Knowledge Management in Czech Regions: Experience and

Prospects

Peter Mikulecký

University of Hradec Králové

Czech Republic

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Czech RepublicHere we are

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Hradec Králové

Historical town with a lot of fine architecture Historically the ownership of Czech queens The principal town in the East Bohemian region

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The University

Recently two faculties• Faculty of Education

• Faculty of Informatics and Management

Third faculty in preparation (probably Social Sciences)

Around 5600 students and 350 teachers Study programmes on all levels

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Faculty of Informatics and Management

Oriented mainly towards ICT in economics and management

Five departments Two main programmes

• Information Management

• Economics and Management Over 1600 students and 100 teachers Main research in Knowledge Management, e-

Learning, but also in Tourism, Economics, etc.

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The Main Research Areas

Faculty of Informatics and Management University of Hradec Králové• eLearning and eTechnologies

• Information Technologies and Systems

• Knowledge-based Technologies and Systems

• Knowledge Management

• Networked Knowledge Economy

• Information Technologies in Tourism

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Knowledge management

Knowledge management applies systematic approaches to find, understand, and use knowledge to create value.

It is the formalization of and access to experience, knowledge, and expertise that create new capabilities, enable superior performance, encourage innovation, and enhance customer value.

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Ultimate goal of the KM

The ultimate goal of a knowledge management effort in an organization is to collect all the organizational knowledge (explicit as well as tacit, hidden deeply in the experts‘ brains) and to make it available – sharable – throughout the organization.

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Knowledge life cycle

Sources of knowledge

Knowledge creation

Knowledge acquisition

Knowledge representation

Knowledge storage

Knowledge dissemination

Knowledge application KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge bases

TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

SOCIETY CULTURE

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Regional sources of knowledge

Public administration bodies• Regional government

• Municipalities

• Branches of governmental institutions

Educational institutions Business and industry Others (public transport, health care, …)

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Knowledge acquisition

Difficult to identify the necessary knowledge, some legal documents are messy, not clearly usable

Necessary to motivate knowledge owners properly

Political will is often missing Already rather strong support of the

regional and municipal top officers

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Knowledge storage and access

Information already collected in regional information system

This is accessible largely also for business and industrial organizations

However, only little knowledge is still stored

Public administration portal of the Czech Republic – partially also on regional level

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What to do in the future?

To develop knowledge management strategies on the regional level in order to improve the processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization among knowledge providers and users

To identify, explore, collect and share best practices of the regional public administration bodies and to make them continuously accessible for citizens

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What else to do?

To ensure such principles of good governance as openness, transparency and participation of staff, stakeholders and citizens in the processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization

To encourage active participation of stakeholders and citizens in development and exploitation of prospective regional knowledge management systems

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What our university is doing

eLearning of regional and municipal public administrators• It started already a few years ago in the scope of the

TEMPUS programme (languages, ECDL, European affairs)

• WebCT is used largely

Centre of Knowledge Economy is proposed as a hub for rapid innovation and knowledge transfer from academy to the region

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Centre of Knowledge Economy – main research areas

eKnowledge eLearning eSecurity eBusiness and eCommerce eGovernment eOrganizations eApplications

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Conclusions

More KM on regional level Knowledge disseminated to citizens and

PA staff Universities as centres for innovation

and knowledge transfer to regions We are looking for a broader

international co-operation