Managing Knowledge : A Practical Web-Based Approach
Author: Wayne Applehans, Alden Globe, Greg Laugero
List Price: $29.95
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ISBN: 020143315X
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co (23 December, 1998)
Sales Rank: 16,214
Average Customer Rating: 4.19 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Action Plan for Managing Knowledge
"Managing Knowledge - A Practical Web-Based Approach" is an easy to read and apply guidebook for a complicated process. The book breaks down the daunting task of getting the "right knowledge, to the right people at the right time" so you can get started in applying knowledge management. This practical guide to implementing knowledge management techniques can be used on one process or an entire organization. Though, the authors do recommend picking one process/cycle to begin the implementation process.
The authors are straight forward in explaining that the nature of their book is not to explain knowledge management. It is assumed that you have read other books on knowledge management prior to using this guide. I found the book was well written enough that you really just needed some basic understanding of knowledge management, along with the foresight and desire to improve the formation and flow of data, information and knowledge. The book's subtitle states "a practical web-based approach", yet many principals of this book can be used in non web- based applications. Before I finished the book, I was convinced that my organization should implement the needed changes for managing knowledge, and that my organization would benefit greatly from retooling its self for the information economy. The authors should have included a quick reference page for the numerous abbreviations that were used. Some of the abbreviations may have another meaning in other industries.
Rating: 5 out of 5
It Really Is "A Practical Web-Based Approach"
The authors are quite specific when explaining for whom Managing Knowledge has been written: "This book is for those people who have read some of the academic literature on KM [Knowledge Management] and who (along with their bosses) are convinced that they need to go down this path....Our purpose is not to address the nature of knowledge. Rather, we want to help you get the right information to the right people so that they can take effective action....Everything we say in this book assumes that you are (or are going to be) leveraging Web-based technologies to move data, information, and knowledge." Their purposes could not be clearer.The book is divided into four sections:Part One: Getting Started (Strategy and Profiling People)
Part Two: Organizing Around Information (Storyboarding Knowledge and Mapping the Knowledge Network)
Part Three: Knowledge Architecture (Hiring People, Mobilizing Content, and Building the Technical Architecture)
Part Four: The Ninety-Day Action Plan
This book provides both the structural design and the operations manual needed by any organization to achieve these objectives:
1.To evaluate the information it now has
2.To identify the information it needs...but does not (as yet) have
3.To formulate a Web-based system to manage knowledge more effectively
4.To set in place those best qualified to manage that system
5.To facilitate and encourage knowledge sharing throughout the organization
In Part Four, the authors wisely recommend that an organization choose a single business cycle that can be improved and begin the "Ninety-Day Action Plan" with a knowledge audit; next, begin building a core team and select an appropriate technology (or technologies); then during Day 61-Day 90, explain your team's efforts throughout the organization ("to communicate the benefits of a KM system and to sell the concept of the knowledge architecture") while constantly updating the content under management.
Given its stated purposes, I rate this book very highly. It is well-organized, well-written, and comprehensive in terms of material covered. Contrary to what some reviewers may suggest, I think it provides the knowledge needed to manage knowledge effectively. If your organization has the aforementioned five objectives and has not as yet achieved them, I suggest that its key executives read this book immediately and then launch a collaborative effort to implement the "Ninety-Day Action Plan." Why wait?
Rating: 3 out of 5
Good but not great
This book had some good aspects but I kept feeling it wasn't very deep. Similar Products
Working Knowledge
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knowledge Management
The New Knowledge Management : Complexity, Learning, and Sustainable Innovation
Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management (Harvard Business Review Series)
Book Index