From Ignorance Map to Informing PKM4E Framework: Personal Knowledge Management for Empowerment

Aim/Purpose: [This Proceedings paper was revised and published in the 2018 issue of the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Volume 15] The proposed Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) for Empowerment (PKM4E) Framework expands on the notions of the Ignorance Map and Matrix for further supporting the educational concept of a PKM system-in-progress. Background: The accelerating information abundance is depleting the very attention our cognitive capabilities are able to master, one key cause of individual and collective opportunity divides. Support is urgently needed to benefit Knowledge Workers independent of space (developed/developing countries), time (study or career phase), discipline (natural or social science), or role (student, professional, leader). Methodology: The Design Science Research (DSR) project introducing the novel PKM System (PKMS) aims to support a scenario of a ‘Decentralizing KM Revolution’ giving more power and autonomy to individuals and self-organized groups. Contribution: The portrayal of potential better solutions cannot be accommodated by one-dimensional linear text alone but necessitates the utilization of visuals, charts, and blueprints for the concept as well as the use of colors, icons, and catchy acronyms to successfully inform a diverse portfolio of audiences and potential beneficiaries. Findings: see Recommendation for Researchers Recommendations for Practitioners: The PKM4E learning cycles and workflows apply ‘cumulative synthesis’, a concept which convincingly couples the activities of researchers and entrepreneurs, and assists users to advance their capability endowments via applied learning. Recommendation for Researchers: In substituting document-centric with meme-based knowledge bases, the PKMS approach merges distinctive voluntarily shared knowledge objects/assets of diverse disciplines into a single unified digital knowledge repository and provides the means for advancing current metrics and reputation systems. Impact on Society: The PKMS features provide the means to tackle the widening opportunity divides by affording knowledge workers with continuous life-long support from trainee, student, novice, or mentee towards professional, expert, mentor, or leader. Future Research: After completing the test phase of the PKMS prototype, its transformation into a viable PKM system and cloud-based server based on a rapid development platform and a noSQL-database is estimated to take 12 months.

From Ignorance Map to Informing PKM4E Framework: Personal Knowledge Management for Empowerment

Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology ◽

10.28945/4017 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 125-144

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Design Science ◽

Knowledge Workers ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Science Research ◽

Knowledge Bases ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Future Research ◽

Development Platform ◽

Aim/Purpose: The proposed Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) for Empowerment (PKM4E) Framework expands on the notions of the Ignorance Map and Matrix to support the educational and informing concept of a PKM system-in-progress. Background: The accelerating information abundance is depleting the very attention our cognitive capabilities are able to master, contributing to widening individual and collective opportunity divides. Support is urgently needed to benefit Knowledge Workers irrespective of space (developed/developing countries), time (study or career phase), discipline (natural or social science), or role (student, professional, leader). Methodology: The Design Science Research (DSR) project conceptualizing the PKM System (PKMS) aims to support a scenario of a ‘Decentralizing KM Revolution’ giving more power and autonomy to individuals and self-organized groups. Contribution: The informing-science-related approach synthesizes and visualizes concepts related to ignorance and entropy, learning and innovation, chance discovery and abduction to inform diverse audiences and potential beneficiaries. Findings: see Recommendation for Researchers Recommendations for Practitioners: The PKM4E learning cycles and workflows apply ‘cumulative synthesis’, a concept which convincingly couples the activities of researchers and entrepreneurs and assists users to advance their capability endowments via applied learning. Recommendation for Researchers: In substituting document-centric with meme-based knowledge bases, the PKMS approach merges distinctive voluntarily shared knowledge objects/assets of diverse disciplines into a single unified digital knowledge repository and provides the means for advancing current metrics and reputation systems. Impact on Society: The PKMS features provide the means to tackle the widening opportunity divides by affording knowledge workers with continuous life-long support from trainee, student, novice, or mentee towards professional, expert, mentor, or leader. Future Research: After completing the test phase of the PKMS prototype, its transformation into a viable PKM system and cloud-based server based on a rapid development platform and a noSQL-database is estimated to take 12 months.

Devising Enabling Spaces and Affordances for Personal Knowledge Management System Design

10.28945/3744 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Personal Growth ◽

Design Science ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Science Research ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Prototype System ◽

Development Platform ◽

Nosql Database

[This Proceedings paper was revised and published in Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline (InfoSci)] Aim/Purpose: Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) has been envisaged as a crucial tool for the growing creative class of knowledge workers, but adequate technological solutions have not been forthcoming. Background: Based on former affordance-related publications (primarily concerned with communication, community-building, collaboration, and social knowledge sharing), the common and differing narratives in relation to PKM are investigated in order to suggest further PKM capabilities and affordances in need to be conferred. Methodology: The paper follows up on a series of the author’s PKM-related publications, firmly rooted in design science research (DSR) methods and aimed at creating an innovative PKM concept and prototype system. Contribution: The affordances presented offer PKM system users the means to retain and build upon knowledge acquired in order to sustain personal growth and facilitate productive collaborations between fellow learners and/or professional acquaintances. Findings: The results call for an extension of Nonaka’s SECI model and ‘ba’ concept and provide arguments for and evidence supporting the claims that the PKM concept and system is able to facilitate better knowledge traceability and KM practices. Recommendations and Impact on Society: Together with the prior publications, the paper points to current KM shortcomings and presents a novel trans-disciplinary approach offering appealing opportunities for stakeholders engaged in the context of curation, education, research, development, business, and entrepreneurship. Its potential to tackle opportunity divides has been addressed via a PKM for Development (PKM4D) Framework. Future: DSR Activities After completing the test phase of the prototype, its transformation into a viable PKM system and cloud-based server based on a rapid development platform and a noSQL-database is estimated to take 12 months.

Devising Enabling Spaces and Affordances for Personal Knowledge Management System Design

Informing Science The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline ◽

10.28945/3743 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 063-082 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Personal Growth ◽

Design Science ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Science Research ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Prototype System ◽

Development Platform ◽

Nosql Database

Aim/Purpose: Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) has been envisaged as a crucial tool for the growing creative class of knowledge workers, but adequate technological solutions have not been forthcoming. Background: Based on former affordance-related publications (primarily concerned with communication, community-building, collaboration, and social knowledge sharing), the common and differing narratives in relation to PKM are investigated in order to suggest further PKM capabilities and affordances in need to be conferred. Methodology: The paper follows up on a series of the author’s PKM-related publications, firmly rooted in design science research (DSR) methods and aimed at creating an innovative PKM concept and prototype system. Contribution: The affordances presented offer PKM system users the means to retain and build upon knowledge acquired in order to sustain personal growth and facilitate productive collaborations between fellow learners and/or professional acquaintances. Findings: The results call for an extension of Nonaka’s SECI model and ‘ba’ concept and provide arguments for and evidence supporting the claims that the PKM concept and system is able to facilitate better knowledge traceability and KM practices. Recommendations and Impact on Society: Together with the prior publications, the paper points to current KM shortcomings and presents a novel trans-disciplinary approach offering appealing opportunities for stakeholders engaged in the context of curation, education, research, development, business, and entrepreneurship. Its potential to tackle opportunity divides has been addressed via a PKM for Development (PKM4D) Framework. Future DSR Activities: After completing the test phase of the prototype, its transformation into a viable PKM system and cloud-based server based on a rapid development platform and a noSQL-database is estimated to take 12 months.

Design Science Research Championing Personal Knowledge Management System Development

10.28945/3410 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Professional Growth ◽

Design Science ◽

Science Research ◽

Design Science Research ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Research Perspectives ◽

Systems Research ◽

Wide Range

Knowledge Management (KM) is governed by an ill-structured mishmash of complementing as well as conflicting interdisciplinary methodologies and based on physical and social technologies, which too often struggle to achieve their stakeholders’ objectives due to diverse scholarly contributions, repetitive polemic discourses, and misguided organizational KM system generations. A novel Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) Concept and Prototype System currently under development take a fresh look and aim to support individuals’ academic and professional growth as well as their roles as contributors and beneficiaries of institutional and societal performance. A PKM System (PKMS), hence, is meant to aid life-long-learning, resourcefulness, creativity, and teamwork of knowledge workers. Such a scope offers appealing and viable opportunities for stakeholders in the educational, professional, and developmental context. A recent article employed the systems thinking techniques of the transdiscipline of Informing Science (IS) to align and validate the more specific models and methodologies central to the PKMS concept. In line with the interdisciplinary nature of the concept, further conference papers and journal articles have been disseminated and received feedback from a wide range of disciplines. This follow-up article turns to the creative process at the heart of the concept and application introduced in the prior publications. Similar to the IS-benchmarking approach, the design thinking is validated against accepted general design science research guidelines. These guidelines are meant to supplement the reactive behavioral (natural) science paradigm with the proactive design science paradigm in order to support information technology (IT) researchers in creating innovative IT artefacts that extend human and social capabilities and meet desired outcomes. Rather than to justify the research paradigm of the PKMS project in an ad hoc and fragmented manner with each new paper, the objective is a dedicated article which presents the design science research perspectives comprehensively as evidence of their relevance, utility, rigor, and publishability in Information Systems research outlets. The URL links to all prior publications facilitate a kind of ‘Long Discussion Case’ to potentially assist IT researchers and entrepreneurs engaged in similar projects.

