Distributing and applying knowledge assets

July, 1998

by Karl Wiig, Knowledge Research Institute, Inc. (edited by Limited Edition staff)

The following describes one of 16 knowledge management "building blocks" that Karl has identified for a forthcoming book. This is a summary; the full text is available on the Society Web (membership required).

After knowledge has been acquired or otherwise "sourced," it usually must be changed – transformed – to become a valuable asset or to facilitate an application. Some transformation functions are institutionalized and require formal (explicit) methods, but the vast majority are performed on an ad hoc and informal basis as part of individual employees’ regular workday. Four kinds formal transformations are discussed below:

• Compiling and organizing;
• Embedding and tool-making;
• Disseminating through people and automated methods;
• Creating new products and services..

Compiling and organizing
As knowledge is acquired, it can be compiled manually or automatically into a repository, which involves selecting, verifying and validating knowledge for appropriateness, correctness, and completeness. Subject matter experts (SMEs) from the business area need to be part of the validation.

Collected knowledge destined for repositories (such as knowledge bases, data bases), must be organized according to an established ontology (categorization of "what is"). These tasks can best be performed by individuals with understanding of the target topic areas and knowledge organizational principles (e.g., Library Sciences, Epistemology).

For more on repositories, see:
Organizing information into a "virtual library"
Executive Virtual Library

For more on compiling and organizing, see:
Why is metadata a hot topic?
Tip of the iceberg: below the waterline in knowledge base publishing

Embedding and tool-making
Knowledge can be transformed in many ways. It can be embedded into intermediate products, new customer products, or educational programs or used to create personal or shared work tools for decision making. This is commonly done by insurance underwriters or securities portfolio managers.

Knowledge can be transformed at the same time as it is compiled and organized but the type of transformation varies with the application. For example:

• Knowledge destined for case-based reasoning application (such as a help-desk problem solving application) must be transformed using the "crisp" or "fuzzy" rules that support rule-based reasoning and must be edited into the case format.
• Knowledge destined for training and education programs must be reorganized to fit the teaching formats and delivery vehicles (e.g., one-to-many personal knowledge transfer or interactive multi-media computer-based delivery).
• If the source knowledge exists in numeric forms (or in advanced cases, as natural language), a selective transformation can take place by using automated knowledge discovery in data bases (KDD). This method still requires considerable manual interaction.
• When the knowledge will be used for education in general principles, anchored in concrete examples, the source information must be analyzed to identify the underlying meanings, using hermeneutic methods. This is particularly the case when knowledge is prepared for teaching schemas and scripts, with concrete examples to let recipients internalize and build "systematic," "pragmatic," and "automatic" knowledge and acquire the understanding of how to apply it in practical situations. To facilitate knowledge construction and acquisition, the education may also use conceptual maps.

Disseminating through people
For a knowledge-vigilant environment to function, individuals must be motivated to share knowledge, work together in collaborative settings, and rely upon each other to secure delivery of quality work. Keys to success are recognition targeted to specific on-the-job situations and sufficient time for information exchange. Examples include:

• Apprenticing and "shadowing" are powerful practices when the need is to transfer deep and comprehensive bodies of knowledge
• Collaborative teamwork is useful for knowledge transfer between a group of experts and practitioners or knowledge "pooling" among experts with narrow specialties.
• Expert networks are used to make the knowledge assets possessed by individuals available to people at the point-of-action (PoA). Expert networks are useful in situations where the person at the PoA has time to consult with an outside party without degrading the quality of delivered work.
• Instructor-led educational and training programs have been the standard approach to provide knowledge and understanding. They are expensive and require comprehensive preparation but can in many situations not be replaced.

Dissemination by automated methods
Automated methods of disseminating knowledge are increasingly common in customer service applications. The technologies come in a wide range and include case-based reasoning (CBR), fuzzy or true-false logic, expert systems, neural nets, and natural language processing. Examples of fully automatic KBS applications include: