Professional Associations, Graduate Programs and Internet Resources in Knowledge Management
by Ari Bancale
Technology Management 298
First Semester, 2001-2002

 
"Knowledge is a fabric of relations in which one individual thread is fundamentally entwined with all others in a collective discourse." - Martin Ryder 

Summary

This page answers the question, "Where do I go from an introductory course in Knowledge Management?" Aiming to be more than just a links page, I dare not presume to make this a page of privilege and call it a portal. Instead, I'd like to let it become a conductive thread into the fabric of knowledge on Knowledge Management (KM).

I've only chosen the sites that provide good quality & high value-added content with consistent references and links for a more in depth exploration of specific subjects of interest to KM students and practicioners. I start with a few reviewed sites and go on to brief discussions of related topics of interest and end with a listing of sites and keywords that have provided me with valuable insights.

This page is organized as follows:


Professional Associations
http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Knowledge_Management/Organizations/

KM Certification
http://kmcertification.org/

KM Certification Training
http://www.eknowledgecenter.com

The certification program focuses on the seamless integration of knowledge and activity across content domains, space, time, and people. Participants particularly focus on accelerating the creation and dissemination of new knowledge in groups, organizations, businesses, and scientific communities. Topics include:

Links to KM Associations
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Graduate Programs

Core Ingredients in a Graduate KM Course
http://www.icasit.org/finalkmpaper.htm

  1. Knowledge Creation module
  2. History of KM Theory/Concepts module
  3. Importance of Trust module
  4. Strategic Issues in KM module
  5. Knowledge Coding module
  6. Hardware/Software/Systems module
  7. KM ROI/Evaluation module
  8. International Issues module
Teaching Approaches
http://www.icasit.org/finalkmpaper.htm
  1. Orientation Toward Current Industry Practice
  2. Orientation Toward History, Underlying Concepts, and Theory
  3. Orientation Toward Human Factors and Personnel Issues
  4. Hardware and Software Orientation
Factors Affecting KM Education & Case Studies
http://www.icasit.org/kmclass/teaching/

Graduate Certificate in KM at George Washington University
http://www.gwu.edu/~mastergw/programs/KM/

The George Washington University Knowledge Management Graduate Certificate program is a six-course graduate level program designed to provide the theory, principles, strategies, processes and tools needed to engineer and manage knowledge creation and knowledge flow throughout an organization. Knowledge systems are characterized by four components:

  1. Leadership/Management
  2. Technology
  3. Organizational
  4. Behavioral
The program is composed of the following courses in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE):
  1. EMSE 270 Knowledge Management I
  2. EMSE 212 Management of Technical Organizations
  3. EMSE 256 Information Management and Information Systems
  4. EMSE 217 Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  5. EMSE 287 Decision Support Systems and Models
  6. EMSE 370 Knowledge Management II
Graduate Certificate in KM at Northeastern University
http://www.ace.neu.edu/programs/typ_grad_km.cfm

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Internet Resources

General Resources

Search Engines & Directories Glossaries Journals & Bibliographies Conference Proceedings Internet Communities. The emergence of virtual communities is one of the most valuable contribution of the Internet. They provide interactivity and actual transfer and development of knowledge and not just one-way flow of information. There are several ways you can participate in a community. The usual roles are:
  1. Active members are the ones that start discussion threads and keep them going. They have a lot of ideas and/or knowledge to share as well as the thirst for more ideas, information and knowledge. These members make-up the real community.
  2. Lurkers are vicarious members that have no real contributions to the community. The value of their existence are increasing because the technology for gathering information about them are being put to good use.
  3. Browsers join communities to look for some needed information. They usually have no intentions of continuing their membership in the community.
  4. Inactive members are useless statistics.

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Related Topics of Interest

Human-Computer Interface (HCI). HCI is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, development and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them. Mark Lucente, a staff member at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, states "There are billions of people in the world who don't currently use computers, many of whom say, 'I don't like computers. I don't know how to use them.' Natural interaction means that they already do know how to use them."

A team at IBM's Almaden Research Center is creating technology that enables computers to determine the user's emotional and cognitive state by monitoring facial expressions, body gestures, speech and gaze. As such work progresses, the computer will gradually become a tool that adapts to humans instead of a tool that requires humans to adapt to it.

Brain-Machine Interface. EMORY NEUROSCIENTISTS USE COMPUTER CHIP TO HELP SPEECH-IMPAIRED PATIENTS COMMUNICATE. Roy E. Bakay, M.D., a neurosurgeon at Emory University and neuroscience colleague Phillip R. Kennedy, M.D., have developed a neurotrophic electrode that can be placed in the brain to help these patients communicate through a computer.

There are no wires going through the skin. Neural signals are used to drive the computer cursor in the same way a computer mouse is moved back and forth. The recorded neural signals are connected to the computer and are used as a substitute for the mouse cursor.

Extropian Singularity. "The postulated point or short period in our future when our self-guided evolutionary development accelerates enormously (powered by nanotech, neuroscience, AI, and perhaps uploading) so that nothing beyond that time can reliably be conceived." - Vernor Vinge, 1986

The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century. Vinge argues we are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence. There are several means by which science may achieve this breakthrough:

  1. There may be developed computers that are "awake" and superhumanly intelligent. (To date, there has been much controversy as to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is "yes, we can", then there is little doubt that beings more intelligent can be constructed shortly thereafter.)
  2. Large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity.
  3. Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.
  4. Biological science may provide means to improve natural human intellect.

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KM-Related Keywords Ari Bancale
aribancale@yahoo.com
October 4, 2001
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