Knowledge Management

1
Knowledge Management In Theory and in Practice

• Dr. Irina Stobbe, Berlin

2
Introduction Who we are

• A group of scientists of DLR, the German NASA,
  and their friends experts in Marketing, Public
  Relation, Informatics and Knowledge Management,
• We can find water on Mars why not landmines in
  affected areas?
• We want to encourage people all over the world
• to learn about, to organise, to develop reliable
  detecting devices,
• to develop your own social networks
• Lecturer Irina Stobbe, mathematician, Ph.D. in
  theoretical mechanics, experience in informatics,
  private consultant, teacher at the University of
  Applied Sciences - FHTW - Berlin

3
Outline / Memory

• Knowledge Management
• What role plays knowledge
• Arguments, why organisations do that
  (expectations)
• Topics and framework
• Project in practice Landmine Detection
  Technologies Wiki

4
Knowledge

• Education is the basis for sustainable
  development (economical, technical, political,
  social )
• Development is the basis for welfare
• Most businesses benefit from a higher level of
  understanding of economy, customers, environment
  and politics
• Sustainability is possible only by understanding
  on an advanced level

5
Sharing the Knowledge

• Culturally based common knowledge and knowledge
  for the sake of domination, e.g.
• Parents educate their children
• Governmental and religious institutions provide
  school systems, colleges, institutes,
  universities
• Enterprises educate their workers (private
  colleges, institutes, universities )
• Private or common learning

6
Knowledge - a disambiguation
perception, action

• Knowledge is the structured information inside a
  system of interrelations
• Data has a syntax
• Information has a context
• Knowledge consists of interrelated information
  and interpretation
• Knowledge is the precondition for reasonable and
  sensible doing/acting
• Perceptions follows knowledge, if the relevance
  of the information for solving a problem is
  given.
• Action happens, if you begin to solve the problem

7
Knowledge classification

• Tacit knowledge, implicit knowledge
• Acquisition of k. happens through experience and
  practice
• Subconscious or latent knowledge
• Process of cognition is not describable
• Difficult to access

• Explicit knowledge
• Exists in a well documented form (mostly in
  databases or books)
• Formulation in at least one language
• Nameable

Commons Wikipedia, 12/2007
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Knowledge management

• Management theory in organisations manage the
  resource knowledge
• Understand and control the ways in which
  knowledge is created, used, shared within
  organisations
• Objectives to ensure that the right information
  is delivered to the right person just in time, in
  order to take the most appropriate decision.
• ? practical approach

.
9
Modern topics in research

• Knowledge balance collect all debits and
  credits or assets and liabilities as an
  addition to the balance sheet
• human capital
• Mostly for Basel II (European credit framework)
  or the American credit frameworks.
• Challenge find out the Top-ten key indicators,
  which make the organisational knowledge countable.

10
Modern topics in research (II)

• Implicit, tacit knowledge how to gain?
• Transfer of tacit knowledge, if there is now
  awareness
• Find out forms and conditions to do that

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Sharing knowledge

• Conversion of internalized tacit knowledge into
  explicit codified knowledge (SECI)
• Conversion of knowledge of an individual to
  knowledge of the organisation

SECI model

• Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995), The
  Knowledge-Creating Company, New York Oxford
  University Press.

12
Bricks of the knowledge management

• Analysing the experience of a great number of
  knowledge experts from organisations
• Over the lifecycle of knowledge
• All topics are connected to each other
• How to structure KM projects?

13
Practical approach

• Use the steps from quality management Plan Do
  Check - Act cycle (PDCA) Acting follows each
  line, realising the trained processes

Acting with concept Knowledge base Knowledge transfer Knowledge development Knowledge usage
Plan Requirement analysis What kind of k. ? (Identification) From which sources? To whom? Where new k. will develop? Which processes require what details
Do Realisation Select a database Content collection and transfer, glossary Regular Workshops, glossary Knowledge networks, Solution development
Do Training, Process integration Administrator-Training Administrator, translators, new authors Authors, users, translators User related processes, decision making
Check Evaluation All kinds of k. available? All required data achievable? New knowledge develops ? Is the knowledge usable?
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Knowledge Management in practice Wiki Project
Landmine Detection Technologies in Khmer
Language
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Wiki Project Landmine Detection Technologies

• Objective Share the innovative knowledge about
  landmine detection technologies with people, who
  need this knowledge and experience to develop,
  build and test specialised detection methods (and
  finally use it)
• Not only the metal detector, the prodder or the
  dog, but technologies from the edge of science
  (space research, information technologies)
  with higher confidence should be used in
  combined devices, adapted to the individual
  environmental situation.
• To make this happens we need educated,
  experienced people, from laity to the scientific
  staff!
• Share knowledge with people in landmine affected
  areas

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Topics

• Collect reliable, scientific knowledge and
  experience on detection technologies
• Develop networks, which will collect and share
  the knowledge
• Develop and implement a simulation tool
  (software) to interpret and test various methods
  under different conditions before an expensive
  development of devices takes place

