Information Technology for Knowledge Management

As we approach the beginning of the 21 st century, we are beginning to see the emer gence of knowledge management as a natural evolution of the focus and importance of quality in the 1980s and reengineering in the I 990s. Quality placed a huge em phasis on getting all employees to use their brainpower better. Reengineering em phasized the use of technology to streamline business processes and take out costs. With the lessons of quality and reengineering firmly embedded in our everyday op erations (continual cost containment and higher quality is a way of life), businesses are now turning their attention to growth. Growth is a common pursuit. Customers are calling for it. Financial markets are calling for it. Employees are asking for it because they want an exciting and stimu lating environment in which to work. If a business doesn't grow, it will eventually die because knowledge workers ofthe 21 st century won't want to work with or for a business that's not growing. Skilled workers have plenty of options to choose from as demand for knowledge workers escalates around the world.

I. Introduction.- 1. Introduction.- II. The Flow of Knowledge.- 2. The Lessons Learned Cycle.- 3. Knowledge Pump: Supporting the Flow and Use of Knowledge.- III. Knowledge Cartography.- 4. Negotiating the Construction of Organisational Memories.- 5. A Technology for Supporting Knowledge Work: The RepTool.- IV. Communities of Knowledge Workers.- 6. An Environment for Cooperative Knowledge Processing.- 7. Ariadne: Supporting Coordination Through a Flexible Use of Knowledge Processes.- V. Knowledge Repositories and Libraries.- 8. From Natural Language Documents to Sharable Product Knowledge: A Knowledge Engineering Approach.- 9. Corporate Memories for Knowledge Management in Industrial Practice: Prospects and Challenges.- References.- Contributors.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.