Ontology management and evolution for business intelligence

The amount of heterogeneous data that is available to organizations nowadays has made information management a seriously complicated task, yet crucial since this data can be a valuable asset for business intelligence. Ontologies can act as a semantically rich knowledge base in systems that specialize in information management. The present work investigates the potential of ontologies in supporting the information lifecycle within a corporate environment for business intelligence. The paper demonstrates the use of Heraclitus II, a framework that employs ontology management and evolution in the context of information management systems. The capabilities of the framework in facilitating information management and business intelligence are evaluated through a real-life case study from the life sciences industry.     

本体论在知识图书馆中的应用初探

本文探讨了知识图书馆的概念和特征，对近年来在人工智能和信息系统领域得到广泛应用的本体论思想了简要地介绍，提出了利用本体理论和方法建立知识图书馆中知识的划分、分类和组织模型，从而方便知识的面向主题的存放和智能检索，有利于用户高效地利用图书馆的资源，促进知识创新和应用。     

Conceptual navigation in knowledge management environments using NavCon

This article presents conceptual navigation and NavCon, an architecture that implements this navigation in World Wide Web pages. NavCon architecture makes use of ontology as metadata to contextualize user search for information. Based on ontologies, NavCon automatically inserts conceptual links in Web pages. By using these links, the user may navigate in a graph representing ontology concepts and their relationships. By browsing this graph, it is possible to reach documents associated with the user desired ontology concept. This Web navigation supported by ontology concepts we call conceptual navigation. Conceptual navigation is a technique to browse Web sites within a context. The context filters relevant retrieved information. The context also drives user navigation through paths that meet his needs. A company may implement conceptual navigation to improve user search for information in a knowledge management environment. We suggest that the use of an ontology to conduct navigation in an Intranet may help the user to have a better understanding about the knowledge structure of the company.     

A systematic examination of knowledge loss in open source software projects

Context Open Source Software (OSS) development is a knowledge focused activity which relies heavily on contributors who can be volunteers or paid workers and are geographically distributed. While working on OSS projects contributors acquire project related individualistic knowledge and gain experience and skills, which often remains unshared with others and is usually lost once contributors leave a project. All software development organisations face the problem of knowledge loss as employees leave, but this situation is exasperated in OSS projects where most contributors are volunteers with largely unpredictable engagement durations. Contributor turnover is inevitable due to the transient nature of OSS project workforces causing knowledge loss, which threatens the overall sustainability of OSS projects and impacts negatively on software quality and contributor productivity.ObjectiveThe objective of this work is to deeply and systematically investigate the phenomenon of knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects as presented in the state-of-the-art literature and to synthesise the information presented on the topic. Furthermore, based on the learning arising from our investigation it is our intention to identify mechanisms to reduce the overall effects of knowledge loss in OSS projects.MethodologyWe use the snowballing methodology to identify the relevant literature on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects. This robust methodology for a literature review includes research question, search strategy, inclusion, exclusion, quality criteria, and data synthesis. The search strategy, and inclusion, exclusions and quality criteria are applied as a part of snowballing procedure.Snowballing is considered an efficient and reliable way to conduct a systematic literature review, providing a robust alternative to mechanically searching individual databases for given topics.ResultKnowledge sharing in OSS projects is abundant but there is no evidence of a formal strategy or practice to manage knowledge. Due to the dynamic and diverse nature of OSS projects, knowledge management is considered a challenging task and there is a need for a proactive mechanism to share knowledge in the OSS community for knowledge to be reused in the future by the OSS project contributors. From the collection of papers found using snowballing, we consolidated various themes on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects and identified 11 impacts due to knowledge loss in OSS projects, and 10 mitigations to manage with knowledge loss in OSS projects.ConclusionIn this paper, we propose future research directions to investigate integration of proactive knowledge retention practices with the existing OSS practices to reduce the current knowledge loss problem. We suggest that there is insufficient attention paid to KM in general in OSS, in particular there would appear to an absence of proactive measures to reduce the potential impact of knowledge loss. We also propose the need for a KM evaluation metric in OSS projects, similar to the ones that evaluate health of online communities, which should help to inform potential consumers of the OSS of the KM status on a project, something that is not existent today.     

