scholarly journals Reframing a Novel Decentralized Knowledge Management Concept as a Desirable Vision: As We May Realize the Memex

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4038
Author(s):  
Ulrich Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Design Science Research ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Invisible Work ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Management Concept

Proposing a major (though envisaged synergetic) shift in the knowledge management (KM) paradigm needs to convince a skeptical audience. This article attempts such a feat and motivates its conceptual considerations by fusing a wide scope of theoretical KM-related foundations in response to current KM unsustainabilities and emerging enabling technologies. The envisioned workflows, infrastructure, affordances, and impact resulting from the progressing design science research and prototyping efforts are consolidated and reframed, guided by a five-step visioneering process and twelve triple-criteria-clusters combining innovative, technological, and vision-related qualities. Inspired by Bush’s “Memex”, a desirable vision never realized since its suggestion three quarters of a century ago, the novel KM system (KMS) pursues the scenario of a mutually beneficial co-evolution between individual and institutional KM activities. This article follows up on the unsatisfactory and unsustainable state of current KM affairs suffering from accelerating information abundance, invisible work, structural interdisciplinary holes, lacking personal tools, and widening opportunity divides. By portraying a potentially transformative and game-changing technology, the crafting and drafting of a desirable, sustainable, and viable KMS vision assures transparency and can be more easily shared with a critical mass of stakeholders as a prerequisite for creating the respective future KM reality. The drafting of the “Desirable Sustainability Vision” is envisaged to assist a currently accepted KMS start-up project and investment.

Scalability of generative knowledge management systems: designing for individuals’ and institutions’ mutual benefit

Kybernetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Prototype Development

Purpose In further conceptualizing a novel generative knowledge management system (KM/KMS), this paper aims to focus on identifying and mitigating the risks related to its envisaged scaling from a prototype to an application with a rapidly growing user base. Design/methodology/approach It follows up on prior publications using design science research (DSR) methodologies in compliance with theory effectiveness, a principle expecting system designs to be purposeful in terms of utility and communication. The KMS perspective taken prioritizes a decentralizing agenda benefiting knowledge workers while also aiming to foster a fruitful co-evolution with conventional organizational KM approaches. Findings The utilization and further extension of the CKDT and a “scalable innovation” heuristic are assisting the detecting of potential scaling risks related to the logics and logistics, generative interoperability, technological capacitating, knowledge dynamics and value chain which further validates the viability of the proposed KM concept and system. Research limitations/implications Although the prototype development is still in progress, the paper conforms to the DSR practice to report on early visions of technology impact on users, organizations and society but also reflects on expectations of viability, desirability and commitment, as well as the system’s prospect as a general-purpose-technology or disruptive innovation. Originality/value In addition to the novel KM-related perspectives, the paper’s practical emphasis on the scaling of more complex systems is rarely dealt with in the literature due to the respective projects’ often large-scale collaborative nature, broad methodological scope and diverse stakeholders’ interests. In this case, the task is eased as prior DSR outputs can be referred to.

A project knowledge management framework grounded in design science research

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Rosana Sue Narazaki ◽  
Marcirio Silveira Chaves ◽  
Cristiane Drebes Pedron
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Design Science Research ◽  
Management Framework

Supporting Knowledge Management and Collaboration in Research Communities Using Automatically Created Research Portals

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Jörg Becker ◽  
Tobias Heide ◽  
Ralf Knackstedt ◽  
Matthias Steinhorst
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Design Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Current State ◽  
Research Communities

Research portals have been proposed as a means of managing knowledge and fostering collaboration in research communities. However, implementing and maintaining a research portal is costly and involves a lot of technical knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a research portal generator designed to automatically create such portals. The generator provides a configurable set of knowledge management and collaboration features. The purpose of the generator is to ease the process of setting up and using a research portal. The paper contributes to promoting research portals as a means of sharing knowledge and facilitating collaboration in research communities. Following a design science research process, the authors derive objectives for a research portal generator, iteratively implement these objectives, and evaluate the functionality of the created portals against the current state of the art of 813 research portals. They demonstrate that portals created by the generator exhibit a consistently higher level of maturity than research portals currently present on the Internet.

scholarly journals A Back-Casting Knowledge Management Vision for a Digital Platform Ecosystem in Support of Thrivable Communities of Knowledge Workers

10.31355/67 ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 92-109
Author(s):  
Ulrich Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Stage Design ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Individual Knowledge ◽  
New Perspective

Aim/Purpose This year marks the 75th anniversary of an article titled ‘As we may think’. It envisioned the ‘Memex’ as a personal device affording the productive use of the accumulated human knowledge. It also allowed for the integration of own augmentations able to be effectively shared with the ‘Memexes’ of others. This article follows up on Vannevar Bush’s still unfulfilled aspiration as well as on current unsustainable Knowledge Management (KM) states. What would be today’s impact and gestalt of such a digital innovation, and how can it be implemented to serve the well-being of humanity? Background To answer these questions, we are drafting a Vision for a ‘Memex’-inspired novel decentralized Knowledge Management System. Its aim is to strengthen the capabilities and autonomy of individual knowledge workers to become collaborative contributors to and beneficiaries of institutional and societal performances. Methodology The vision elements are rooted in an advanced-stage design science research project and its conceptualization and prototyping of a novel decentralized KM system. Findings The new perspective taken accounts for notions of entropy, generativity, trans-disciplinarity, and sustainability and aims for a digital platform ecosystem which affords clients with highly diverse skills and ambitions to gainfully utilize its resources and generative potential in their personal and local contexts. Impact on Society With its focus on a sustainable development path to benefit knowledge workers, the back-casting vision methodology applied demonstrates its potential to share the envisaged KM prospects with a wider critical mass of stakeholders as a prerequisite for creating the respective decentralized, more generative KM reality.

scholarly journals Design Science Research Championing Personal Knowledge Management System Development

10.28945/3410 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Design Science Research ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Personal Knowledge Management ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Design Science Research For Personal Knowledge Management System Development - Revisited

10.28945/3566 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 345-379 ◽  
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 ◽  
Personal Knowledge Management

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.

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