Thursday, 6 March 2008

Artical IV

Article IV: Social Networking

Networking gets things done. For example people in network can help us in finding jobs, meeting new friends and finding partners. The problems in social networking in real world most of connections between people are hidden. Network has huge potential but it’s only valuable as people and connections that you can see. This problem is being solved type of website called social networking sites. These sites help to see connections in real world. These sites make connections visible.

4.1 Introduction to Social Networking

Social networking is a phenomena defined by linking people to each other in some way. Digg is a popular example of a social network. Users work together to rate news and are linked by rating choices or explicit identification of other members. Generally, social networks are used to allow or encourage various types of activity whether commercial, social or some combination of the the two.

(Wikipedia, 2008) A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes. The resulting structures are often very complex. Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

The most popular social networking sites are
Linkedin
Face book
My space
Youtube

What is Linkedin?
(Wikipedia, 2008)LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitors per month, growing at an annual growth rate of about 485%.As of February 2008, it had more than 19 million registered users, spanning 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments.

Through your network you can:
§ Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
§ Be found for business opportunities
§ Search for great jobs
§ Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know


4.2.Community of practice:
The concept of a community of practice (often abbreviated as CoP) refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. It refers as well to the stable group that is formed from such regular interactions.
· (Wenger, 1998: 52) He prefers to explore practice as meaning in particular context: "practice is about meaning as an experience of everyday life" He states that it is meaning as an experience that interests him and that this is located in a process that he calls the 'negotiation of meaning'. The negotiation of meaning involves the interaction of two processes, participation and reification, which form a duality.
· KM is essentially about people and the earlier technology driven approaches, which failed to consider this, were bound to be limited in their success. One possible way forward is offered by Communities of Practice, which provide an environment for people to develop knowledge through interaction with others in an environment where knowledge is created nurtured and sustained.
Social networks can enable an organizationa to create an early warning system because today evry organization use social networking sites and made people to interact with those and take comments from the people so that the management know about the things and make decisions on that. So I think that social networking sites create early waring system to the organizations, and make sure knowledge gets to people who can act on time. Using social networking sites organizations can contact with the people and build relationships across boundaries of geography.
1.3 Social networks in my perspective:
social networks focus on establishing the online communities for people who share same interest and activities. Allow persons to spread news virally as quick as any social book marking service. In social networks friends with similar interest are also becoming extremely popular. The main reason to create these social communities to further promote brand presence and share news/events with their community. Social networks also help in knowledge management. In our engineering college we have one network where every one can share their knowledge with the other people and students post their quires in the community regarding the subject, jobs and may other. The people who know the information they give reply. Even lectures are also share their views and interests in the community. This helps a lot for the students. I found that many organizations also use the communities.
1.4 Reflections on my group learning
In seminar we discussed that social networks are help full in forming online communities for the peoples who share same interests, and discussed about blogs, wiki, and linkedin. In seminar session I got one intresting point that through the social networking sites improve the way individuals think collectively, moving from knowledge sharing to collective knowing.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn
2. http://www.topicguru.net/?c1=webmaster&c2=glossary
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network#Applications
4. http://informationr.net/ir/8-1/paper142.html
5. http://www.rheingold.com/Associates/onlinenetworks.html

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Article I

Article I: Knowledge Management Models

This article is about to discuss and evaluate Knowledge Management Models. In this I chose Knowledge Management Model by Nonaka (1995). This article follows the following sections,

1.1 Overview of Nonaka Model
1.2 . Critical analysis of Nonaka Model
1.3 . Reflections from practice
1.4 . Reflections on my group learning

