net centric tacit-knowledge_management_v_mb

Session 3c, 27 Wed October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Net-Centric Tacit Knowledge Management 1

Net-Centric Approach to

Tacit Knowledge Management

Michael Brown

SkillsNET Corporation

Brussels – Germany - UK

Visibility into Embedded Knowledge Assets


Michael Brown. . .


Framing the Discussion

• Today’s organization are experiencing a convergence:

• Emerging technologies affecting work practices – Virtualization of work

• A maturing workforce – Retiring and/or moving on to second careers– Walking out the door with years of experience

• Hiring of Tech-savvy employees– High comfort and skill; technology is natural

• New Internet capabilities– Web 2.0 (social web) / Web 3.0 (semantic web)

• The Leadership mandate:

Maximize the enterprise’s intellectual capital via tacit knowledge management to optimize capability and competitiveness


Motivation, Problem Area

• Specialized population of second line engineers needed to improve processes to capture and share expertise

• Methodology could not duplicate existing knowledge capture and sharing applications

• Solution had to improve workflow and worker productivity

• Process had to be self-directed / self-correcting / self-auditing

• To demonstrate the value of using semantic and social web tools to capture

and share hidden dimensions of knowledge or skills forming key elements

of „expertise‟

• Experienced workers draw upon these elements in everyday activities and continuously

expand them in tackling new or unexpected situations

Motivation:

Problem Area:


Major Research Objectives

1. Is it possible to capture operational and tacit

knowledge via net-centric event and content analysis?

2. Could such a process become ubiquitously imbedded

in every day workflow routines?

3. Would such a system increase visibility into Tacit

Knowledge and expertise data?

4. Could such a system be integrated into enterprise

architecture?


Sensor

Appliance

Associations/

Affiliation

Engine

Semantic/

NLP

Small Worlds

Context

Analytics

MIKE

Dashboard

Net-Centric

Event Management

/Content

Other Content

Sources

Taxonomic

Adjustment

Data Collection

1 32Dashboard

Semantic Analysis Data Alignment Data Presentation

Email

Blog, Wiki

IM, etc.

Reports

Diagrams

Records

“We didn’t hire smart people so we could tell them what to do; we

hired them to tell us what to do.”

An interdisciplinary research approach

Research Approach, Methodology

Most Important

Knowledge and

Expertise

MIKE


Second line engineers

collaborate electronically

with other engineers who

use TK & EK to assist

Second line

engineers

receive a

request for

assistance

Second line

engineers

use TK to

formulate a

solution

Electronic artifacts

are “processed” and

added to MIKE

MIKE Data are shared to solve

new problems; solutions are then

added to MIKE as new TK

M I K EApplication

EK with embedded TK

2.

3.

4.

5.

1.Vendors Field Technicians /

Engineers

Second line engineers

research Net-centric

and other content, e.g.,

Records of Assistance,

Tech Reports,

Handbooks, etc.

Contextual Environment


Major Outcomes / Results

MIKE is self-populating - self-correcting


Major Outcomes / Results

• Extraction of data from social business, expertise and trust networks.

• Event-based filtering and navigation of e-mail, blog, wiki discussions.

• Uncovering hidden tacit knowledge in explicit knowledge artifacts.

• Filtering and navigation of VoIP telephony transactions.

Demonstrated easy exploratory yet comprehensive access to net-

centric data and allowed for:


Conclusion and Outlook

• Given the forces of change, more effective capturing and sharing

of TK across the enterprise is essential for maximizing

organizational performance and competitiveness; MIKE

technology can facilitate this.

• The work culture is migrating toward a Virtual Organization (VO)

operational environment; MIKE technology can help organizations

manage that imminent change.

• Tacit knowledge and sharing patterns can be captured, presented

and optimized without disruption to employees’ daily routine.


Early Adopters

Going beyond the proto-type experience…….

Major water utility in Maryland, USA

NASA aerospace contractors

University of Houston future smart grid workforce

net centric tacit-knowledge_management_v_mb

Education