Knowledge base publishing on the desktop

September, 1998

Most articles and conference presentations focus on enterprise-wide applications, but creating and applying knowledge usually occurs on the individual desktop or team level. Each level presents its own challenges and opportunities. In this article we look at the individual or small team, the "content owners" that need to find and organize information for their own research and publishing.

Most of us work with information from a variety of sources, print and electronic. The first objective is to find ALL the information we have on a person or topic, regardless of format. The second is to USE the information to solve a problem or prepare a work product -- report, bibliography, newsletter, etc. It sounds simple, but it isn't.

Four kinds of tools are available to help:

• operating system tools
• programs tools
• special-purpose add-ons
• databases and scripting

Of these, databases and scripting provide the most functionality and flexibility. Databases provide the repository and scripts are the "glue" that integrate and streamline knowledge base publishing processes.

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