US Government defines "knowledge management"
A member of a mailing list pointed us to the US Government's definition of knowledge management:
Defines the set of capabilities that support the identification, gathering and transformation of documents, reports and other sources into meaningful information.
The definition further breaks KM down into a number of representative processes / capabilities:
- Categorization
- Information Mapping / Taxonomy
- Information Retrieval
- Information Sharing
- Knowledge Capture
- Knowledge Discovery
- Knowledge Distribution and Delivery
- Knowledge Engineering
- Smart Documents
Even though the definition is fairly technology-centric, and I generally agree with it.
This is part of the E-Government Initiative, and this definition is ground together with other Digital Asset Services (KM, Content Management, Document Management, and Records Management) in their Federal Enterprise Architecture efforts. This sits under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The KM definition and related processes seem to be a level above the definitions for CM, DM and RM. This definition of knowledge management suggests more that KM is about the capability to share knowledge, for example, rather than the details of how that is to happen.
6 Comment(s)
OK, they have defined it, now will they screw it up on execution?
This seems to be such a limited view of knowledge management and totally avoids the issue of 'knowledge,' that is, the stuff in our heads. Only focussing on information will defintely lead to more databases and document repositories and little been done with attracting and maintaining talent, peer assists, expertise location, communities of practice and a myriad of other KM practices with about connecting people. As you can see this gets me a little hot under the collar because it perpetuates an unhelpful, in my opinion, view of knowledge management.
I linked to the techno-centric description from the US government a few days ago, and both Yigal Chamish and Shawn Callahan rightly complained in the comments that it missed whole aspects of KM that are important to the field. Here is some thought on ... Read More
Hi Jack,
KM is any process which incoporates the desire to expand our range of inquiry with the need to simplify our options or decisions.
Don Mezei
This is an OK definition but it seems to me that it misses a key point - "doing". Would a definition more like "Defines the set of capabilities that support the identification, gathering and transformation of documents, reports and other sources into meaningful action." be more useful? What good is knowledge if we don't plan to act on it. This distinction - knowledge management and operational decision-making is one that comes up all over, not just in government (see this post on insurance segmentation as an example.
I suppose "Knowledge Distribution and Delivery" somewhat addresses this but not really.
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KJolt Memberships
It is Technology-Focused indeed. However, it is important to mention the cultural aspects of Knowledge Management as well.