A knowledge management approach to capture organizational learning networks

Effective knowledge management practices in organizations are focused on knowledge creation and knowledge transfer activities. Thus, intelligence and competencies matters at the organizational workplace. For most knowledge intensive organizations is fundamental the continuous availability and development of domain expertise. This paper describes an ongoing research project to develop an organizational knowledge architecture that is being specified and developed to support collaboration tasks as well as design and model predictive data analysis and insights for organizational development. The primary goal of this research is to create a suitable architecture for use, initially, in intranet (corporate portal) collaborative procedures, but also scalable for later use in more generic forms of ontology-driven knowledge management systems. The designed architecture and functionalities aim to create coherent web data layers for intranet learning and predictive analysis, defining the vocabulary and semantics for knowledge sharing and reuse projects. Regarding intellectual capital definition, this research argues that effective knowledge management are based on the dynamic nature of the organizational knowledge, and predictive data analysis and insights identification can transform and add value to an organization. This paper presents a knowledge management and engineering perspective (ontology based) for the application of predictive analysis and insights at the organizational (corporate) workplace towards the development of the organizational learning network.     

Investigating effectiveness and user acceptance of semantic social tagging for knowledge sharing

Social tagging systems enable users to assign arbitrary tags to various digital resources. However, they face vague-meaning problems when users retrieve or present resources with the keyword-based tags. In order to solve these problems, this study takes advantage of Semantic Web technology and the topological characteristics of knowledge maps to develop a system that comprises a semantic tagging mechanism and triple-pattern and visual searching mechanisms. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and user acceptance of these mechanisms in a knowledge sharing context. The results show that the semantic social tagging system is more effective than a keyword-based system. The visualized knowledge map helps users capture an overview of the knowledge domain, reduce cognitive effort for the search, and obtain more enjoyment. Traditional keyword tagging with a keyword search still has the advantage of ease of use and the users had higher intention to use it. This study also proposes directions for future development of semantic social tagging systems.     

Managing technology alliances: The case for knowledge management

Organizations need to form alliances with external entities in order to acquire or access resources outside ones bounds. In recent times, we have seen an increased number of alliances geared towards acquiring technology capabilities. Alliances for technology capabilities include software application licensing agreements, access to technological infrastructure, and accessing technological know-how. While a lot of attention has been paid to the financial, economic, legal, and architectural issues of such arrangements, one dimension has been under debated and discussed—the knowledge component. Knowledge is the critical resource that is exchanged, managed, and integrated, in technology alliances. Managing knowledge in and around technology alliances is of utmost importance if we want to reap the strategic and operational benefits of such engagements. In this case study analysis, we share crucial knowledge management concerns to bear in mind while constructing, governing, and terminating technology alliances.     

PPP项目残值风险本体知识库的构建与应用

从PPP项目残值风险的知识管理的角度出发,构建残值风险的本体知识库并结合具体案例进行应用分析。通过对PPP项目残值风险的文献回顾,对该风险的形成机理进行研究,建立PPP项目残值风险的知识框架。同时,定义知识框架里各个概念及其结构层次,并对概念之间的关系和属性进行知识表示,再根据SWRL语言对概念关系进行适当推理。最后,论文采用本体编辑软件Protégé构建Sky大桥项目的残值风险本体知识库,对知识进行更有效的表达,促进其可共享性和可传递性,实现更深入的信息查询和数据处理功能。     

Codified-tacit and general-specific knowledge in the division of labour among firms: A study of the software industry

This paper explores the organisation and codification of knowledge in software firms. It analyses various economic incentives to codification, including the need to improve the productivity and quality of software production and the networks of inter-firm alliances.The paper examines the experience of five Italian software firms specialising in software packages and services. It compares their capabilities, main sources of tacit knowledge, specific incentives to invest in knowledge codification and the formal development methodologies and quality control systems adopted. Finally, the paper analyses two distinct technological collaborations that two of these firms have recently established.     

