Knowledge management

10 Jul 2005 - Dave

[The tacit dimension of tech support

InfoWorld

Column

2005-06-15

By Jon Udell](http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/15/25OPstrategic_1.html)

Jon pushes some innovative ideas on knowledge management in this environment where the Internet is all around us. Traditional education and training are falling short of managing the increasing complexity. It is not knowing the explicit steps to solve a problem but instead knowing where to find the steps quickly. He references Jeff Hawkins On Intelligence and Jeff’s ideas on the function of the brain. Jeff theorizes that the brain or more specifically the neocortex is a vast autoassociative memory. It is faster to remember than to figure things out. Memory fragments link to the associated memory or idea. In many cases it is Google that takes the fragments as search words and associates them with the collection of content on the web.

As more and more content (is this knowledge) is placed where it can be indexed for search, the more powerful this process is as a tool.

In many cases the answers obtained in this manner are better and more relevant than say…the manuals that are published. This process benefits now from the ease with which folks can publish on the web. Here are a few key drivers:

• Weblogs or Blogs – these are personal publishing tools
• Wiki – a wiki is a collaborative publishing tool where anyone can change the content. What gives it resilency is the fact that every change that is made to the wiki page is saved in a history.
• Forums – forums are a different type of collaborative device that follows a topic thread

Each of these forms is useful on its own. But to add increased value, they can be indexed by a search engine and folks can search across all of their content.