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Wiki Exchange Platform

• MediaWiki is an Open Source Software (used in
  www.wikipedia.org)
• Content Management System is open for authors
• Usually for spammers too
• Quality management is necessary
• Access management for registered users
• On Top Bureaucrat can lock/unlock pages
• Sysop can unclose IP-numbers from being an
  author, follow the spamming sources
• Authors can contribute on open pages
• In name spaces Member related pages (internals)

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Licensing Basis of Trust

• Free Usage of Open Source Documents, not crossing
  the rights of others
• Free transfer of free knowledge Just name of the
  author and the source
• Information with a binding character
• Knowledge must be based on trustable sources.
• Authors should be known and so you can send an
  email to the author.
• Translations should be proofed by experts.
• How to solve the conflict Each expert should be
  able to add value, but a small organisation
  should control the access!
• Requires more than one administrator in each
  country and a living network between them.
• Requires strict rules how to handle misuse or
  routine questions.

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Step Plan Knowledge Base

• Scientific methods and technologies
• Detection methods (more than twenty different
  methods are known!)
• Properties of mines, of materials and physical
  behaviour over the time (differs from country to
  country)
• Relevant properties of environment Soil, plant
  cover, animals, weather, climate,...
• First Source RAND
• Experience of deminers, expert opinion
• Behaviour of detection equipment, main errors,
  etc.
• Dependence of weather, light, season, moisture
  and long term weathering
• Behaviour of demining staff, human factor,
• Networks
• Expertise from organizations, governmental and
  non-governmental
• Scientific expertise universities, research
  development, projects
• Developers of different (electronic and
  non-electronic) devices
• Deminers, Social staff,

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Step Do.1 Categorization

• Categories help to organize the material and to
  structure it (Semantic net innovative challenge)
  
• Categories help to link the information entries
• Methods
• Mine types
• Environment
• Simulation
• Experience
• Network
• Knowledge (as generic term)

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Step Do.2 Processes

• The main Actors of the knowledge management
  system and their processes
• Authors (Scientists, Experts)
• Public content Methods, Mine types, Simulation
  methods
• Develop the projects, step by step (vision
  simulation tool, development of devices)
• Translators
• Translate from and into other languages
• Proof the translation, have a discourse on new
  scientific terms
• Net workers
• Acquire partners and sponsors
• Looking for more scientists
• Looking for new methods
• Coordinate with other organisations
• Publish links between partners
• Public Relations actors
• Broadcasting of News and Events
• Looking for sponsors and projects
• Create presentations, publications, messages
• Business / Administration

Task
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Step Do.3 Training

• Train two students from ITC as Mediawiki
  administrators
• Implement Mediawiki software on a Linux / Apache
  / MySQL / PHP server
• Have Maintenance routines (Data security, updates
  / upgrades, archives)
• Fulfil the User rights management
• Enable to support other users / authors
• Set up a network for translation and a glossary
  Roundtable on Education for
  Landmine Detection Technologies

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Step Check.1 Challenges

• Networking online und face-to-face
• Adapted to situation and culture In most cases a
  face-to-face situation help to solve many
  problems
• Mass and Class The Quality Question
• Decision about quality criteria is needed, not to
  limit the contribution of experienced authors
• Motivation
• Conflicts due to competition on the market
• International deminers could be afraid of
  decreasing budgets
• Developers of devices for business They might
  limit their contribution to an open source
  database (knowledge for domination)
• Conflicts due to the resemblance to military
  sciences They use the same methods, but with
  other objectives.

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Step Check.2 Challenges

• Financing of scientific or educational projects
• Rotary International and Mine-Ex Rotary collect
  money for education
• Science against mines give money for education
  and wiki serving
• Help for helping yourself Support of the
  development of regional landmine detection
  businesses

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Step Act Now it is your task

• Help to develop Khmer wikipedia http//km.
  Wikipedia.org
• Which kind of knowledge you could contribute?
  Prepare an article!
• Create a personal account
• Learn, how to create and edit articles, upload
  common images and media
• Link your article with others
• Follow the interaction of other users-wikipedians
• Continue again from beginning
• Help to develop Khmer Landmine Detection
  Technologies Wiki and disseminate it to a broad
  audience (Transfer)
• Join the ITC course about Detection Technologies
  (later)

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Next lines Your challenge !

• Transfer, development and usage of knowledge
• Get more knowledge about which kind of
  technologies is useful for landmine detection in
  your environmentand make your decision about
  what is worth to develop further
• Work in networks
• to solve complex problems,
• to learn from the experience of others,
• to help in your home area to make your country
  free of tragic incidents and to make it useable
  for farming and business,
• to add and transfer your knowledge into other
  affected countries.
• Have success and fun!

27
Thank you for your attention

• Landmine Detection Technologies Wiki in Khmer
  language

WgM.eV_at_gmx.net www.Wissen-gegen-Minen.de,
www.wiki-gegen-minen.de, www.wiki-against-mines
.org