Knowledge
Tacit (unarticulated) Knowledge
Knowledge
Explicit (Codified) Knowledge
information in the right context
•Knowledge becomes intellectual assest on which an organisation’s sucess is
dependent.
•Knowledge becomes the key competencies of organisations.
•The underlying factors of this trend:
•Introduction of new ICT to all level of society
•Faster innovation
•Shorter product cycles
•The requirement for high skilled labour in many industries
Knowledge Life Cycle
start
Capture
Index
Knowledg
e Creation
Knowledge
Refinemen
t
Store
Archive
Knowledg
e Reuse
Retrieval
Knowledge Management
•Effectiveness of knowledge management becomes more important
because:
•More mobile workforce and increasing employee turnover rates – lead
to loss of knowledge
•Globalisation – people collaborate and exchange knowledge across
continent and time zones.
Technology perspective
Knowledge Management
Organisational culture perspective
Contribution of ICT to knowledge management:
•ICT increase the availability and speed of information.
•ICT support better communication between people in defined spaces
– open up possibility to exchange tacit knowledge
Knowledge Management Lifecycle
Semistructured
Unstructured
Jkjlk iuogns’jkhsui
jhkhpw
automatic or manual
extraction
Knowledge
Acquisition
Sharing
visualising
browsing
Knowledge
Use
Knowledge
Management
Life Cycle
Searching
Knowledge
Maintenance
e.g. Middleware
Knowledge
Representation
Knowledge
Model
Knowledge Model
•Knowledge model is used for communicating knowledge /idea to someone
•Most Knowledge management system are developed based on the different
chosen type of knowledge model.
Examples:
•Ladder
•Decision ladder, process ladder, composition ladder, concept ladder, etc
•Network Diagram
•Concept map, process map, state transition map
•Tabular representation
•Timeline, Frames/Tables, Matrix/Grid
•Hypertext
•Semantic Network
•Ontology (similar to concept map but conform to formalisations)
Example of knowledge model: Decision ladder
Description:
•To show the alternative courses of action for a particular decision.
•It also shows the pros and cons for each course of action, and possibly the
assumptions for each pro and con
Usage:
•A useful way of representing detailed process knowledge
Example of knowledge model: Concept map
Description:
•A type of diagram that shows knowledge objects as nodes and the relationships
between them as links (usually labelled arrows). Any types of concepts and relationships
can be used.
Usage:
•To illustrate the semantic relationships between concepts
Weaknesses of current KM System
•Information searching
•Keyword based search retrieves irrelevant information
•Information Extraction
•Dependent on human efforts to extract (e.g browse and read) relevant
information from information sources.
•Maintenance
•Difficulty in keeping weakly structured text sources consistent, correct
and up-to-date
•Automatic document generation.
•Extra efforts are needed to generate semi-structured information
presentations from semi-structured data.
Semantic web based Knowledge Management
•Semantic web
•extension of the current web (Bernes-Lee, 2001)
•Information becomes both human and machine understandable
•Ontologies are the core of semantic web
•Semantic web based knowledge management
•Use of ontology reasoning
•To cope with weaknesses that have been identified from current
knowledge management
What is ontology?
- This term has been used in several disciplines, from philosophy to knowledge
engineering.
-E.g. 1: Perspective of philosophy
Ontology is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of objects, properties,
events, processes and relations in every area of reality (Barry Smith)
-E.g. 2 : Perspective of information science
An ontology is a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the
concepts and relationships that can exist for an agent or a community of agents
(Tom Gruber)
-In general, ontology comprised concepts, concept properties, relationships between
concepts and constraints.
-It reflects a common undestanding of the semantics of the domain of discourse.
- Ontology language is used to define vocabularies that describe the semantics of the
domain of discourse.
Something related to ontology
Ontology languages:
Example of ontology:
•XML Schema
•RDF Schema
•OIL
•DAML+ OIL
•OWL
•Metadata can be defined based
on ontology model
•There are pre-defined metadata
from other sources,e.g. Wordnet.
•Concept properties are similar to
attributes in object-oriented
programming
metadata
Proposed methodology for semantic web
based knowledge management
Feasibility Study
•Focus domain for
ontology
•Identify people
involved
•Methods:
observation,
ethnographic study,
literature study,
questionnaire survey,
interview, etc.
Ontology
Kickoff
•Requirement
specification
•Analyse
knowledge
sources
•Create semiformal
description of
ontology
Refinement
•Knowledge
elicitation with
domain
experts
•Formalise
target ontology
Evaluation
•Check
requirements
•Test in target
application
•Analyse usage
patterns
Maintenance
& Evolution
•Manage
organisational
maintenance
process
•Evolution of
ontologies
How tacit knowledge is managed sociotechnically
•A large amount of the knowledge within an organisation may be tacit: it may be personal,
context-specific and difficult to write down, it has usually been transmitted socially
through a master-apprentice arrangement.
•More detail about tacit knowledge please see ”Polanyi, M. (1966) The Tacit Dimesion,
London: Routledge and Paul”
•Failure to transmit tacit knowledge through an organisation may lead to loss of expertise
when people leave, failure to benefit from the experience of others, unnecessary
duplication of a learning process, etc.
•Transfer of explicit knowledge is usually supported via the sharing of information (along
with additional meta-information).
•Technically transfer of tacit knowledge is usually indirectly supported in a way to allow
and encourage domain experts to contact others with shared interests or concerns.
