Editorial

Citation

Stankosky, M. (2007), "Editorial", VINE, Vol. 37 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/vine.2007.28737aaa.001

Editorial

We are now seven years into the 21st century. A lot has happened since then, and what I find interesting is that Knowledge Management (KM) still remains an issue with a lot of people. I recently had a conversation with several folks in the know, and they still have questions and issues to not only defining KM, but also in how to make it work. The USA government alone plans to spend billions on KM this year, with these issues still on the table. Nonetheless, the train still moves, and Knowledge and Information Management are still the drivers of the 21st century economy.

My definition of Knowledge Management is leveraging relevant knowledge assets to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. Leveraging: if one plus one is not more than two, an organization is missing the boat regarding their knowledge assets. Relevant: too often we manage and collect anything not related to our objectives. We must be focused and disciplined here. Knowledge assets: knowledge and information are still our principal inputs and resources to produce our products and services. Yet we still do not know how to inventory them, let alone assess their value. Efficiency: clearly a necessary outcome if we tap into all the knowledge assets of the organization, its partners, its competitors, and its customers. Effectiveness: the right knowledge and information will help us to do the right things; make the right decisions. Innovation: if we do not create, we are doomed to the buckets of history. Note, I want to make one thing clear here: these three outputs are not an either-or proposition; they must all occur simultaneously for a KM program to work.

KM has two principal strategies: codification and collaboration. Codification: we have to get our tacit knowledge out there for others to use, whether it be text, audio, video, or some virtual media. Collaboration: no one person is smart enough to think and do it all. Magic happens when the right people get together, with the right/relevant knowledge and information.

I know the above sounds like a tutorial on KM; it was meant to be. We need to come to grips with what exactly is KM. I welcome your thoughts on this. The train will not stop.

We only have a few portfolio articles for this edition; the holidays have taken their toll. What we do have, however, enhances the insights into our knowledge economy. Art Murray and Kent Greenes continue their brilliant march on the topic of Enterprise-of-the-Future, expanding their horizons to help us capture the ideas of 6 billion (yes – 6 billion) minds. What economic power! Theresa Jefferson writes about the use of ICTs in regional conflicts, war, and terrorism. Finally, Anne Green takes us into the world of Business Information, and shows us how to transform it into Business Intelligence.

For our Executive interview, we have valuable insights into how one of the largest government agencies, The United States General Services Administration, employs KM in one of its critical areas. Sam Hunter is the Assistant Commissioner, Office of Applied Science, Public Buildings Service. Sam is showing us how KM can be applied successfully in the government sector.

We have a richness of articles: Alex and Dave Bennet contribute again with their prolific and brilliant minds. They discuss a systems perspective of context avenues that impact the knowledge sharing process. Monica Cálad and Maria Pia Arango from Colombia tell us how KM promotes the recognition of organizational knowledge as critical assets. They also blend well the KM strategies of codification and collaboration we mentioned above. Darius Hedgebeth introduces us to some of the current inventory of knowledge sharing technologies. Ken Harmon helps us to focus on one of the important desired outcomes of KM: namely, technical innovation as the principal measure of competitive performance. Gaytari Doctor tells us of an intern program where digital repositories are developed. And Yucel Yilmaz presents a case study in how KM can operate in a Building Materials Company. All in all, we have both a variety of topics and some unique perspective into KM. Let these authors know what you think of them.

I want to close by wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year. I hope you realize your hopes and dreams.

Michael Stankosky