CHANGE & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Module 8 MBA IV Semester Knowledge Management Faculty: Krupa Joshi

Futuristic KM: Knowledge Engineering, Theory of Computation, Data Structure.

A problem with Knowledge Management and Information Management is that there are so many different meanings, many overlapping. "Knowledge Management comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning."3 "Information Management is characterized by the phrase 'Getting the right information to the right person at the right place at the right time'. One distinction between the two terms is that Knowledge Management is about people, how they create, share and use information, whereas Information Management is often associated with the information Because of the confusion surrounding the difference between Knowledge Management and Information Management, there is a role for librarians and information professionals to help develop an institutional understanding of the importance of the 'human interface' of Knowledge Management and to not focus on the technical systems only. A strategic view to Knowledge Management is required, as organisations will be challenged to unlock the information and knowledge held in people's heads (tacit knowledge) to remain competitive. As such, it should not be seen as a bolt-on to a traditional Information Management strategy that deals with the technology only. People are natural knowledge managers. They receive new information all throughout each day and they decide what to retain and what to ignore, who to pas what on to because they would be interested, and what to consider as a problem that needs more thought. They do this effortlessly and, for the most part, unconsciously. They learn and get smarter as a result of every experience. It is natural to wonder then, why those who worry about these same issues in knowledge management dont simply just copy the methods that people use and build enterprise-wide knowledge management systems that mimic how people do the same tasks. Whats that you say? We dont know how people do these tasks? Not so fast. We know quite a bit. The reason knowledge management systems dont mimic people is that those who build these systems are typically not cognitive scientists. Looking at KM from a Cognitive Science point of view changes everything. Today, knowledge management systems store knowledge about manuals and procedures the way a library catalog system does the same job. They use an initial set of categories, to describe the domain of knowledge. Such a static system changes with great difficulty.

Once you have designed it, it never really changes. More importantly, changing it requires outside intervention, maybe a committee and a total re-design. Why does the ability to change how knowledge is indexed matter? It is called learning. If a person doesnt get smarter as a result of experience he is called dumb. A KM system simply get slower as a result of more information. It never has a good experience, recognizing how two different documents considered together can shed a whole new light on an issue. It never has that experience because it actually understands nothing about what these documents contain. It is like a librarian who cant read. We can do better. A set of manuals about proper procedure (or even an entire library of books) will hold answers too many questions that an employee of an enterprise might have. While the answers are there, the questions are not. Who goes to a library with a business question like how can I really improve my companys value proposition? Many companies are investing in knowledge management these days. Companies are getting bigger and more disconnected. What is known in one office may have never even been heard of in another. The more people write down what they know and what their experiences have been, the more important it is to be able to access that information without specifically asking for it. One person wont know that another has just written. The KM system must be able to realize that the experience that Joe has just had will help Mary with the problem she is working on now. KM systems and other enterprise applications clearly do not do this. (Otherwise no one would complain of over-information. Note that people never feel that they personally know too much. They just think that other people are trying to give them too much information, which they could not possibly absorb.) Over information is the result of bad knowledge management. Television, enterprise information, the internet all give us over information why do people not complain of this sort of over information in their own minds? Because the human mind manages information very well. Why do we want our knowledge management systems or our enterprise applications or our e-mail to manage information? Shouldnt we want our systems to co-ordinate the enterprise and make them act according to all its experience? It would be correct to assume that all corporations want their key staff to notice important circumstances and know how these apply to the business. When one key staff member can be relied upon to notice, is the corporation satisfied? Shouldnt more people notice? How long does it take to train a senior corporate officer who can be relied upon to identify the corporations risk and opportunities in time to act? How many people need to feed this person with timely information through e-mails and meetings to make sure the right issues get attention? How much time do senior people spend reading things that are irrelevant and how often do they worry that they have not gone through enough (possibly useless) information to be sure a major risk or opportunity is not being overlooked?

Futuristic KM: Early KM technologies included online corporate yellow pages as expertise locators and document management systems. Combined with the early development of collaborative technologies (in particular Lotus Notes and similar software). KM technologies expanded in the mid-1990s. Subsequent KM efforts leveraged semantic technologies for search and retrieval and the development of e-learning tools for communities of practice. Knowledge management systems can thus be categorized as falling into one or more of the following groups: Groupware, Document management systems, Expert systems, Semantic networks, Relational and object oriented databases, Simulation tools, and Artificial intelligence.

