Chapter 7

Knowledge Capture Systems:

Systems that Preserve and
Formalize Knowledge
 Chapter Objectives

❖ Describe how technology can enable the

knowledge capture process
❖ Describe issues related to how to design the
knowledge capture system, including the use of
intelligent technologies in support of this process
 Knowledge Capture
Systems Definition
❖ Knowledge capture systems support process of
eliciting explicit or tacit knowledge from
people, artifacts, or organizational entities
❖ Rely on mechanisms and technologies to
support externalization and internalization

Knowledge Knowledge Capture =

Knowledge Elicitation +
Elicitation Knowledge Representation
 Using Stories for Capturing
Organizational Knowledge

Organizational stories:
▪ “a detailed narrative of past management actions, employee
interactions, or other intra- or extra-organizational events that
are communicated informally within organizations”
▪ include a plot, major characters, an outcome, and an
implied moral
▪ Use to develop company’s next generation leaders
▪ Reflect organization norms, values and culture
▪ When people can locate themselves in the story,
their sense of commitment and involvement is
enhance
 Using Stories for Capturing
Organizational Knowledge

Organizational stories:
▪ The strength of stories is that they are clearly episodic in
nature, which means related to event directly experience.

▪ Stories also effective for pedagogical tools by the utilization of

case studies in most business school

▪ Springboard stories are told from the perspective of a

protagonist who was in predicament, which may be resemble
the predicament currently faced by the organization.
 Where can storytelling be
effective?
1. Igniting action in knowledge-era organizations
➢ to actively think about the implication of change or
opportunities
2. Bridging the knowing-doing gap
➢ exploit nature of communication by encouraging the
listener to story and live it vicariously as a participant
3. Capturing tacit knowledge
➢ “Storytelling provides a vehicle for conveying tacit
knowledge, drawing on the deep-flowing streams of
meaning, and of patterns of primal narratives of which
the listeners are barely aware, and so catalyzes visions
of a different and renewed future” – Denning
4. To embody and transfer knowledge
➢ communicate a complex multidimensional idea by
actively involving the listeners in the creation of the idea in
the context of their own organization
 Where can storytelling be
effective?
5. To foster innovation
➢ enables to easily absorb and relate knowledge, the same
spark that triggers innovation
6. Launching/Nurturing communities of practice
▪ thematic groups (World Bank)
▪ learning communities or learning networks (HP)
▪ best practice teams (Chevron)
▪ family groups (Xerox)
7. Enhancing technology
➢ enable us to interact with our neighbors and remain
connected when we want to, providing us with
“tranquility yet connectedness.
8. Individual growth
➢ avoiding adversarial contests and win-win for all sides:
the knowledge seeker and the knowledge-provider
 Techniques for Organizing &
Using Stories in the Organization
1. Narrative knowledge capture using Anthropological observation
with:
▪ naïve interviewers
▪ asked innocent and unexpected questions
▪ caused the subjects to naturally volunteer their anecdotes
▪ curiosity resulted in a higher level of knowledge elicitation
2. Storytelling circles
▪ Formed by groups having a certain degree of coherence and identity
such as a common experience in a project
Methods
▪ Dit spinning or fish tales
▪ Alternative histories
▪ Shifting character or context
▪ Indirect stories
▪ Metaphor
➔ Store in Narrative Database which can be indexed by the
theme or stakeholder or characters of the story
 Designing the Knowledge Capture
System

❖ Typically the documentation available in

organizations is the result of applying expertise
rather than expertise itself

❖ Expert system utilized knowledge engineering - to

assist the knowledge-elicitation process based on
interview sessions between a knowledge engineer
and the domain expert with the goal of jointly
constructing an expertise model

❖ These models may not directly meet the objective of

capturing and preserving the expert’s knowledge so it
can be transferred to others, or in other words, so
others can learn from it
 Designing the Knowledge Capture
System

❖Concept maps as a knowledge

modeling tool
▪ Best suited to capture the knowledge of
experts when supporting educational settings
❖Context-based reasoning (CxBR) to
simulate human behavior
▪ Best suited to capture tactical knowledge of
experts, which requires assessment of the
situation, selecting a plan of action and acting
on the plan
 Knowledge Representation through
the use of Concept Maps

❖ “Concept maps represent organized knowledge.”

