Towards a knowledge technology for knowledge management

Knowledge Management (KM) is crucial to organizational survival, yet is a difficult task requiring large expenditure of resources. Information Technology solutions, such as email, document management and intranets, are proving very useful in certain areas. However, many important problems still exist, providing opportunities for new techniques and tools more oriented towards knowledge. We refer to this as Knowledge Technology. A framework has been developed which has allowed opportunities for Knowledge Technology to be identified in support of five key KM activities: personalization, creation/innovation, codification, discovery and capture/monitor. In developing Knowledge Technology for these areas, methods from knowledge engineering are being explored. Our main work in this area has involved the application and evaluation of existing knowledge for a large intranet system. This, and other case studies, have provided important lessons and insights which have led to ongoing research in ontologies, generic models and process modelling methods. We believe that the evidence presented here shows that knowledge engineering has much to offer KM and can be the basis on which to move towards a Knowledge Technology. © 1999 Academic Press