Supporting the Sustainable Growth of SMEs with Content- and Collaboration-based Personal Knowledge Management Systems

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies ◽

10.1177/2393957517739773 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Professional Growth ◽

Firm Growth ◽

Design Science ◽

Science Research ◽

Sustainable Growth ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Prototype System ◽

The Impact

Personal knowledge management (PKM) has been envisaged as a decentralising revolution and as the most important educational concern. Its root objective aims for highly knowledgeable individuals acting competently in their daily lives, as part of the workforce, and as public citizens. However, such a promising state of knowledge management (KM) has not emerged yet. Over the past four years, the ongoing development of a PKM concept and prototype system has been accompanied by over 30 multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publications. To verify the undertaking, dedicated articles have applied accepted general design science research (DSR) guidelines aimed at creating innovative IT artefacts (that extend human and social capabilities and meet desired outcomes), at validating design processes (as evidence of their relevance, utility, rigor, resonance and publishability) and at ensuring theory effectiveness (a matter of purposeful utility, content, communication and presentation). Based on the formation of individuals’ autonomous PKM capacities and personal devices nourished by networked creative conversations, the novel PKM approach, on the one hand, aims at advancing lifelong PKM support and academic and professional growth benefiting individuals as contributors and beneficiaries of institutional and societal performance. On the other hand, the scope of anticipated outcomes also offers appealing opportunities for further stakeholders engaged in the context of curation, education, research, development and business. In the latter context, prior papers have looked at the impact for large enterprises in regard to organizational knowledge management (OKM) system generations, the potential of a fruitful OKM–PKM–Co-evolution, and the promises for strengthening organisational capabilities of innovativeness and leadership. The focus of this article shifts to the collaborative and growth-related challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It pinpoints the entrepreneurial barriers of organisational development, and how the PKM concept and its technological and educational devices are able—as any SME moves through its dynamic stages of growth, predicaments or decline—to guide and rectify the associated tasks and problems. These demands necessitate performing effectively under growing pressures and communicating with rising numbers of internal and external stakeholders, as affirmed in Garnsey’s resource-based notion of new firm growth, Greiner’s evolution–revolution-based stage-growth model, and Levie’s and Lichtenstein’s dynamic states approach to entrepreneurship.

Design Science Research For Personal Knowledge Management System Development - Revisited

Informing Science The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline ◽

10.28945/3566 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 345-379 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Design Science ◽

System Development ◽

Knowledge Worker ◽

Science Research ◽

Design Science Research ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Wicked Problem ◽

Digital Ecosystems ◽

The article presents Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) as an overdue individualized as well as a collaborative approach for knowledge workers. Designing a PKM-supporting system, however, resembles a so-called “wicked” problem (ill-defined; incomplete, contradictory, changing requirements, complex interdependencies) where the information needed to understand the challenges depends on upon one’s idea for solving them. Accordingly, three main areas are attended to. Firstly, in dealing with a range of growing complexities, the notion of Popper’s Worlds is applied as three distinct spheres of reality and further expanded into six digital ecosystems (technologies, extelligence, society, knowledge worker, institutions, and ideosphere) that not only form the basis for the PKM System Concept named ‘Knowcations’ but also form a closely related Personal Knowledge Management for Development (PKM4D) framework detailed in a separate dedicated paper. Reflecting back on a United Nations scenario of knowledge mass production (KMP) over time, the complexities closely related to the digital ecosystems and the inherent risks of today’s accelerating attention-consuming over-abundance of redundant information are scrutinized, concluding in a chain of meta-arguments favoring the idea of the PKM concept and system put forward. Secondly, in light of the digital ecosystems and complexities introduced, the findings of a prior article are further refined in order to assess the PKM concept and system as a potential General-Purpose-Technology. Thirdly, the development process and resulting prototype are verified against accepted general design science research (DSR) guidelines. DSR aims at creating innovative IT artifacts (that extend human and social capabilities and meet desired outcomes) and at validating design processes (as evidence of their relevance, utility, rigor, resonance, and publishability). Together with the incorporated references to around thirty prior publications covering technical and methodological details, a kind of ‘Long Discussion Case’ emerges aiming to potentially assist IT researchers and entrepreneurs engaged in similar projects.