More recently, development of social computing tools (such as bookmarks, blogs, and wikis) have allowed more unstructured, self-governing or ecosystem approaches to the transfer, capture and creation of knowledge, including the development of new forms of communities, networks, or matrixes organizations. However such tools for the most KM parts are still based on text and code, and thus it represent only explicit knowledge transfer. These tools face challenges in distilling meaningful re-usable knowledge and ensuring that their content is transmissible through diverse channels. Software tools in knowledge management are a collection of technologies and are not necessarily acquired as a single software solution. Furthermore, these knowledge management software tools have the advantage of using the organizations existing information technology infrastructure. Organizations and business decision makers spend a great deal of resources and make significant investments in the latest technology, systems and infrastructure to support knowledge management. It is imperative that these investments are validated properly, made wisely and that the most appropriate technologies and software tools are selected or combined to facilitate knowledge management. Knowledge management has also become a cornerstone in emerging business strategies such as Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) with companies increasingly turning to software vendors to enhance their efficiency in different industries.

Knowledge Engineering:

Process of: Eliciting, Structuring, Formalizing, Operationalizing Information and knowledge involved in a knowledge-intensive problem domain, in order to construct a program that can perform a difficult task adequately. Knowledge engineering is a field within artificial intelligence that develops knowledgebased systems. Such systems are computer programs that contain large amounts of knowledge, rules and reasoning mechanisms to provide solutions to real-world problems. A major form of knowledge-based system is an expert system, one designed to emulate the reasoning processes of an expert practitioner (i.e. one having performed in a professional role for many years). Typical examples of expert systems include diagnosis of bacterial infections, advice on mineral exploration and assessment of electronic circuit designs. KE is an engineering discipline that involves integrating knowledge into computer systems in order to solve complex problems normally requiring a high level of human expertise. At present, it refers to the building, maintaining and development of knowledge-based systems. It has a great deal in common with software engineering, and is used in many computer science domains such as artificial intelligence, including databases, data mining, expert systems, decision support systems and geographic information systems.

Knowledge engineering is also related to mathematical logic, as well as strongly involved in cognitive science and socio-cognitive engineering where the knowledge is produced by socio-cognitive aggregates (mainly humans) and is structured according to our understanding of how human reasoning and logic works.

Various activities of KE specific for the development of a knowledge-based system: Assessment of the problem Development of a knowledge-based system structure Acquisition and structuring of the related information, knowledge and specific preferences. Implementation of the structured knowledge into knowledge bases Testing and validation of the inserted knowledge Integration and maintenance of the system Revision and evaluation of the system.

Knowledge engineering principles: Since the mid-1980s, knowledge engineers have developed a number of principles, methods and tools to improve the knowledge acquisition and ordering. Some of the key principles are: There are different: Types of knowledge each requiring its own approach and technique. Types of experts and expertise, such that methods should be chosen appropriately. Ways of representing knowledge, which can aid the acquisition, validation and re-use of knowledge. Ways of using knowledge, so that the acquisition process can be guided by the project aims (goal-oriented). Structured methods increase the efficiency of the acquisition process. Knowledge Engineering is the process of eliciting Knowledge for any purpose be it Expert system or Artificial Intelligence development.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent. The ability to create intelligent machines has intrigued humans since ancient times, and today with the advent of the computer and 50 years of research into AI programming techniques, the dream of smart machines is becoming a reality. An expert system is software that attempts to reproduce the performance of one or more human experts, most commonly in a specific problem domain, and is a traditional application and subfield of artificial intelligence. Expert systems may or may not have learning components but a common element id that once the system is developed it is proven by being placed in the same real world problem solving situation as the human SME (Subject Matter Expert), typically as an aid to human workers or a supplement to some information system. Knowledge based systems are artificial intelligent tools working in a narrow domain to provide intelligent decisions with justification. Knowledge is acquired and represented using various knowledge representation techniques rules, frames and scripts. The basic advantages offered by such system are documentation of knowledge, intelligent decision support, self learning, reasoning and explanation. Knowledge-based systems are systems based on the methods and techniques of Artificial Intelligence. Their core components are: Knowledge base Acquisition mechanisms Inference mechanisms

Knowledge Base Systems (KBS) goes beyond the decision support philosophy to indicate the expert system technology into the decision making framework. Expert Systems (ES) have been the tools and techniques perfected by artificial intelligence (AI) researchers to deduce decision influences based on codification of knowledge. The codification of knowledge uses the principles of knowledge representation (part of the large theoretical ideas of knowledge engineering). Typically such codification uses rules like IFTHEN rules to represent logical implications. Overview of Trends in Knowledge Engineering: Some of the trends in Knowledge Engineering in the last few years are discussed in this section. The text below is a brief overview of paper "Knowledge Engineering: Principles and methods" authored by Rudi Studer,V.Richard Benjamins and Dieter Fensel.

