Towards a knowledge technology for knowledge management

Knowledge Management (KM) is crucial to organizational survival, yet is a d ifficult task requiring large expenditure of resources. Information Technol ogy solutions, such as email, document management and intranets, are provin g very useful in certain areas. However, many important problems still exis t, providing opportunities for new techniques and tools more oriented towar ds knowledge. We refer to this as Knowledge Technology. A framework has bee n developed which has allowed opportunities for Knowledge Technology to be identified in support of five key KM activities: personalization, creation/ innovation, codification, discovery and capture/monitor. Tn developing Know ledge Technology for these areas, methods from knowledge engineering are be ing explored. Our main work in this area has involved the application and e valuation of existing knowledge for a large intranet system. This, and othe r case studies, have provided important lessons and insights which have led to ongoing research in ontologies, generic models and process modelling me thods. We believe that the evidence presented here shows that knowledge eng ineering has much to offer KM and can be the basis on which to move towards a Knowledge Technology. (C) 1999 Academic Press.