1.1 Overview of Nonaka Model:

Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi (1995) have proposed a model on Knowledge Management. This model attained recognition as a useful and rigorous approach to describing the ways knowledge is generated, transferred and re-created in organizations. Nonaka referred this Knowledge Management Model as "SECI Model”. The creation of knowledge is a continuous process of dynamic interactions between tacit and explicit knowledge. The four modes of knowledge conversion interact in the spiral of knowledge creation. The spiral becomes larger in scale as it moves up through organizational levels, and can trigger new spirals of knowledge creation.
In brief, the model incorporates the following:Two forms of knowledge (tacit and explicit)An interaction dynamic (transfer)Three levels of social aggregation (individual, group, context)Four “knowledge-creating” processes (socialization, externalization, combination and internalization).Socialization (S) - tacit to tacitExternalization (E) - tacit to explicitCombination (C) - explicit to explicitInternalization (I) – explicit to tacitSocialization: the sharing of tacit knowledge between individuals through conversations and knowledge sharing meetings.Externalization: the expression of tacit knowledge in publicly comprehensible forms.Combination: the conversion of explicit knowledge into more complex sets of explicit knowledge which are more organized and systematic.Internalization: the conversion of externalized knowledge into tacit knowledge on an individual or organizational scale.
The model assumes tacit knowledge can be transferred through a process of socialization into tacit knowledge in others and that tacit knowledge can become explicit knowledge through a process of externalization. The model also assumes that explicit knowledge can be transferred into tacit knowledge in others through a process of internalization, and that explicit knowledge can be transferred to explicit knowledge in others through a process of combination. Therefore, the transforming processes are assumed to be socialization, externalization, internalization and combination.



Strengths of SECI Model:1.Appreciates the dynamic nature of knowledge and knowledge creation.2. Provides a framework for management of the relevant processes.Limitations of SECI Model:It is based on a study of Japanese organizations, which heavily rely on tacit knowledge.Employees are often with a company for life.


1.2 Critical analysis of Nonaka Mode
Nonak’s model is the most accepted theory in Knowledge Management. Nonaka published more theories based on SECI model, this model based on assumption that knowledge is created through social interaction between tactic and explicit knowledge.

Nonaka proposed that knowledge conversion begins with socialization, the tacit acquisition of tacit knowledge by people who do not have it from people who do (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). But in practical situation the knowledge that people have in an organization is so practical and it’s deeply rooted with their body and involved to a specific environment. Therefore it’s very difficult to express when people are asked to describe how they do what they do. They often find it hard to express it in words
Further more in some industries people are not willing to disclose their knowledge because it’s their trade secret of the company.

Another important drawback in the SECI model is lack of cultural issues. Nonaka hasn’t adequately discussed how knowledge conversion can be done in a culturally diversified organization
According to Doyle (1985) argue that the model rests on Japanese management cultural practices, and is thus not transferable to other contexts.
Nonaka’s model is predominantly based on Japanese culture. Japanese work culture is different when compared with other countries. According to Tom De Geytere (2008) Japanese organization rely mostly on tacit knowledge of the employee. And employees are often happy working in one organization for the life-time. This scenario is totally reverse in most of the countries, the employees keep changing the company for various reasons like career growth, financial incentives or environmental change

In Socialization process the knowledge is acquired by interaction with people" (Nonaka, 1995). Therefore in a diversified organization it should be problematic because of the followings.
Individuals in multinational organizations come with different backgrounds. They are from with different countries speaking different languages. Language is a tool for communication. The challenges to Socialization process is how the listener interprets or understands these information (knowledge) when they doesn’t know the language of the speaker.
Another most challenging problem to Socialization Process is lack of trust between the people, due to lack of communication, different cultural backgrounds and different social class levels. Firstly, in this kind of situation, people are much less willing to share their knowledge and ideas. Secondly, it is more difficult to detect problems if people’s work is isolated.

Poell and van der Krogt (2003) treat the mode as forms of learning, and the type of work involved influences how workers learn. But Nonaka apparently assumes workers only learn within parameters set by managers.
As an employee working for a company makes him bounded to the functionality of job profile but this doesn’t restrict his learning skills. The technology enhancements had thrown open doors for unlimited knowledge depositories to acquire the tacit knowledge. This tactic knowledge can be gained by an individual without any restrictions and boundaries laid by the managers and management. The best example for knowledge depositories is internet. The learning process is incorporated into many of the modern company’s in-order to provide and enhance the technical aspects of the employee rather than setting parameters.