Approaches developed to assist in solving
knowledge intensive tasks
Some examples of knowledge intensive tasks within and between organisations:
•Decision making
•Strategic Planning
•Creative Design
Knowledge management within the A/E/C sector focuses on capturing, sharing and
reusing of decision rationale and design intent for decision making support.
Various reasoning approaches have been experimented to achieve the task:
•Model-based approach (e.g. IDEAL)
•Case-based approach (e.g. ARCHIE, CASECAD)
•Argumentation-based approach
•History-based approach
•Device-based approach
•Process-based approach
•Active-document based approach
Define early design stage based on literature studies
Form internal model
T
T
+
T
Paper-based review
Fax to
Face-to-face group meeting
in physical workspace
Observation from Case Studies
Walkthrough collaboration activities of early design phase
Need Communication
Imagin
g
•Negotiation
•Compromis
e
•Agreement
Presenting
Collaborative Design (loose couple)
•Inception &
feasibility
•Outline proposals
•Scheme Design
•Produce
•Refer to
IT-CODE:M3
•Integrate
•Manage
Early design phase
Backtrack information
Use template based UI
to record meeting
minutes
Team organísational
structure, tasks,
responsibilities, when
to get involved, profit
sharing...
•Make context of
information explicit
•Reason context of
information with ontology
Stakeholders
Organise project team
structure
•Design-build
Partnering
Meeting
minutes
Ontology reasoning
Design information &
knowledge
Organise the weakly
structured
information with
ontology model
•Meeting minutes
•programs
•Sketches
•Drawings
•Etc.
Auto-annotation
Manual Annotation
•Who (creator/supporter/mitigator)?
•What (content)?
•When (date/stage of process)?
•Where (location)?
•How (agree/disagree)?
•Why (design intent)
•Design-bid-build
•Management
Contracting
Procurement methods
Use Case
Notations of the Rich Picture Diagram
Sign
Description
e.g.
•Role/community/actor/system that performs an assigned
activity/task; or
•Object that community/actor/system manipulates through
interactions.
integrate
Activity/task conducted through interaction between
roles/communities/actors/systems.
Interaction between roles/communities/actors/system that
are depicted at both ends.
artifact
Artifact that is produced by an activitity or is referred to in
an activity.
Concerns of an actor to perform his/her tasks.
Asdsd
adadd
Further explanation of role/community/actor/system/object.
Selection of the phd research study.
Generic Structure of Paper-based Meeting Minutes
Minutes Reference No.
Meeting Location
Meeting Type
Meeting Participants
Section
Section Title
Info Block 1
Info Block 2
Action taker
Meeting Date
Action taking date
Project Name
Design intent & Decision rationale in Discussion content
A piece of information is analogous as an object
Collaboration
process oriented
Meta-tag
Object
Relation
Object
Meta-tag
”Following his initial review of the option 3 layout drawings, Jack
advised that the deletion of one floor would reduce total vertical loads
and the structural vertical member sizes are expect to be reduced.”
Questions raised:
(an excerpt of informantion block from
meeting minutes)
•What is the information about?
•When is the information created?
•Who creates the information?
•How is the information created?
•Why is the information created?
•Where to find the information?
Ontology drafting
<Location>
URL:http://xxx.xx
has_location
<Name>
<Containe
r type>
meeting
minutes
<Container ID>
ESD23456
has_name
has_ID
is_contained_in
<Project
stage>
<Participant>
<Role>
has_role
agrees_with
<Agreement
>Deletion of 1
floor...expect to be
reduced.
reviews
<Alternative>
has_role
causes
improves <Agreement>
Bla bla bla
has_name
proposes
<Participant>
is_made_at
Ontology written in OWL: ProjectOnto...1
Annotator of Info (information) Block
The date when
the issue/idea is
discussed
The content of the discussed issue/idea
Section title wherein this
info block is organised
Title of the
discussed
issue/idea
The person who
raises the
issue/idea for
discussion
Action taker
The date when
the completion
of the assigned
task is expected
Minutes that contain this info block.
Date of minutes is displayed. Details
of minutes can be viewed by pressing
the V button
Contextualise Relationships between Ideas/Issues
Bind ideas/issues with context
dependent relations
Categorise
ideas/issues
Title of the discussed issues/ideas.
Detailed description is available by
double clicking the symbol.
Group Discussion
Tasks:
•You are required to form groups of 5-6.
•Discuss the following assignment question in group. Discussion time : 1 hour 30 minutes
•Share your discussion result(s) in front of the class (yes, it means to present the discussion results).
Each group will have 10 minutes to present the results. You are required to submit your presentation
material(s) at the end of the class.
Assignment question:
•
As mentioned in the course material, knowledge is one of the important strategic resources of an
organisation. Knowledge has been identified as intellectual asset that may improve competencies of
organisations, and most knowledge is tacit. Anthony is a famous architect in the city and he owns an
architectural firm for more than 20 years with 50 employees work under him. Anthony faces dilemmas
of high employee turnover rate, increased mobile workforce and globalisation, which challenge his
mode of practice. If you were asked to spend some time to help Anthony out of these dilemmas with
your background knowledge and ICT skills, what will you do?
•
Hints:
•
Firstly, you may use your own fantasy to illustrate the current mode of practice of Anthony’s
architectural firm.
•
Secondly, you may analyse in depth why Anthony needs to change his mode of practice. You
may need to specify the methodology you use for your analysis (e.g interview, ethnographic
study, etc).
•
You may use your fantasy filtered with what you have learnt from this course (Master of IT and
Building Management) to draft a new system for Anthony’s firm that may cope with Anthony’s
problems that you stated previously. REMEMBER to share with us ALL of your results of
discussions.