1. CCT 355: E-Business Technologies Class 4: Information/Knowledge Management Systems

2. Administration Check your presentation date Case study questions? Should be a narrative – not an information/interview dump – what would your audience (e.g., me) think interesting about what you learned in your conversation? Consider this similar to a biographical piece in business/popular press literature – a compelling story about their work challenges – more why and how than simple fact dumps Due next week – hard copy in class please Pam’s lecture on Sheridan IS context – now next week

3. An overview of KM Remember data, information, knowledge, wisdom? KM systems exist between info -> knowledge – repositories and channels to coordinate information to create knowledge

4. A multitude of information channels… Example: you’re new at your job – how do you learn how to do it well?

5. 1 st generation KM 1 st generation – technology centered – focused on data architecture, access, rights management, etc. Basically, build a database and release it Would also include explicit training systems – e.g., computer- based tutorials, etc. Problems with this approach?

6. Information and Organizational Politics Collective ownership of information complicated Orlikowski’s Lotus Notes case – consultants resisted sharing in knowledge database Carrots v. sticks – can you compel people to share knowledge?

7. UX Issues UX = User eXperience Early KM systems roots in CS/digital libraries – made sense to information scientists, few others Difficult UI/UX = frustrations in adoption and use and negative attitudes to use

8. Information Overload KM = too much of a good thing? Knowing everything is not possible or pragmatic - information shutdown usually the result of trying Coping mechanisms?

9. Information Sharing/Access/Control KM systems can and do limit access Access limitations often make sense, sometimes don’t – examples? Establishing proper levels of access and workflow a concern

10. Towards a 2 nd Generation of KM Constructivist approach – knowledge as embedded in social and cultural reality, grows from that. Understanding benefits and consequences of knowledge sharing Accounting for incentives for sharing – intrinsic and extrinsic Promoting multiple channels of learning

11. Tacit and Explicit Knowledge Sources Explicit knowledge – recorded information, can be transferred with relative ease Tacit knowledge – “know how” or “know why” – built from experience, cannot be easily captured and transferred Examples? Databases fine for explicit information – but do you facilitate tacit knowledge sharing?

12. Nonaka and Takeuchi: SECI

13. SECI Process Socialization – beginning of transfer of tacit knowledge Externalization – conversion to explicit form Combination – integration/synthesis of other explicit information pieces into new information reources Internalization – re-embodiment of new knowledge as standard practice Cyclical process moving up from individual to group knowledge Social and constructivist foundations – all about interaction and sharing in context

14. Nonaka and Takeuchi: “ba”

15. Ba? Somewhat of an art – context and its manipulation to create a positive ecology/environment for information sharing Originating – where people share stories Interacting – a more consciously designed structure of social interaction, transfer of tacit stories to explicit knowledge Cyber/systemizing – role of IT in integrating explicit knowledge Exercising – synthetic application and return to information sharing environment

16. Information and Time Information sometimes decays over time Old information can even frustrate current interpretation But information about past can be valuable Examples?

17. KM in fluid contexts In high-turnover domains (examples?), information transfer especially complicated Often a consistent need to share organizational experience and realities with new entrants, very difficult at times to capture or share information of departing members

18. Example: FSAE Teams make small formula style racecar 500 teams worldwide (including many in Japan, and a local competition!)

19. Local Challenges at Cornell KM challenges – 2000 reports – how to access? Database a failure – why? Google solution – great but impossible at time (now, different story) Decided to work on creating/maintaining ba instead – establishing a culture of learning *very* high turnover raised challenges – maintaining success over five years difficult

20. A Conflict Between Serious Leisure and Organizational Structure? Serious leisure (Stebbins, 2007) – voluntary activities pursued by intensely and intrinsically motivated individuals who have a strong connection and self-identity with the activity How to bridge from serious leisure context to a knowing organization? “We are in danger of becoming the best organized 35 th place team in history.” – tensions between creative and intrinsic impulse and the need for organization A delicate balance… you need both!

21. Activity Theory

22. Historical foundations – human activity mediated by social and cultural factors in dialectical fashion A complex model for information studies (e.g., Nardi, 1996) AT triangle – (Engestrom, 1987) Not stable, but fashioned by contradictions – multiple possible points of conflict and contradiction that need to be resolved to achieve activity

23. Conflict within components X

24. Conflict between components X

25. Conflict over time Year 1 Year 2 X

26. Conflicts between competing activites X