1.3 Reflections from practice

When i am doing project in my under graduation we work as a group of three members. All of us are came from different background and different places. When we are doing work together we face lot of difficulties to communicate with each other and to share knowledge among us. So I thought that in knowledge management culture place a major role and Nonaka model ignores that cultural issues. Nonaka model assumes that workers only learn with in the parameters set by managers. In my experience it not correct because when we are doing the project we have our own ideas and own thoughts to implement the project. It is very difficult to follow the rules that given by our project guide. So it is very important to enhance the skills rather than setting parameters.
In organizations people came from different backgrounds and their culture is also different from each other. When they are working as a team they have to share their knowledge and work for the organization. In organizations it is very difficult to implement all the four stages given in SECI model. In software companies it is very easy to implement because the employees are very much clear about what tactic knowledge is and what is explicit knowledge and implementation is also easy because they mainly focus on explicit knowledge rather than tactic knowledge. But in companies like designing and maifacturing companies it is very difficult to implement because there is no clear opinion on tactic knowledge and explicit knowledge. So in my view SECI model is not suitable to all the organizations.

1.4. Reflections on my group learning
In this section i gave some points what i learnt by reading the bloges of my colleagues.
(Pavan, 2008) He criticizes the Nonaka model based on two points one is lack of cultural issues and the second one is workers only learn within parameters set by managers. He supported with the good examples in real life and in literature. I agree with the author what he made in he made in his discussion.
(Samer, 2008) In his blog he explained about SECI model and criticizes the model by giving real life examples. He made one interesting criticism based on suitability. What he made in his discussion is SECI model is not suitable to implement in organization. I agree to that point because knowledge is not clear and to implement all the four stages like socialization, externalization, combination and internalization in real life.

I did not attended the seminars about the models of knowledge management , i could not discuss much about that discussions.

In my view Nonaka model is widely accepted model in Knowledge Management. It is very strong in theory but coming to practice its some what difficult to implement in real life and in organizations. Because Nonaka model mainly focus on Japanese culture. Japanese culture is entirely different from the all over world.

References:

Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://www.12manage.com/methods_nonaka_seci.htmlCreatingKnowledgeSharing Culture. Retrieved March 2, 2008 http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/0/FD35AF9606901C42802567C70068CBF5/Knowledge Management models: a state of the art. Retrieved March 2, 2008 fromhttp://www.knowledgeboard.com/item/380/23/5/3
http://knowledgetechno.blogspot.com/
http://m00188617.blogspot.com/

Thursday, 14 February 2008

can knowledge be managed

What is Knowledge and Can it Be Managed:

