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Launched in the summer of 1997, the Society of Knowledge
Base Publishers began offering news, analysis, and learning opportunities
to information professionals. The focus was on bridging the gaps between
library science, journalism, information technology, human capital development,
and intellectual capital management. Initially, the primary source of
information was the research and development conducted by The
Montague Institute, which since 1992 has been publishing and teaching
about the role of the Internet in business-to-business applications.
Sharing intellectual capital
Since its founding, the Society has incorporated member contributions
in its publications and events via:
Roundtables
Early in 1998, the Society began to offer a series of roundtables designed
to share the intellectual capital of members in small, informal one-day
discussions. The first roundtable on the role of the knowledge base editor
was held in Dallas in February of 1998 (a summary is available on the Society
Web site). Twenty people from thirteen companies attended. The following
comment from a Big Five accounting firm representative was typical of
the response:
"I wanted to thank you for conducting a most
enlightening round table on knowledge management. Not only was the discussion
insightful and thorough, but validating in our common struggles to realize
our visions for our various organizations. Looking forward to the minutes
and the wonderful list of reading materials."
Participants reported that the roundtable experience
was valuable partly because it was unique. Unlike the typical seminar
or conference, Society roundtables offered:
Background material sent prior to the event, including
participant biographies and relevant articles or Web sites;
Limited number of participants (no more than 20
per session);
Mix of disciplines (typically, participants come
from corporate information centers, competitive intelligence, information
technology, finance, and human resources);
Explicit information sharing (a roundtable summary
and list of references suggested by participants);
Confidentiality (while summaries are sometimes
published for Society members, only roundtable participants receive
the complete minutes).
Member stories
Articles by or about Society members are always popular, especially if
they contain relevant Web links. The following member stories have appeared
during the last several years:
Roundtable enhancements
In 1999, members began to host roundtables — saving travel costs and getting
more visibility for their knowledge management activities. Hosts include
Dover Corporation, Mitre Corporation (McLean location), and KPMG.
With the November, 1999 roundtable, we introduce a
teleconferencing roundtable option. Nancy Lemon of Owens-Corning Fiberglas
attended the Boston session from her Columbus, Ohio, home office. (For
more information on how Nancy operates a "virtual information center,"
see
"Going virtual")
Facilitating communities of interest
The November roundtable produced another innovation – the idea of cost
sharing through collaboration among member companies. Several participants
showed interest in working together to reduce the cost of creating and
maintaining taxonomies – standard lists of subject headings and/or index
terms. The Society was instrumental in preparing a brief statement of concept
and has arranged for a teleconference on January 12 to explore the idea.
Member Q&A
Another area of interest is reviews and evaluations. This month, the Society
started a Question & Answer (Q&A) service that allows members
to query their colleagues about specific software programs, information
services, concepts, and techniques. Answer to the first query
came from Society member Linda Hashlamoun of BF Goodrich.
Local discussion group
While periodic roundtables, teleconferencing, and e-mail have their place,
nothing beats regular face-to-face meetings for getting to know people
and creating opportunities to collaborate. With that in mind, Society
cofounder Jean Graef launched the Western New England Knowledge Management
discussion group in September, 1999. "I wanted some regular interaction
with my peers without having to travel to Boston or New York all the time,"
she said.
The monthly dinner meetings, usually held within
a half an hour’s drive of Springfield (MA) regularly draw people from
as far away as Boston and Worcester (MA) as well as Hartford and Danbury
(CT). Companies represented include Arthur D. Little, Solutia, Rogers
Corporation, United Technologies, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals,
USWeb/CKS, and Allmerica Financial. "It’s a very high quality, cross
functional group," says Graef. "We’re currently getting acquainted,
taking turns telling our stories and sharing our experiences."
Society Knowledge Base
At the same time that the Society was launched, the Montague Institute
began a development effort to organize its intellectual assets – Web sites,
articles, and contacts. As part of this effort, Montague Institute
Review editors developed Knowledge Base software and a taxonomy (standard
subject headings and index terms). The first benefit was increased productivity
in research and publishing. The second benefit was an infrastructure capable
of storing the Society’s intellectual assets.
By the summer of 1999, the knowledge base was made
available to members along with instruction in how to use it for research
and publishing (see the Knowledge Base Publishing
course). Course participants received the knowledge base software and
approximately 200 citations for Montague Institute Review articles
and sources. Participants learned how to add their own citations and index
terms (or create a new knowledge base from scratch for their specific
interests).
It’s not unusual for trade publications and professional
associations to produce a printed index to journal articles published
during the previous year. But the Society’s knowledge base has additional
features:
covers multiple years;
can be electronically searched;
has live links to articles and sources cited;
members can add citations, subjects, index terms,
and contacts from their own research;
includes contact and background information on
authors.
Networking the knowledge base
Part of the Society’s knowledge base is already available on the Montague
Institute public Web site (see the index
and thesaurus page), but course participants want a "live"
database that can be searched and updated with a Web browser.
During the second half of 1999 we developed and are
testing three options for sharing the knowledge base over a network:
One knowledge base, multiple readers
— search and browse access to a single copy of the knowledge base
using a Web browser over a local area network, intranet, or Internet.
Multiple individual knowledge bases plus
one master knowledge base — Multiple indexes are created and maintained
by a group of authors or contributing editors using a Web browser.
An editorial staff maintains a master index consisting of contributions
from individuals.
Hosted knowledge bases – Secure updating
and accessing of a knowledge base hosted on a third party service.
Useful for teams that lack the IT support to install knowledge base
software on the desktop or a local server.
Growth strategy
The Society was founded to support cross-functional innovation, provide
learning opportunities, and leverage know-how. Our growth strategy is
to partner with members that want to create or expand knowledge profit
centers. Society courses, content, and software tools can be licensed
to corporate profit centers for resale to internal and external clients.
Research agenda
The Society’s research agenda is influenced by member input as well as
our own experience. On the conceptual level, we are interested in the
integration of specialized knowledge bases, knowledge profit centers,
new business models based on intellectual assets, and knowledge partnering
with both companies and individuals (e.g. retirees). On the technical
side, we are interested in systems that facilitate
linking to bibliographic sources, the use of XML and ODBC to
facilitate information flows among applications and corporate functions.
In the human capital arena, we are interested in strategies for leveraging
the know-how of experts, promoting
"corporate scholarship,"
and supporting "virtual" project
teams.
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