Knowledge meaning and management in requirements engineering

It is traditionally assumed that requirements specification, as a product of requirements engineering, has a high impact on the ensuing software development stages. Therefore, the knowledge management used to construct the requirements specification should be performed in a structured manner to discover, analyze and understand the data–information–knowledge chain, both tacit and explicit, that the interested parties possess. In this article, the results of a literature review are presented, seeking to answer the following questions: (1) What is the meaning of knowledge in requirements engineering? (2) What approaches are proposed to manage knowledge in requirements engineering? (3) Can the efficiency and the efficacy of knowledge management models be evidenced in requirements engineering? Thirty-six works were chosen for analysis out of a total 83 found in our search. The analysis showed that (1) knowledge has a central significance at this stage, but the authors have yet to agree on the best methods to impart and apply that knowledge; (2) no general framework has emerged as a validated approach to manage knowledge for requirements engineering; and (3) the evaluation marks for model efficiency and efficacy are low, consisting mostly of personal interpretations.     

Understanding knowledge management software-organisation misalignments from an institutional perspective: A case study of a global IT-management consultancy firm

Inspired by the proposition that “Enterprise IS configurations chosen by the organisations will encode institutionalised principles into these systems” (Gosain, 2004, p. 169), this study seeks to draw attention to potential sources of misalignment between knowledge management (KM) software and the implementing organisation from an institutional theory perspective. Using a case of a global consultancy firm, the study elucidates such misalignments as the consequence of different institutional contexts where technology developers and adopters operate. This study demonstrates how institutional forces affect the implementation project and provides some lessons learned for organisations that are rich in high-value text-based knowledge for making decisions.     

Information management as an enabler of knowledge management maturity: A South African perspective

This paper explores the much ignored but critically important subject of the perceived relationship between information and communications technology (ICT), information management (IM) and knowledge management (KM). Defining the border between ICT, IM and KM, and especially the maturity remains a highly debatable topic. These issues could be concisely summarized as being diverse and problematic and located across the spectrum of views. Prior studies suggest that even though KM is strongly entrenched and rests on the foundation of ICT and IM, very little is reported in the literature on ICT and IM as enablers to KM. From a large urban South African University engaged in numerous collaboration programs with industry, the authors gained insight into growth of KM maturity in industry groupings over a 5-year period. The authors applied an inventory developed by Kruger and Snyman [Kruger, C. J., & Snyman, M. M. M. (2007). A guideline for assessing the knowledge management maturity of organizations. South African Journal of Information Management,9(3). Electronic Journal [Online]. Available www.sajim.co.za. Accessed 15 October 2007] to a set of 86 organizations distributed over nine economic sectors in South Africa. In total 434 employees were interviewed over three group levels (operational, middle and senior management). This was achieved by having 178 senior practitioners to each interview three subjects (one in each group level).     

A design of knowledge management tool for supporting product development

New Product Development (NPD) is one of the most important activities for companies. The NPD activities get to depend on knowledge more and more. Therefore, Knowledge Management (KM) has become a key issue and a hot topic in the fields of NPD researches. This paper proposes a new design of an effective NPD-support KM tool for facilitating the knowledge sharing and acquisition among collaborative NPD team members. The KM tool mainly contains two channels for knowledge acquisition: knowledge query and knowledge recommendation. The former one is the basic function for all types of KM tools, and also acts as the basis for the latter one. This paper proposes two types of knowledge recommendation ways: one is a vector-based way; the other is a phrase-based way. Key techniques for implementing the KM tool are elaborated. A demo example is also illustrated to show the functions of the proposed KM tool.     