As the decade, and indeed, the millenium begins to draw to a close, the promise of technology is prevalent in all we do, see, hear, and touch.
As the decade, and indeed, the millenium begins to draw to a close, the promise of technology is prevalent in all we do, see, hear, and touch. Technology is the driving force behind the stock market and therefore, the economy. The aura of the Internet has sent the value of Internet-based companies stock like EBAY, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com through the roof. And more new technologies, with additional promises are introduced almost daily. From Java to data mining to intranets to video conferencing to web casting to XML it is almost impossible to keep up, yet technology optimism is rampant.
But what does any of this have to do with "knowledge," the topic of this article? Well, there is an increasing level of hype around the term "knowledge management" these days. But what is knowledge? Furthermore, what is knowledge management and can knowledge really be managed? Let's investigate!
Several technology vendors are offering such solutions as panaceas for the business challenges of the knowledge era. Trade press coverage of the "productivity paradox" has further added to the speed of the information technology (IT) treadmill by suggesting that increasing investments in new information technologies should somehow result in improved business performance.
What is Knowledge?
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines knowledge as "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association." This seems to be a good definition of knowledge as it is universally used and accepted.
However, it begs the following question: what is meant by the term "knowing?" Once again, let's turn to Webster's. The word "know" is defined as "to perceive directly: have direct cognition of." And just for completeness sake, cognition is defined as "the act or process of knowing including both awareness and judgment."
So, according to these definitions knowledge implies cognition, and cognition implies awareness. And computers, quite obviously, do not have "awareness"-at least not yet.
The Evolution from Data to Knowledge and Beyond
The basic building block of knowledge is data. Data is a fact represented as an item or event out of context and with no relation to other things. Examples of data are 27, 010110, and JAN. Without additional details we know nothing about any of these three pieces of data. Consider:
Is 27 a number in base ten, or is it in octal (which would translate to 23 in base ten)?
If 27 is a number in base ten what does it represent? Is it an age, a dollar amount, an IQ, a shoe size, or something else entirely?
What about 010110? Is it a binary number? Or is it a representation of a date, perhaps January 1, 1910? January 1, 2010? Or something else entirely?
Finally, what does JAN represent? Is it a woman's name (or a man's name)? Or does it represent the first month of the year?
All of these are examples of data because of the lack of context.
Information, on the other hand, adds context through relationships between data, and possibly other information. Data with meta data and context makes information. The relationships may represent information, yet the relations do not actually constitute information until they are understood. Also, the relationships that represent data have a tendency to be limited in context, mostly about the past or present, with little if any implication for the future.
Knowledge adds understanding and retention to information. It is the next natural progression after information. To have "knowledge" requires information in conjunction with patterns between data, information, and other knowledge, couples it with understanding and cognition.
The final step would be to move from knowledge to wisdom. Wisdom can be thought of as knowledge applied. You may have the knowledge that fatty foods are bad for you, but if you eat it anyway, you are not wise. I predict that within the next few years some brave organization will attempt to offer wisdom management, as the natural progression from knowledge management. (Note: I do not necessarily predict they will succeed.)
What is Knowledge Management?
The cynical answer to this question would be "any product that any vendor wants to sell more copies of." As with any new term or hot topic "knowledge management" has already been co-opted by technology vendors, including both software vendors and consulting firms. Everything from document management systems to query and reporting tools to OLAP engines to repositories are being labeled as "knowledge management" tools. So, the first bit of advice you should follow is to be skeptical of all claims from all vendors promoting any knowledge management solution.
But that does not answer the question: what is "knowledge management?" Here are a few definitions I came across in industry publications and out on the web:
Knowledge management encompasses management strategies, methods, and technology for leveraging intellectual capital and know-how to achieve gains in human performance and competitiveness.
GartnerGroup, 29 August 1996, http://www.gartner.com/
Knowledge management can be defined as "the harnessing of a company's collective expertise wherever it resides and the distribution of that expertise to the right people at the right time. It's not a product but a process-the process of gathering, managing, and sharing your employees' knowledge capital."
Yes, Knowledge Can Be Managed
To accomplish knowledge management as defined above requires investment. The business strategy of the organization must acknowledge the requirement to capture knowledge and actively foster the effort. Knowledge exists in people, not technology, and as such will require a massive human effort. Technology can help to capture information, but it can not create knowledge. Useful technologies include search engines, scanning technology, optical character and voice recognition software, intelligent agents, database management systems, document management systems, and repositories.
Once the information is identified, collected, and managed, it must be transformed into knowledge. This requires classification, analysis, and synthesis. This step, too, requires human intervention. Knowledge can not be created by technology. Only a human being can render information into a format that causes it to be easily transformed into knowledge by another human being upon retrieval. Useful technologies for this phase of the knowledge management process include statistical analysis software, data mining tools, OLAP and decision support systems, AI, and data visualization tools.
The final phase is effectively communicating the captured "knowledge." I use "knowledge" in quotes because knowledge is not truly captured. Instead, what is captured is information that is more easily transformed into knowledge by the recipient. Technologies that help to facilitate communication include collaboration technology, groupware, workflow management systems, e-mail, the web, networking technology, and mobile computing. The captured "knowledge" should be easily convertible into any format preferred by the recipient (for example, word processing documents, Adobe files, text files, etc.)
But It Won't Be Easy
There are many obstacles on the path to knowledge management. Usually, the first impediment to success is dealing with the folks who have the knowledge. Many business people feel that "knowledge is power." So, if I give up my knowledge, I give up my power. If I give up my power, I am more expendable. More progressive organizations share information and knowledge more freely. This attitude needs to permeate the organization for knowledge management to succeed.
Another possible bump along the path to knowledge management implementation is lack of knowledge. Some organizations "fly by the seat of their pants" without knowing much about the competition, the market, their customers, etc. Organizations with this problem, though, will soon face greater problems than the inability to implement knowledge management.
A more frequently occurring problem is lack of time to capture the knowledge that does exist. Competitive information may exist only in the head of the sales person. But she is always on the road and needs to be closing business to make those quarterly numbers. So management may "mouth" their commitment to knowledge management, but act otherwise by encouraging immediate concerns over longer-term concerns (such as knowledge management).
Finally, the ROI on knowledge management is difficult to measure. How do you determine that something was "known" by someone quicker with knowledge management in place? And if you can determine that, how can you measure the productivity gain? These things can lead to executive-level discomfort with the costs of implementing knowledge management.
The Bottom Line
Knowledge management is over-hyped and misunderstood. It is not a technology, but an amalgamation of strategy, technology, and people. There are no panaceas where you just plug in some new technology and "bang" you have knowledge management. But the proliferation of "knowledge" throughout an organization is unquestionably a good thing. Start today to understand what it is and work toward a plan that maps out a knowledge management strategy for your organization. Or plan to lose business to those companies that do!

reference:http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5108/

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Article III

What is the difference among Data, Information and Knowledge?