❖ Represent knowledge through concepts, enclosed in
circles or boxes of some types which are related via
connecting lines or propositions
❖ Concepts are perceived regularities in events or
objects designated by a label
❖ Vertical axis expresses a hierarchical framework for
organizing the concepts
❖ Inclusive concepts are found at the top, progressively
more specific, less inclusive concepts arranged below
❖ Relationships between propositions in different
domains are cross-links
Concept Map about
Concept Maps
 Concept map system example:
CmapTools
❖ The goal of CmapTools, a concept map-based browser,
is to capture the knowledge of experts
❖ To capture and formalize knowledge resulting in context
rich knowledge representation models to be viewed and
shared through the Internet
➢ Alleviates navigation problem with concept maps
➢ Serve as the browsing interface to a domain of knowledge
➢ Icons below the concept nodes provide access to auxiliary
information
➢ Linked media resources and concept maps can be located
anywhere on the Internet
➢ Browser provides a window showing the hierarchical ordering of
maps
Concept map system example:
CmapTools
Concept map system example:
CmapTools
 Knowledge Representation through
Context-based Reasoning

❖Tactical knowledge
▪ human ability that enables domain experts to
assess the situation at hand (therefore short-
term)
▪ myriad of inputs, select a plan that best fits
current situation, and executing plan
▪ recognize and treat only the salient features of the
situation
▪ gain a small, but important portion of the
available inputs for general knowledge
Context-based Reasoning (CxBR) helps to
model this behavioral phenomenon
 Knowledge representation through
CxBR

CxBR is based on the following basic tenets:

a. Context - set of actions and
procedures that properly address the
current situation.
b. As mission evolves, transition to
other context may be required to
address the new situation
c. What is likely to happen in a context is
limited by the context itself
 Knowledge representation through
CxBR

❖Mission Context - defines the scope of the

mission, its goals, the plan, and the
constraints imposed
❖Main Context - contains functions, rules
and a list of compatible subsequent Main
Contexts
❖Sub-Contexts - abstractions of functions
performed by the Main Context which may
be too complex for one function
 Ex. Context Hierarchy

Mission Context
Drive to Work

Main Context1: Main Context2:

City Driving Interstate Driving

Subcontext1: Subcontext2:
Traffic Light Actions Engange Cruise Control
 CxBR System example : CITKA

❖Context-based Intelligent Tactical

Knowledge Acquisition (CITKA)
▪ uses its own knowledge base to compose a
set of intelligent queries to elicit the
tactical knowledge of the expert
▪ composes questions and presents them to
the expert
▪ result is a nearly complete context base
can be used to control someone
performing the mission of interest in a
typical environment
 CxBR System example : CITKA

❖CITKA consists of four modules of

independent subsystems:
▪ Knowledge engineering database back-end (KEDB) -
A data structure that holds the evolving context base as it
gradually becomes developed, either by the knowledge
engineer or by the subject matter expert (SME)
▪ Knowledge engineering interface (KEI) - Data
entry in the KEI is provided by eight interacting dialogs
▪ Query rule-base back-end (QRB) - A rule-based system
containing the rules for executing the intelligent dialog with
the subject matter expert (SME)
▪ Subject matter expert interface (SMEI)- the graphical
user interface (GUI)for the QRB
 Barriers to the Use of Knowledge Capture
Systems

❖Barriers to the deployment of knowledge

capture systems from two perspectives:
▪ the knowledge engineer who seeks to
build such systems
▪ the subject matter expert, who would
interact with an automated knowledge
capture system to preserve his knowledge
 Barriers to the Use of Knowledge Capture
Systems

❖From the point-of-view of the knowledge

engineer:
❖ Knowledge Engineer requires developing
some idea of the nature and structure of
the knowledge very early in the process
▪ must attempt to become versed in the subject
matter, or the nature of knowledge
❖ An automated system for knowledge
capture, without a-priori knowledge of the
nature, is essentially not possible
 Barriers to the Use of Knowledge Capture
Systems

❖From the point-of-view of the expert:

▪ need to take the initiative of learning how to
interact with the system
▪ some people may be resistant to trying new
things
▪ can be overcome, with adequate training and
the utilization of user-friendly interfaces
 Using Learning by Observation
Capture Knowledge

❖ Research on how humans and animals learn

through observation
❖ Use of learning through observation to
automate the knowledge acquisition task
❖ Learning by observation shows promise as a
technique for automatic capture of
expert’s knowledge, and enable computers to
automatically “learn”
❖ Learning by observation refers to a computing
agent’s ability to improve how it will act in the
future, as the agent observes its interactions with
the world and its own decision-making process
 References

❖ Irma Becerra-Fernandez and Rajiv Sabherwal (2010).

Knowledge Management Systems and Processes. M.E.
Sharpe, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-7656-2351-5
❖ Elias M. Awad, Hassan M. Ghaziri (2004). Knowledge
Management. Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-034820-1.
❖ Madanmohan Rao (2004). Knowledge Management Tools
and Techniques: Practitioners and Experts Evaluate KM
Solutions. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN: 0750678186.
❖ Amrit Tiwana (2002). The Knowledge Management Toolkit:
Orchestrating IT, Strategy, and Knowledge Platforms (2nd
Edition). Prentice Hall. ISBN: 013009224X