Knowledge Management

Data , Information and Knowledge

processed Relevant and actionable

INFORMATION

DATA
KNOWLEDGE Relevant and actionable

Classic Data to Knowledge Hierarchy

Wisdom Knowledge Information Data

The relationships between data, information, and knowledge.

Data
Simple observations of the world: Easily captured Easily structured Easily transferred Compact, quantifiable

Knowledge
Data with relevance and purpose: Requires unit of analysis Needs consensus on meaning Human mediation necessary Often garbled in transmission
More human contribution Greater value

Information
Valuable information from the human mind: includes reflection, synthesis, context Hard to capture electronically Hard to structure Often tacit Hard to transfer Highly personal to the source

What is Knowledge?
Knowledge is very distinct from data and information. Knowledge is information that is contextual, relevant, and actionable. Data are a collection of facts , measurements, and statistics. Information is processed data that are timely and accurate.

 Daniel Bell defines knowledge as a set of organized statements of facts or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in some systematic form.

Taxonomy of Knowledge

Know-Why Information

Reasoning Procedure

Know-What

Application

Know-How Experience

Types Of Knowledge
Knowledge is classified into two types:

1. Explicit Knowledge 2. Tacit Knowledge

 Tacit knowledge
context-specific personal hard to formalize and communicate

Explicit knowledge
easily collected, organized and transferred can be codified objective Theoretical

Examples of explicit and tacit knowledge

Tacit Knowledge
Knowing how to identify the key issues necessary to solve a problem Applying similar experiences from past situations Estimating work required based on intuition & experience Deciding on an appropriate course of action

Explicit Knowledge
Procedures listed in a manual Books and articles News reports and financial statements Information left over from past projects