The words Data, Information and Knowledge are the key words in Knowledge Management, and these words are often use interchangeable with the given scenario.
Before going to know the difference among Data, Information and Knowledge it is important to know that the meaning of Data, Information and Knowledge.
What is Data?
Data is the raw material of information. It is the product of research and discovery. A single piece of data has no meaning unless the context is understood. Data needs to be transformed to information.
What is Information?
Information is a flow of messages. The patterns and relationship in the data is pointed out and discussed. The data is made informative and must be put into a context and linked like data.
What is Knowledge?
Knowledge is a multifaceted concept with multilayered meaning. The history of philosophy since the classical Greek period can be regarded as never ending search for the meaning of knowledge. [Resource]. The traditional epistemology adopts a definition of knowledge as "Justified True Belief". In theory of knowledge creation, knowledge is seen as a dynamic human process of justifying personal beliefs as part of an aspiration for the "truth". Machlup (1983) see information is a flow of messages of meanings which might add to, restructure of change knowledge.



Fig: relation among Data, Information and Knowledge
Source: The first annual symposium meaning making in organizations event 2006

Dretske (1981) offers more useful definitions. He said that, “Information is that commodity capable of yielding knowledge, and what information a signal carries is what we can learn from it. Knowledge is identified with information-produced (or sustained) belief, but the information a person receives is relative to what he or she already knows about the possibilities at the source”.
(Source: http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/data_info.html)





Figure:Transformation of Data, Information and Knowledge Retrieved February 2, 2008 From http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/class_fn.html

Some web definitions of Data, Information and Knowledge:
(Prof. Elsa Barber n.d) Data is the representation of concepts or other entities, fixed in or on a medium in a form suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by human beings or by automated systems (Wellisch, 1996). Information is (1) a message used by a sender to represent one or more concepts within a communication process, intended to increase knowledge in recipients. (2) A message recorded in the text of a document. Knowledge is knowing, familiarity gained by experience; person's range of information; a theoretical or practical understanding of; the sum of what is known.
(Prof. Charles Oppenheim, Loughborough University, UK n.d) Data are raw material of information; typically numeric. Information is data which is collected together with commentary, context and analysis so as to be meaningful to others. Knowledge is a combination of information and a person's experience, intuition and expertise.

Bellow table shows various definitions of Data, Information and Knowledge from various authors.

(Source: http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/2002/1435/04/14350104b.pdf)

By studying all these concepts in my view data, information, and knowledge is often represented as pyramid. With data at the base, data is converted to information and information converted to knowledge. For example when I am doing my under graduation in my college we have one separate department called student desk. The main duties of this department are to solve the problems of students. So the department collets the data form students every week regarding the maintaing the campus, quality of food providing in the hostel, facilities in library and laboratory and how lecturer’s helps in their studies like all. Students fill the form given by the student desk. The date taken from the student has no meaning unless the student desk arranges it in some format and add context to that data it become information. They send that information to the principal. He made decision based on that information provided by the student desk regarding the improving facilities in college and to solve the problems of the students and having that knowledge he made decisions.
In seminar all are discussed that information will come from data and information became knowledge i.e. the transformation of data, information and knowledge is one way. But I didn’t agree that because in my view data, information and knowledge related and each other and can be transfer to each other. Example in our college the data given by the students to the student desk is knowledge to the students and that is data for the student desk. Information they give to the principal is knowledge to the student desk. So the data, information, and knowledge are interchangeable. Data may be information for some one or it may be knowledge for some one and vice versa.

