Lecture 1

Knowledge Based System

Ass. Prof. Ben Bella S. Tawfik
Knowledge management
practices

Draw out the tacit knowledge

people have, what they carry
around with them, what they
observe and learn from
experience, in addition to what is
usually explicitly stated.
 ‘Explicit' and ‘Tacit'
Knowledge
Explicit knowledge is formal and systematic
and can be easily communicated and shared,
i.e., in a book or a database in the library, a
product specifications, or a scientific formula
or a computer program.
Tacit knowledge is highly personal, is
unrecorded and unarticulated and is hard to
formalize and therefore difficult, if not
sometimes impossible, to communicate.
ELEMENTS of Explicity:
ACCESSING

EVALUATING

MANAGING

ORGANIZING

FILTERING

DISTRIBUTING
 Tacit “information” is more
difficult to obtain because it is
buried :
in web-based links to other sites,
databases, publications, and in the
knowledge of experts employed in
institutions (the value-added dimension)
in the past, communication of this
information has always been informal,
word-of-mouth, and not the province of
any organizational unit
 Example: How many times is
something like this observed :

"If Mr. Smith gets run over by a bus

tomorrow, we're in trouble because only he
knows how the scheduling [or accounting
or other reporting] system actually works"
How then, do we take advantage of the
wealth of knowledge held only in our minds
and those of our colleagues?
 Unlike Information, Knowledge
is not just a:
“thing” to be“ managed”

It is a Capacity - of people and

communities - to continuously
generate and renew themselves to
meet new challenges and
opportunities; it is the collective
knowledge of the organization
 KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFORMATION:
 HUMANS: transform information
into a format that causes it to be
easily converted into knowledge by
another human being
 KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS:
statistical analysis software; data
mining tools, decision support
systems, AI, data visualization
tools, expert systems, decision
support systems, etc. are aids
HIERARCHY OF ASSIMILATION

ENLIGHTMENT
WISDOM
UNDERSTANDING
KNOWLEDGE
INFORMATION
DATA
 In order to
Understand one part of
that hierarchy
one should
Understand all of them
 Data:

Data is Symbols:
And has no significance
beyond
its existence;
No meaning in and of itself
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ALL
SORTS OF DATA:
TANGIBLE DOCUMENTS: REPORTS,
PRESENTATIONS, FINANCIAL FACTS AND
FIGURES, ETC.

So to bring order out of chaos organizations

provide mechanisms to organize data into
information. Information systems, like
library databases, provide consistent and
logical treatment of data so people can find
things.
 Information:
Data that are processed to
be useful: "who", "what",
"where", "when,” data that
has been given meaning
 Knowledge:
Answers “How”, “Why”; involves
appropriate collection and
distillation of information

Knowledge Management is concerned

with developing organizations in such a
manner as to derive knowledge from
information.
 KNOWLEDGE
enhances the learning process
stimulates innovation in

education
raise levels of productivity

speeds development
improves lives
 One major difference
between
Information & Knowledge
 Information is:
 Visible

 Independent from action and

decision
 Format changes after processing

 Physical product

 Independent from existing

environment
 Easily transferable

 Can be duplicated
 While Knowledge
 Can’t be duplicated
 Closely related to action and
decision
 Thought changes after processing

 Invisible
 Spiritual product
 Identified with existing
environment

 Understanding:
appreciation of "why"

difference between
knowledge and
understanding is the
difference between
"memorizing” and
"learning"
 Wisdom:
Evaluated Understanding

calls upon all the previous

levels of consciousness;
human programming (moral,
ethical codes, etc.)
 Enlightenment

For my Buddhist
Friends this is
the ultimate level -
“be all you can be”
Categories
 Firsttwo of those elements (data
and information) involve the past
(what has been or what is known)
 Last four (knowledge,
understanding, wisdom,
enlightenment) address the future-
(people can create the future rather
than just grasp the present and
past).
EXAMPLES (1)
Data represents a fact or
statement of event without
relation to other things.
Example: It is raining.
EXAMPLE (2)
Information embodies the
understanding of a relationship
of some sort, possibly cause
and effect.
Example: The temperature

dropped 15 degrees and then it

started raining.
EXAMPLE (3)
 Knowledge represents a pattern
that connects and generally
providing a high level of
predictability as what is described
or what will happen next.
 Example: If the humidity is very
high and the temperature drops
substantially the atmosphere is
often unlikely to be able to hold
the moisture so it rains.
EXAMPLE (4)
 Understanding; embodies more of an
Understanding of fundamental principles
embodied within the knowledge
 Example: It rains because it rains. And
this encompasses an understanding of
all the interactions that happen between
raining, evaporation, air currents,
temperature gradients, changes, raining.
 Knowledge
Management.

"...a discipline that promotes an

integrated approach to identifying,
managing and sharing all of an
enterprise's information assets. These
information assets may include
databases, documents, policies and
procedures, as well as previously
unarticulated expertise and experience
resident in individual workers." (Gartner
Group Inc, October 1996)
Applications in libraries and
other information centers
might typically fall
into broad categories:
 1)Knowledge databases and
repositories (explicit
knowledge)
storing information and
documents that can be shared
and re-used, for example: in
personnel data; meeting
minutes; research
reports; training packets, etc.
2) Knowledge route-maps and
directories (tacit and explicit
knowledge)
Pointing to: people, document
collections and datasets that can
be consulted: for example,
'yellow pages'/'expert locators'
containing CVs, competency
profiles, research interests
 3) Knowledge networks and
discussions (tacit knowledge)

Providing opportunities for face

to-face contacts and electronic
interaction, for example,
establishing chat facilities/'talk
rooms', and fostering learning
groups
Once we admit to ourselves
how loosely we may be
attending to the critical
knowledge assets of our
institutions, the sooner we will
be ready to embrace KM as a
valuable tool in both using and
protecting that asset.
A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
PROGRAM WOULD DECIDE:
 WHAT to share
 WITH WHOM to share

 HOW to share, and in fact

 DECIDING to share
 But:

“Before an organization can

adopt a knowledge
management strategy, it
must develop a knowledge
management culture” Sivan (1999
Core Idea of Knowledge
Management

Establish an environment where

information is shared and
openly accepted
Requires change in
organizational culture because
people are not accustomed to
“sharing”
“Knowledge management
should not strike library
institutions as a radically
new idea; rather it is a new
way of reasoning their
existence
Libraries and information centers
today are asking themselves
difficult questions about
accountability:
 Which programs and services are integral
to the vision, mission and goals of the
university or other organization
 How to better meet the needs of students

 How to encourage and support faculty

research and creativity

 Educational quality assurance
Some repositories of explicit
knowledge in libraries:
 volumes in the library,
 the institution's official business records,

 a recorded history of constituent

problems with technology.

An effective KM system would attempt to
identify, index, store, and relate these
disparate pieces of information which
could then be of value to the institution
 This Development Probably
Requires:
 Thoughtful consideration of the educational
mission and the interdisciplinary relationships
with other units in the larger organization
 Greater oversight of all learning repositories
and resources, ranging, for instance, from
libraries to scientific and technological
laboratories or other governmental agencies
 Facilitating the development of an
administrative infrastructure that combines
strategic budgeting with the management of
programs and services
Technologies are effective KM
tools in managing explicit
knowledge
 Intranets,
 Videoconferencing,
 Chat rooms,
 Collaborative groupware
 “E” whatever

allow members of an online learning

community to capture and disseminate
explicit knowledge
 But, in libraries:
Most of the tacit knowledge is
associated with the area of
information services which
gives a “value-added”
dimension – that great “old”
reference service aspect