KM needs both implicit and tacit
Steven Wieneke has been active in the KM scene for quite some time. I came across him while he was at GM, and he has now hung out a consulting shingle with a deep interest in knowledge management. I discovered a white paper entitled, Success in any Economy, which talks about the value of BOTH written knowledge (explicit) and personal know how. Nice compilation of thoughts.
It is true that the KM community often dismisses the value of written knowledge, but without that written material, people often have no resources and reference material to start their hunt for other people and other knowledge.
Knowledge assets are documents, technical references or other intellectual properties. These assets are one of three categories of intellectual capital an enterprise has. The other 2 categories are individual know how (technical excellence) and good discussions (intellectual exchanges).Knowledge assets can be structured, semi structured or unstructured. In this article, structured assets are virtual documents managed in a knowledge base. Semi structured assets are template documents. Unstructured assets are free-text documents. Semi structured and unstructured assets can at best be used passively, at the discretion of an individual. Structured assets can be used either passively or actively. Active knowledge assets are directly tied to individual workflow (processes or design math data) allowing continual assessment of compliance.
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It is true that the KM community often dismisses the value of written knowledge
Jack, I don't think that's completely true. Certain KM gurus have "overcompensated" in their public presentations for the emphasis on written documentation.
However the majority of KM folks I meet are working with a lot of explicit documentation as well as all this touchy-feely tacit stuff.
without that written material, people often have no resources and reference material to start their hunt for other people and other knowledge
Yeah, there's definitely a symbiotic relationship between the two.
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For me, tacit and explicit are the two extremes on a continuous scale. Tacit and explicit are the black and white. But all knowledge is grey : somewhere between both.
Take a PP presentation as an example. Although it has been written down and can be printed in a physical form, it needs the story of the presenter to be fully understood. It probably has a 30-70 mix of tacit and explicit.
Marnix