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TaxonomyA classification system, which serves as the table of contents for an organization’s knowledge capital. Taxonomy allows an understanding of how that body of knowledge can be broken down into parts, and how its various parts relate to each other. Taxonomies are used to organize information and help users find it easily. Taxonomy provides the structure governing the way information, documents and libraries are constructed. This structure helps people in navigating, storing and retrieving needed information. Taxonomy can also provide pointers to human expertise or knowledge. Taxonomy is useful in breaking down silos and building a shared language across the organization. Taxonomy serves as a defacto communication tool that connects people together on a common platform so that they can contribute and share knowledge easily. (See also: Search Engine) Team LearningTeams, not individuals, are the fundamental unit of work in modern organizations. Unless teams learn, the organization cannot learn. Teams play a central role in knowledge creation. They provide a shared context where individuals can interact with each other and engage in meaningful conversations. Team learning depends on the ability to engage in “dialogue” and the capacity of the members to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine “thinking together” mode. Constructive dialogues lead to new points of view. Defensive reasoning is a major impediment to team learning. When there is defensive reasoning and people are not open, it is difficult for new perspectives to emerge. TechnologyInformation technology has a key role to play in knowledge management. Technologies used in knowledge management are different from those used for handling data. Technologies designed for managing data are structured, numerically oriented, and address large volumes of observations, and do processing without substantial human intervention. On the other hand, technologies used in knowledge management must deal frequently with text rather than numbers. These technologies are also more likely to be employed in an interactive and iterative manner by their users. There are various types of knowledge management technologies. Some involve participation by large groups of people; others involve only a few individuals. In case of some technologies, the user must be something of an expert. Others assume that the user plays a more passive role. Some knowledge-work environments allow time for search, synthesis, and reflection. A good example is an academic researcher. Others require real-time or near real-time performance. A good example is a doctor or call center worker. According to Tom Davenport62, technology can support knowledge work in different ways depending on the nature of the work: Transaction, Integration, Collaboration, and Expert: Transaction work involves low amounts of collaboration and judgment. Here, technology can automate structured transactions. Integration work involves a low level of judgment but a high level of interdependence. In this case, technology can structure the process and the flow of work and also facilitate the reuse of knowledge. Expert work calls for a high level of judgment but a low level of collaboration. Technology must embed knowledge into the flow of the work process. In collaboration work, there are high levels of judgment and collaboration. Work is usually iterative and unstructured. Repositories can be useful here. Repositories, groupware technologies, decision support systems, expert systems, social software and the Internet are some of the commonly used tools in knowledge management. Groupware, probably the most commonly used technology in knowledge management, supports collaboration. Groupware provides a virtual space in which people can share experiences, conduct meetings, listen to presentations, hold discussions and share documents. The Web is ideal for publishing information across different computer platforms. Since it is good at displaying knowledge that is linked to other knowledge through hyper text links. The Web deals easily with audio, graphic, and video representations of knowledge. The hyper text structure of the Web facilitates easy navigation. Intranet Webs are often the easiest way to get knowledge management started in an organization. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) publishing tools for producing Web documents, a relational database system for storing them, text search-and-retrieval engines, and some approach to managing the “metaknowledge” that describes and facilitates access to the knowledge available, are some of the tools which can be used. Early on in the life of knowledge management initiatives, a “let a thousand flowers bloom” technology strategy may be helpful. Later on, however, the sharing of knowledge across organ izational boundaries will be easier with a single, broadly deployed platform. A good deal of new technology attends primarily to individuals and the explicit information that passes between them. But the social dimension must not be ignored. Indeed, technology will be effective only when it can build a community around it. When we go back in time, we notice that information sharing devices such as the telephone and the fax, like the book and newspaper before them, became popular not simply because they carried information to individuals, but because they were easily embedded in communities. In the early days, the Internet was designed primarily so that computers could exchange information electronically and computer users could exchange files. But some insightful programmers decided to introduce e-mail for transferring files. E-mail which helped transform a scientific network into a social network, still accounts for the bulk of Internet traffic. Similarly, Tim Berners-Lee realized that the World Wide Web would be much more interesting if it was used not simply for exchanging information between individuals, but to support collaborators. That is what has driven the Web’s extraordinary evolution. IT facilitates capturing knowledge; defining, storing, categorizing, indexing and linking digital objects, searching for and subscribing to relevant content. Yet, many people are reluctant to use IT or they use it only when they are forced to. So IT strategy must begin by thinking about how people use information. One important issue in technology involves the way the local informality found within communities is protected. Technologies vary in terms of formality and trust. At one end are systems that prevent people from behaving in ways other than those clearly defined and constrained by the technology. For high-security demands, such technologies will be increasingly important and indeed may appeal to people. A good example is ATM machines. But if new technologies ask people to negotiate all their social interrelations this way, the informal, the tacit, and the socially embedded dimensions will be completely ignored. The demands for formality demanded by technologies can disrupt informal relations. For instance, in many situations, asking for explicit permission changes social dynamics quite dramatically — and receiving a direct rejection can change them even further. Consequently, people negotiate many permissions tacitly. A great deal of trust grows up around the ability to work with this sort of implicit negotiation. Direct requests and insistence of rights and duties only serve to lower trust and heighten tension. The limitations of technology should not be overlooked. Many important jobs in organizations get done through social networks. Informal water cooler and coffee vending machine conversation and impromptu unstructured meetings will continue to have a role to play in encouraging informal knowledge sharing. Technology is not ideally suited for handling tacit knowledge. Also, technology cannot create new knowledge. Technology by itself cannot also be a change agent. Changing a company’s knowledge culture requires altering basic behaviors, attitudes, values, management expectations and incentives. But technology can expand access and ease the problem of getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. Technology can also raise the motivation to share knowledge. When people see their company investing time and money on its Web site or intranet for example, they may take knowledge management more seriously. 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