Advances in IT Standards and Standardization Research - Handbook of Research on the Evolution of IT and the Rise of E-Society ◽

Optimizing Knowledge-Work Through Personal Knowledge Management

10.4018/978-1-5225-7214-5.ch002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 21-48

Author(s):

Rezvan Hosseingholizadeh ◽

Hadi El-Farr ◽

Somayyeh Ebrahimi Koushk Mahdi

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Knowledge Workers ◽

Knowledge Work ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Work Activities ◽

Individual Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Intensive ◽

Discretionary Behavior

Knowledge-work is a discretionary behavior, and knowledge-workers should be viewed as investors of their intellectual capital. That said, effective knowledge-work is mostly dependent on the performance of individual knowledge-workers who drive the success of knowledge-intensive organizations. Therefore, the study takes the perspective of personal knowledge management in enforcing the effectiveness of knowledge-work activities. This study empirically demonstrates that knowledge-workers' behaviors are dependent on their motivation, ability and opportunity to perform knowledge-work activities. This study provides insights and future directions for research on knowledge-work as a discretionary behavior in organization and the factors influencing it. Scholars can investigate the effect of empowerment of individuals on their tendency to knowledge-creation, knowledge-sharing and knowledge-application. Since personal-knowledge often raise the issue of knowledge ownership, further attention to ethical issues may bring valuable insights for KM in organizations.

(Neg)Entropic Scenarios Affecting the Wicked Design Spaces of Knowledge Management Systems

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e22020169 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 169

Author(s):

Ulrich Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Information Overload ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Design Science ◽

Knowledge Workers ◽

Science Research ◽

General Purpose ◽

Management Systems ◽

Management Approach ◽

Knowledge Management Systems

The envisioned embracing of thriving knowledge societies is increasingly compromised by threatening perceptions of information overload, attention poverty, opportunity divides, and career fears. This paper traces the roots of these symptoms back to causes of information entropy and structural holes, invisible private and undiscoverable public knowledge which characterize the sad state of our current knowledge management and creation practices. As part of an ongoing design science research and prototyping project, the article’s (neg)entropic perspectives complement a succession of prior multi-disciplinary publications. Looking forward, it proposes a novel decentralized generative knowledge management approach that prioritizes the capacity development of autonomous individual knowledge workers not at the expense of traditional organizational knowledge management systems but as a viable means to foster their fruitful co-evolution. The article, thus, informs relevant stakeholders about the current unsustainable status quo inhibiting knowledge workers; it presents viable remedial options (as a prerequisite for creating the respective future generative Knowledge Management (KM) reality) to afford a sustainable solution with the generative potential to evolve into a prospective general-purpose technology.

Personal knowledge management and enactment of personal knowledge infrastructures as shadow IT

Information and Learning Sciences ◽

10.1108/ils-11-2019-0120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi ◽

Rebecca Reynolds ◽

Ali Eshraghi

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Knowledge Workers ◽

Organizational Level ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Content Type ◽

Organizational Contexts ◽

Consulting Firms ◽

Individual Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Intensive

Purpose Personal knowledge management (KM) lends new emphasis to ways through which individual knowledge workers engage with knowledge in organizational contexts. This paper aims to go beyond an organizational approach to KM to examine key personal KM and knowledge building (KB) practices among adult professionals. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a summary of the findings from interviews with 58 consultants from 17 managing consulting firms. Participants were selected based on their knowledge-intensive roles and their willingness to share information about their knowledge practices. Data analysis was inductive and revealed multiple personal KM activities common among research participants, and the way these are supported by informal ties and various technologies. Findings This work highlights ways in which “shadow information technology” undergirds personal knowledge infrastructures and supports KM and KB practices in the context of management consulting firms. The results uncover how personal knowledge infrastructures emerge from personal KM and KB practices, and the role of informal social networks as well as social media in supporting personal KM and KB. Research limitations/implications This study contributes an overall conceptual model of factors that help knowledge workers build a personal knowledge infrastructure. By affording an understanding of socially embedded personal KM activities, this work helps organizations create a balance between KM strategies at the organizational level and personal knowledge goals of individual workers. Originality/value Much of the previous research on KM adopts organizational approaches to KM, accentuating how organizations can effectively capture, organize and distribute organizational knowledge (primarily through KM systems).

Personal Knowledge Management and Social Media

Social Media in Higher Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2970-7.ch007 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 124-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marie-Luise Groß

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Knowledge Management ◽

Personal Development ◽

Knowledge Workers ◽

Knowledge Work ◽

Influential Factors ◽

Personal Knowledge ◽

Social Software ◽

Business Context ◽

Today’s students are tomorrow’s knowledge workers. They will be paid to find innovative solutions to organizations’ most pressing problems. In times of decreasing training budgets and a dynamic job market, employees have to take over responsibility for their own personal development. Social Media and Social Software both on the WWW and organizations intranets offer a myriad of possibilities to employees and managers to be successful knowledge workers in increasingly virtual organizations and to ensure continuous learning. However, social media also puts new challenges on employees. Particularly young people, who – as the Generation Y’ers – are expected to possess extensive social media skills, need to know how they can use social media in a business context to ensure their personal development and be successful in their jobs. In this chapter, the Personal Knowledge Management model is used to discuss influential factors of successful knowledge work and personal development and to outline what students need to learn to be prepared for Enterprise 2.0.