Computer decision aids for problem-solving and decision making in environmental science and management:

The paradigm Shift from a transfer view to a modeling view: According to the transfer view the human knowledge required to solve a problem is transferred and implemented into the knowledge base. However this assumes that concrete knowledge is already present in humans to solve a problem. The transfer view disregards the tacit knowledge an individual acquires in order to solve a problem. This is one of the reasons for a paradigm shift towards modeling view. This shift is compared to a shift from first generation expert systems to second generation expert systems. The modeling view is a closer approximate of reality and perceives solving problems as a dynamic, cyclic, incessant process dependent on the knowledge acquired and the interpretations made by the system. This is similar to how an expert solves problems in real life. The evolving of Role Limiting methods and Generic Tasks: Role limiting methods are based on reusable problem solving methods. Different knowledge roles are decided and the knowledge expected from each of these roles is clarified. However the disadvantage of role limiting methods is that there is no logical means of deciding whether a specific problem can be solved by a specific role-limiting method. This disadvantage gave rise to Configurable role limiting methods. Configurable role limiting methods are based on the idea

that a problem solving method can further be broken up into several smaller sub tasks each task solved by its own problem solving method. Generic Tasks include a rigid knowledge structure, a standard strategy to solve problems, a specific input and a specific output. Theory of Computation: The theory of computation is the branch of computer science that deals with whether and how efficiently problems can be solved on model of computation, using an algorithm. The theory of computation aims at understanding the nature of computation, and specifically the inherent possibilities and limitations of efficient computations. The field is divided into three major branches: computerization (Automata) theory, computability theory and computational complexity theory. The theory of computation provides a new viewpoint on old phenomena, it also concerned with finding the most efficient methods for solving specific problems. A theoretical treatment of what can be computed and how fast it can be done. Applications to compilers, string searching, and control circuit design will be discussed. The hierarchy of finite state machines, pushdown machines, context free grammars and Turing machines will be analyzed, along with their variations. The theory of computation can be considered the creation of models of all kinds in the field of computer science. Therefore mathematics and logic are used. In the last century it became an independent academic discipline and was separated from mathematics.

Computability theory: Computability theory deals primarily with the question of whether a problem is solvable at all on a computer. Much of computability theory builds on the halting problem result. Computability theory is closely related to the branch of mathematical logic called recursion theory, which removes the restriction of studying only models of computation which are close to physically realizable.

Complexity theory: Complexity theory considers not only whether a problem can be solved. Two major aspects are considered: time complexity and space complexity, which are respectively how many steps does it take to perform a computation, and how much memory is required to perform that computation. In order to analyze how much time and space a given algorithm requires computer scientists express the time or space required to solve the problem as a function of the size of the input problem. Complexity theory is a central field of Theoretical Computer Science, with a remarkable list of celebrated achievements as well as a very vibrant present research activity.

Data Structure: In computer science, a data structure is a particular way of storing and organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently. Different kinds of data structures are suited to different kinds of applications, and some are highly specialized to specific tasks. Data structures are used in almost every program or software system. Data structures provide a means to manage huge amounts of data efficiently, such as large databases and internet indexing services. Usually, efficient data structures are a key to designing efficient algorithms. Some formal design methods and programming languages emphasize data structures, rather than algorithms, as the key organizing factor in software design for KM system. In programming, the term data structure refers to a scheme for organizing related pieces of information.

The basic types of data structures include: Files Lists Arrays (Collection/Range) Records Trees Tables

TYPES OF DATA STRUCTURE: BASE DATA STRUCTURE: o PRIMITIVE o COMPOSITE LINEAR DATA STRUCTURE: o LIST o ASSOCIATE NONLINEAR DATA STRUCTURE: o GRAPH o TREE

Active Data Structure: Active data structure is a data structure with an associated thread or process that performs internal operations to give the external behaviour of another, usually more general, data structure. Persistent Data Structure: Persistent data structure is a data structure which always preserves the previous version of itself when it is modified; such data structures are effectively immutable, as their operations do not (visibly) update the structure in-place, but instead always yield a new updated structure. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE ORGANIZATION: Research in KM has emphasized the need to employ knowledge management practices to gain a competitive advantage over the other organizations. Organizations may implement different KM systems depending on the environment confronted by the organization.

There are 8Cs of Knowledge Management Success: Connectivity Content Community Culture Capacity Cooperation Commerce Capital

In other words successful KM practices can be facilitated by adequate employee access to KM tools, user-friendly work oriented inputs, communities of practice, a culture of knowledge, learning capacity, a spirit of cooperation, commercial and other incentives, and carefully measured capital investments and returns.