Reference:
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/thonglipfei/data_info.html
http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/2002/1435/04/14350104b.pdf

Knowledge Management(KM) Defination

1. Knowledge Management:

Before getting into the Knowledge Management (KM), there is a need to know what Knowledge is. Knowing is a cognizance, a conscious state of being aware or informed (having knowledge) (Oxford English Dictionary, 2002, p. 1510) beyond that which is perceived through the five senses, although it does not exclude incoming signals from the five senses. In rhetorical terms, knowing can be described as hearing beyond words, seeing beyond images, sensing beyond appearances and feeling beyond emotions. It focuses on methods to increase individual sensory capabilities and increase the ability to consciously integrate these sensory inputs with our tacit knowledge, that knowledge within each of us that is created by past learning and experiences but cannot be put into words. In other words, it is knowledge gained from experience that resides in the unconscious mind.
Knowledge is defined variously as
(i) Expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
(ii) Knowledge is the human capacity (both potential and actual) to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.
1.1. Definition of knowledge management:

(Wikipedia, 2008)The definition of KM varies. There is no single definition for Knowledge Management. Different definitions have been proposed by different authors. Knowledge management is a management theory which emerged in the 1990s. Knowledge Management (KM) compresses a range of practice used by organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge. Many large companies have resources dedicated to Knowledge Management, often as part of ‘Information Technology’ or ‘Human Resource Management’ departments. Knowledge management programs are typically tied to organizational objectives such improved performance, competitive advantage innovation; lessons learnt transfer and the general development of collaborative practices.

1.2. Knowledge Management: the context

There is a broad range of thought on Knowledge Management with no unanimous definition. The approaches vary by author and school. Knowledge Management may be viewed from each of the following perspectives:
Techno-centric: A focus on technology, ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing/growth.
Organizational: How does the organization need to be designed to facilitate knowledge processes? Which organizations work best with what processes?
Ecological: Seeing the interaction of people, identity, knowledge and environmental factors as a adaptive system.

When I tried to find the definition of Knowledge Management on the internet, I found that most of them discussed about creating, storing, and distribution of the Knowledge. (Wigg. K, 1997)

(Mountain Quest Institute, n.d) Knowledge management is a process for optimizing the effective application of intellectual capital to achieve objectives. In an organizational setting, this would mean a systematic approach to getting an organization to make the best possible use of knowledge in implementing its mission, broadly viewed as either sustainable competitive advantage or long-term high performance. From the individual viewpoint, this can be extrapolated to mean optimizing the effective application of the individual's knowledge (their potential and actual capacity to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations) to achieve the individual's professional and personal goals.

(KMTool Community) Knowledge Management -Information or data management with the additional practice of capturing the tacit experience of the individual to be shared, used and built upon by the organization leading to increased productivity (Tacit Knowledge - Innovation, creation of new knowledge often comes from collaboration and interaction with experts. These are some of the many ways to create a culture where there is greater collaboration, team work and sharing of ideas.).

(Article 13 Co) Knowledge is a fluid mix of contextual information, values, experiences and r. For an organization this resides within employees (human capital) and represents a source of creativity, innovation and adaptability to change. Knowledge management is an explicit system to use this capital.

1.2. Knowledge Management (KM) in my perspective

KM is a systematic process of creating, organizing and developing an organization to make best use of individuals that helps in reaching the goals of organizations. The function of knowledge management is how to transform the tactic knowledge into explicit knowledge.

Example in our engineering college we have SPRINT-IT. It is both Knowledge Management system and Information system. It helps to share the ideas and views of the different student in college; it helps to gain good result in their studies as well as their future career. Information is given by the every student and it is knowledge to the each and every student in the college who access the web. Every student has permission to access the knowledge base and update the knowledge base. This contains doubts on lectures, general issues, events organized in the college, various career options after the studies and information regarding the jobs. This helps to achieve their goals through the creation and application of the relevant knowledge. This is done by motivating and inspiring the students to exploit their innovative capabilities and achieving the goals.
1.3. My reflections by reading others blogs
Kranthi in his blog he explain Knowledge management in his perspective’s it is experience, sharing of what works and what doesn’t works.
In pavan’s blog he mainly explained about the objectives of the Knowledge Management. And he given that Knowledge Management is to ensure that right information is delivered to the right person in right time.
According to munir he concluded that there is no fixed meaning for Knowledge and it varies from person to person.

1.4. References:

Wigg K. (1997), "Knowledge Management: An Introduction and Perspective", Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume1, Issue1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/what-is-km.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management#External_links
http://www.mountainquestinstitute.com/definitions.htm