This was originally published on 16 July 2004 as a blog post called “KM Complexity”. The text and table were not together, so I have combined them here as an article.
Most of us working on knowledge management say that KM is 80% culture and process and only 20% technology. That is true, but sometimes the technology can be a challenge.
I was looking through some of my files and came across a grid I developed a while back. Click here for grid. It illustrates, for common types of explicit (written) and tacit (unwritten) knowledge, the possible computer file formats and computer storage locations. I have indicated primary and secondary file types and locations using a solid and empty block. The many file types and locations illustrate the potential challenges of gathering knowledge artifacts into a single system. Perhaps the complexity of this grid explains what appears to be a growing interest in “federated search,” that is, the ability to search multiple repositories of information simultaneously.
Viewing the grid also helps explain the challenges of dealing with tacit know-how. The relative sparseness of the lower half of the grid illustrates that tacit data, unlike the explicit, cannot merely be copied or searched. It often has to be created from scratch.
Summary of Data File Formats and Storage Locations
|
Common Computer File Formats |
|||||||||
| Word |
Out- look |
Excel |
Power- Point |
|
TIFF | Data-
base |
HTML |
||
| EXPLICIT | |||||||||
| Documents |
■ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
||
| Contacts |
□ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
||||
| Firm financial info |
■ |
■ |
|||||||
| Lawyer + staff info |
■ |
□ |
■ |
||||||
| Info from/about clients |
■ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
■ |
■ |
|
| TACIT | |||||||||
| Profile data |
□ |
□ |
|||||||
| Contextual info |
□ |
□ |
□ |
||||||
| Best practices |
□ |
||||||||
| Expertise |
□ |
□ |
■ |
||||||
| Relationship info |
□ |
□ |
□ |
||||||
| Common Computer Storage Locations | ||||||||||
|
DocMngt |
E-mail Server |
Lit Supp |
Disk Drive |
Doc. Assmbly |
Practice Systems |
Portal – Intranet |
Mktg DB |
Acctg Sys |
HR
Sys |
|
| EXPLICIT | ||||||||||
| Documents |
■ |
■ |
■ |
□ |
■ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
|
| Contacts |
□ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
■ |
■ |
□ |
||
| Firm financial info |
□ |
■ |
||||||||
| Lawyer + staff info |
■ |
□ |
■ |
■ |
■ |
|||||
| Info from/about clients |
■ |
■ |
■ |
□ |
■ |
□ |
■ |
■ |
||
| TACIT | ||||||||||
| Profile data |
■ |
■ |
■ |
□ |
□ |
□ |
||||
| Contextual info |
□ |
□ |
□ |
|||||||
| Best practices |
□ |
|||||||||
| Expertise |
■ |
□ |
□ |
|||||||
| Relationship info |
□ |
□ |
||||||||
KEY |
|
| Primary file type or storage location |
■ |
| Secondary file type or storage location |
□ |