Knowledge management and knowledge infrastructures

Abstract

This position paper aims to present the vision of Kenniscentrum CIBIT on organizational learning and the role of information technology to facilitate learning processes. From our point of view, organizational learning should be a managed process aimed at knowledge creation, distribution, combination and consolidation, and of course application of knowledge, the main processes in knowledge management as described in [SPEK96]. Information technology, including, but not limited to CSCW, should enable an infrastructure in which the following functionalities are available:1. People can be found and accessed based on their knowledge and experience, not only their name and phone number.2. Knowledge products can be consolidated and can be made accessible.3. Experiences can be shared.4. Experiences can be consolidated and can be made accessible.The infrastructure should provide its services as close to the daily work as possible. We call such an infrastructure a knowledge infrastructure .For the purpose of the workshop, we will focus on the latter two functionalities of a knowledge infrastructure.This position paper will:1. Relate the concepts of knowledge management to organizational learning.2. Present our thoughts on knowledge infrastructures in relation to organizational learning.3. Present our research ideas to further investigate knowledge infrastructures.