation :-

Besides, we also learnt about sharing knowledge. It can be done by:

·         Internet/Intranet.

·         Web 2.0 Platform.

·         Blogs.

·         Syndications & RSS Feeds.

·         Mashups .

·         Wikis.

·         Online social networks.

·         3-D virtual sharing.

·         Groupware tools.

·         Application tools.

We can evaluate the knowledge that we captured or shared by:

·         Case-based reasoning.

·         On-Line analytical processing (OLAP).

·         Data mining.

·         Data warehouse.

Hence, in order to present our knowledge, we have to visualize it. There are few steps for the visualisation. Such as:

·         Modelling – way of representing objects e.g. journal covers, weather maps, flows of citations.

·         Rendering – makes computer generated image look like photograph e.g. texture mapping.

·         Virtual reality.

 

 

 

Week 8 : Tutorial 7

On 23 of July 2013 , we had our tutorial 7 of TKM 1291 introduction to knowledge Management. First of all Madam told us that we are going to ignore tutorial 6 for a while . Tutorial 7 was about the KM Organizational Culture.

So basically the first question was to identify how leaders can support and obstruct KM. Here some of the examples :

 

To support KM : - 
1- Leaders may have good leadership.

2- Leaders may provide rewards

3- Leaders may send for training.

4- Leaders may provide environment.

 

To obstructs KM : -
1- Leaders may show reluctances.

2- Leaders may do not support ideas.

3- Leaders may do not have an environment to share.

 

The next question required that the issues that  the new members in any organization should know and implement . Here are some of the issues that should be required :

1- Everyone must come on time whether to meetings or the daily working hours.

2- Everyone Must contribute by at least on idea in any discussion.

3- Everyone must respect each member's opinions and ideas.

4- Everything discussed should be private an protected.

 

Then the last question was about what is the most important and wanted of Effective Knowledge Cultures. There are so many answers for this question . in our opinion we think that the most important is trust and honesty because  always when there is  a faith everything will be in the safe side.

 

Then the Madam have announced the very big surprise for that week which was redoing tutorial 6 as our supplementary mid-term test since most of us failed in the mid-term. the question was by 65 % straight forward we can find it in the slides and 45 % of it was required some thinking to answer it . Most of us was happy because we were abled to make far better than the first one. Finally we have submitted our papers to Madam .