Essentials of Knowledge Management

4.14. Knowledge Management Infrastructure

The discussion of the Knowledge Management life cycle has assumed that an infrastructure of sorts provides the support necessary for each phase of the life cycle. This infrastructure consists of tracking, standards, and methods of insuring security and privacy of information. In most organizations, this infrastructure brings with it considerable overhead for both the company and the knowledge workers. For example, generating and maintaining information is difficult enough, but it also must be tracked, just as a book is tracked by a librarian in a public library.

Besides merely tracking information at every phase of the KM life cycle, standards for processing and handling information must be followed to guarantee security, accuracy, privacy, and appropriate access. Just as libraries don't condone readers replacing books on the shelves for fear that the books might be shelved incorrectly and therefore be temporarily "lost" to other patrons, knowledge workers must abide by rules established to maximize the usefulness of information throughout the KM life cycle.

Chapter 5 continues the discussion of the phases of the KM life cycle, from the perspective of the vast array of technologies that can be applied to enable the infrastructure and the individual phases of the life cycle.