Personal Knowledge Management for Development (PKM4D) Framework and its Application for People Empowerment

Abstract

Recent suggestions urge advancing Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) to provide the overdue support tools for individuals in the envisaged Knowledge Societies. To point out essential issues to be addressed, the paper proposes a PKM for Development (PKM4D) framework as a substantial extension of a current framework focusing on ICT4D (Information and Communications Technologies for Development). Closely aligned to Maslow's Extended Hierarchy of Needs, it allows for a differentiated assessment of knowledge management related innovations and interventions and their impact on six ecosystems related to technology, extelligence, society, knowledge workers, institutions, and the ideosphere. The framework is a spin-off of a design science research project aiming to introduce a novel PKM concept and system. The objective of this paper is to provide a motivation and more general narrative for employing the PKM4D framework in other developmental contexts in order to address opportunity divides independent of space (e.g. developed/developing countries), time (e.g. study or career phase), discipline (e.g. natural or social science), or role (e.g. student, professional, or leader).With a prototype about to be converted into a viable PKM system (PKMS) and in following up on prior concept and design related articles, the PKMS is not the prime focus of attention but serves as an example case of a novel intervention to be assessed and validated by applying the PKM4D framework and its twelve criteria.