基于本体论的数字档案馆知识检索模型的研究

为实现高校数字档案馆的智能化档案知识检索,文章提出建立基于本体论的数字档案馆知识检索模型(OKR-DA),模型采用J2EE的MVC体系结构,研发了知识本体管理、语义标注、知识推理、知识检索等功能模块。经过实验评测,对模型的查全率和查准率进行了性能分析,验证了该知识检索模型的可行性。     

A knowledge management perspective on Art Education

This paper applies concepts drawn from KM to Art Education. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the knowledge types, knowledge sources, knowledge processes as well as factors affecting these processes in Art Education. The research was carried out using an interpretative case study methodology in Singapore. Apart from 26 one-to-one interviews conducted with various stakeholders of the Art Education community, on-site observations were made at 19 different Art Education events. Four major findings emerged. One, the knowledge types of Art Education in Singapore were a blend of different knowledge domains. Two, perceptible knowledge sources were those which conveyed an appearance of authority. Three, knowledge processes in Art Education were steeply humanistic. Finally, factors that affected knowledge processes were (i) the highly competitive Singapore education system, (ii) management support and policies, (iii) personal values and interests, (iv) workload and (v) the absorptive capacity of Art teachers. This paper concludes with a number of research and practical implications.     

机械动力设备检修管理的思考

为提高设备检修效率,减少检修成本,提高检修质量,对当前本单位机械动力设备检修存在的问题,从设备检修管理、安全效益角度出发,做一个系统的反思,并探究设备检修管理的理念及方式方法,采取多种措施切实提高检修管理水平和检修质量。     

A mobile knowledge management and decision support tool for soil analysis

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a mobile knowledge management and decision support system to assist archaeologists in dealing with soils. Our view is that provision of a mobile tool which provides access to expert knowledge and a means of recording pertinent onsite information will be of great benefit in ensuring crucial information about an excavation is not lost and that the excavation proceeds in an appropriate manner. In this paper we discuss the tool developed, and detail how it has been evaluated via a variety of workshop sessions with likely users, and discussions with advisory groups.     

Strategic knowledge management failures in small professional service firms in China

In this paper, we report and reflect on Knowledge Management (KM) projects conducted in two China-based, smaller–sized professional service firms. The authors acted as Action Researchers, assisting each firm extensively as it prepared for its implementation of an IT-based KMS. However, neither KMS implementation significantly improved knowledge transfer or work productivity. We analyze the project failures, noting the significance of specific strategic management deficiencies as well as inadequate employee involvement and incentives. The implications for the strategic management of knowledge and organizational change in China are considered.     

Strategic knowledge management, innovation and performance

Our aim is to shed light on the consequences of knowledge management (KM) strategies on firm's innovation and corporate performance. Organisations are not aware of the real implications that KM may have. Based on an empirical study consisted of 310 Spanish organisations and structural equations modelling, results show that both KM strategies (codification and personalisation) impacts on innovation and organisational performance directly and indirectly (through an increase on innovation capability). Also, findings demonstrate a different effect of KM strategies on diverse dimensions of organisational performance. Our conclusions may help academics and managers in designing KM strategic programs in order to achieve higher innovation, effectiveness, efficiency and profitability.     

Team wisdom in software development projects and its impact on project performance

While the concept of wisdom, which refers to how people make right use of their knowledge through their practical actions, judgments, and ethical decisions, in general attracts researcher interest in a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology and management studies, little is known about how wisdom is conceptualized and then operationalized in the software development project team context. Based on the frameworks for philosophical, group and organizational wisdom, this paper identifies software development project team wisdom as a process for how team members best use the stock and flow of their knowledge through collective judgment, virtue-ethics, emotions/feelings, and effective decision-making during their project-related efforts. Adapting the efforts and functional similarities of both group and organizational wisdom practices, this effort determines that wisdom-related mechanisms (e.g., team diversity, networking with other teams and people, and their past experiences), joint epistemic actions (e.g., team reasoning, intuition, and aesthetic capacity), and team virtue and prudence become the different faces of the software development team wisdom process. We then propose how these different faces interrelate and how they also relate to project process effectiveness, such as team learning and speed-to-users, both of which have been rarely addressed empirically in the context of software development project teamwork.By examining 210 in-house software development project teams in a field study and using structural equation modeling analysis, our results empirically show the following: (a) software development wisdom-related mechanisms positively relate to software development team prudence and virtue and their joint epistemic actions, (b) software development team prudence and virtue are positively associated with software development team joint epistemic actions, and further (d) software development team joint epistemic actions are positively associated with software development project process effectiveness. We conclude by discussing our findings as they relate to the wisdom framework of software development project teams and suggest the key managerial implications for different types of software development projects.