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Different Types of Content Contained in Knowledge Portals
Different Types of Content Contained in Knowledge Portals
dge-intensive applications
The user interface should be standardized and easy to use. While the knowledge base and functions l
ayers pose new challenges to the developers of a portal, the design of the user interface does not diffe
3. State-of-the-art approaches
Currently, many companies are developing early stages of Knowledge Portals. The following are exa
Credit Suisse is one of the two largest Swiss banks. It hosts several internal websites which are used for v
arious purposes. The Business Unit Information Technology/Operations has developed a project manage
ment solution that provides advanced features for process support. The platform is being used by approxi
mately 600 employees of the Department for Application Development and Solutions.
Contents
The Knowledge Base consists of project documentations (status reports and other relevant documents), so
lutions (procedural models, result templates, and project structures), and employee profiles. Each project
has its own project work space, where current and past documents may be filed.
Functions
Every project work space features a default project structure that simplifies the initial project setup. Mil
estones, required results, and project steps are automatically included in every new project. While every
project member may subscribe to any contents to keep up-to-date, the project manager has additional po
werful features to support his or her job. A milestone planning component enables the tracking of resou
In addition to the above-mentioned functions, several other features like search, user manager, push, an
Andersen Consulting has developed a platform to support the interaction between project team member
Contents
The Client Knowledge Network features information on employee availability, project documents, and
solutions (best practices, methods, instructions, etc.) as well as links to external sources containing mar
Functions
While all four functional categories are well developed, the main focus of the Client Knowledge Network is
on the teamwork component. Video and audio conferencing may be used where infrastructure and bandwidt
h permit. Otherwise, discussion groups, e-mail, and chat rooms are provided. A very useful Continuous Loca
tion Awareness is a very useful, where the location of every (currently online) consultant may be determined.
It is even possible to send him or her a personal instant message via the platform. In addition to the mention
ed functions, several process support and document management features are available. Personalization is re
alized by providing a personal inbox, customizing, scheduling, individual folders, and user managers.
Knowledge is built from data, which is first processed into information (i.e., relevant associations and patter
ns). Information becomes knowledge when it enters the system and when it is validated (collectively or indi
There are three types of knowledge within any organization, individual, group, and enterprise, and that know
ledge can be generally classified along the lines of being explicit, embedded, and tacit. Explicit knowledge i
s knowledge represented in documents, books, e-mail, and databases. Embedded knowledge is organizationa
l knowledge found in business processes, products, and services. Tacit knowledge is undocumented knowled
4. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge management is one of the organizational information technology initiatives for business today.
The challenges associated with implementing knowledge management systems extend far beyond the capabi
lities of most information technology. The overall challenge faced by many organizations today is identifyin
g where strategic knowledge (intellectual capital) resides, and how to leverage and manage it across the ente
Knowledge management refers to the process for creating, codifying, and disseminating knowledge for a
wide range of knowledge intensive tasks. These tasks can be decision support, computer-assisted learning, re
search (e.g., hypothesis testing) or research support. There are various methodologies that support the syste
matic introduction of Knowledge management solutions into an organization. The majority of Knowledge m
anagement initiatives today usually revolve around identifying/discovering, classifying, and indexing explici
t knowledge in information systems, such as an enterprise document management system, and/or business co
ntent management system. In many cases KM systems also include access to structured information found in
databases.
Knowledge management systems (KMS) are tools to affect the management of knowledge including docu
ment repositories, expertise databases, discussion lists, and context-specific retrieval systems incorporating c
ollaborative filtering technologies. Most Knowledge management systems are based upon some construction
of information-enabled communications, coordination, and collaboration capabilities. They provide the critic
al link between the information and technology resource inputs and organized performance, and are criticall
y dependent upon active participation and involvement of knowledge workers to transform this input into or
ganizational performance.
In a business environment, knowledge management has many aspects, from low-level day-to-day business p
A knowledge management system should be able to collect relevant knowledge, store knowledge in a sharea
ble enterprise memory, communicate the knowledge with parties, and maintain consistencies. In all these act
ivities, a portal can play an important role within an enterprise, that is, as an information carrier to shift infor
An obvious goal of the Web site today is dynamically acquiring content and making it available. A portal is
a group of services provided through the Web to a set of users. Portals originated from the question of how
we could deliver the right information to users. It allows the integration of many functions within a single int
erface. The services provided in a portal also vary widely with the purpose of it. Typically, services are pers
onalization, member registration, e-mail and discussion boards, search engine, organization and indexing of
content, from internal and/or external sources. The items that are typically included in the portals consist of
business intelligence, content and document management, enterprise resource planning systems, data wareho
uses, data-management applications, search and retrieval of information. The ultimate portal provides the Ho
ly Grail for organizational knowledge, true data aggregation and information integration coupled with knowl
There are different forms of portals, ranging from simple to complex. the simplest form of a portal, defined a
s “an information gateway that often includes a search engine plus additional organization and content,” to
more sophisticated forms of portals. Sophisticated examples yahoo, (examples of horizontal portals) or high-
level university campus portals, to use a portal, a user has to register in it and provide a name and password
each time he/she uses it. This allows the system to personalize the services and contents to the specific user.
