Humans have a habit of combining concepts into “chunks”. It helps us remember things more easily, but the jargon associated with “chunks” can confuse others when we try to communicate, if they don’t have the same set of combined concepts. I am going to attempt to de-chunk and dejargonise KM
There are two end-member camps in the KM world – those who think KM is something revolutionary which is going to change the world, and those who think its nothing new, and nothing really different. I have a foot in each camp Let me explain why. Knowledge management is nothing
The link between Data, Information and Knowledge is not as simple as the three being a linear progression. Knowledge is something you ADD to Data and Information, rather than something that arises FROM Information. As an illustration, consider the link between data, information and knowledge as they are involved in
“Knowledge Management” is not an oxymoron, the term is merely being read the wrong way round. One primary argument against the term “Knowledge Management” is that knowledge cannot be managed. Knowledge is an intangible, is personal and context specific, and is not an object in it’s own right, so how
In an interesting New Scientist article, Harry Collins (author of “Tacit and Explicit knowledge“) describes three types of Tacit Knowledge. Image from wikimedia commons We know about the concept of tacit knowledge, which originally was described as knowledge which cannot be expresses (although often nowadays people use the term for knowledge which
This is a short analysis of the story of WalMart’s preparation for hurricanes, in order to explore the link between Big Data and Knowledge. Hurricane Irma food distribution, by City of St Pete on Flickr One of the earliest and most famous “big data” stories is around Walmart and it’s
If you are a competent ship’s master, what types of knowledge do you need to be able to navigate on a new voyage to an unknown port? You need two types – explicit and tacit, charts and pilots. Brunswick Harbor pilot by Ralph Daily on Flickr The charts, and the
There are many people who really don’t like the term Knowledge Management, and would much rather use some other terminology. But logically, these two words go together. There is a common view that the term “Knowledge Management” is an oxymoron; that “knowledge cannot be managed” and therefore the term makes
What is the purpose of KM? Why do we do it? What is it’s core objective? This is a subject worth exploring. If we are 100% sure about why we need, or why we do, KM, then we can be clearer about what sort of KM we need, and what
There is more than one type of Knowledge, and KM needs to decide which type requires the main focus and effort. Both linguistically and philosophically there is more than one type of knowledge. This is important, and is an area where the English Language is less than helpful to the