The portal constitutes a single point of entry and a single logon to the services provided.
Modern business environments are complex and expensive, which has motivated many companies to inv
est in enterprise portals as a mechanism by which they can manage their information in a cohesive and struct
ured fashion. Portals offer many advantages over other software applications. They provide a single point of
access for employees, partners, and customers to various types of (structured and unstructured) information,
Enterprise information portals are bringing together the worlds of business intelligence and knowledge mana
1. The knowledge portal plays a key role in empowering the virtual enterprise and employees by provid
3. They are beginning to help organizations capture and leverage their intellectual assets by facilitating
assembly of communities of interest, best practice, and expert systems within a single, intuitive, We
y providing users with a consolidated, personalized user interface that allows efficient access to vario
7. Benefits of Portals
• Sharing information and work methods, this seems to speak directly to the knowledge management notion
• Business process support, or workflow, indicating that companies see a huge upside to exchanging electron
ic files rather than moving hard copy from desk to desk in the business process.
• Customer service, mirroring the growing business interest in managing customer relationships.
Intranet portals also provide business intelligence and collaborative tools. They promise to create significant
Building communities of interest and/or promoting best practices within an organization is more easily said t
hen done. Major barriers to successful implementation are primarily cultural, not information technology dri
Groupware-based applicati
Knowledge databases, best practices
ons
Personalisation
• Personal directory
• Hotlist
There are different methods available for designing a knowledge portal. Typically, it consists of a thre
e-layer architecture
1. Knowledge base
2. Functions
Knowledge Base
There are different types of content that we can put into the knowledge base. The design of a knowledge bas
e depends on the intended target group and purpose. The different types of content can be found in Table 1.
Besides the content type, it is important to provide separate content work spaces for different users and/or tar
get groups. Every user should have a personal file folder at his/her disposal. Each project team or communit
y of interest should have its own working environment too. This is essential for regular use of a portal.
1. personalization,
2. process support,
3. teamwork,
Each portal must include the personalization function. The other functions are added as needed. Howeve
r, search, and discussion should be available throughout all platforms. Active support and teamwork are the
most important features of a knowledge portal. It can be achieved through checklists, to-do lists, and workfl
ows. E-mail and discussion groups are common communications functions. Additional functions, such as co
nferencing and skill management, may be implemented, depending on the focus of use. Typical document m
anagement features include search and version control. Integration into office automation software may be n
eeded if the user is allowed to add and/or modify documents. Personalisation offers many functions that ena
ble users to customize their personal working environment according to their preferences.
Although standard user interfaces approaches are typically used for the design of knowledge portals, there ar
To overcome this, there are methods that can be used to design a portal for knowledge management. The m
ost common method is the Common KADS models. It is a collection of structured methods for building kno
wledge-based systems, analogous to methods such as SSADM for information system development. At the h
eart of commands is the construction of a number of models that represent different views on problem-solvin
g behaviour. This method has been proved successfully in a range of different tasks. The first step is to devel
op the organizational, agent, and task models. The organization model is a model that documents the objecti
ves of the system and identifies the opportunities of value to the organization. It provides an analysis of the s
ocio-organisational environment that the KBS will have to function. The key elements of this model are the
business process, structural units, business resources, and the various relationships between them. An agent
model provides an understanding of the system users. It identifies how these users or agents perform their ta
sks. The communication model models the interaction of the system with the user and other system compon
ents. The key elements of this model are transactions. The task model specifies how the functionality of the s
ystem is to be achieved. The key elements of this model are the tasks required for a single business process a
nd the assignment of tasks to various agents. The task model links to the agent model to identify the people,
hardware, or system that performs the task. It uses information specified in the communication model to ope
rate in the domain defined in the organization model. organization model starts the creation of a knowledge
map. The task model charts out where the knowledge is used. The agent model analyses who owns the know
11. CONCLUSION
Since the key purpose of knowledge management is to disseminate information to the organization, it is a
n excellent match for enterprise portals. The practice of knowledge management needs to support the normal
way of working in the enterprise. Portals can help here because the signing of the processes can be integrate
d with the portal, and into the workflow. For example, if a customer service representative creates a new pie
ce of information for the customer portal, when they upload it, the item is sent to marketing to make sure tha
t the messaging is right. When they approve it, the item is then sent to the legal department to give it the fina
l all clear and the item is then uploaded. This entire workflow can be incorporated into the enterprise portal.
A new phase of enterprise search applications is emerging. Applications will be able to use ontologies to put
information into context, which will reveal previously unknown relationships. Companies will build applicat
ions that will let users sort, filter, compare, and contrast content. These new engines will enable OLAP-like
Today, companies increasingly have to consolidate knowledge at an increasing speed, and to provide immed
iate access to these resources for all employees. Intranets and Internet-based consumer portals such as Yaho
o and Alta Vista are not adequate to meet the need. This is because they contain too much irrelevant informa
tion, and it is difficult for users to find the necessary knowledge. To overcome this limitation, a knowledge