Internet-based Organizational Memory and Knowledge Management

Knowledge management in general, and Internet-based knowledge management in particular, is one of the foremost strategic directions being investigated and adopted by corporations today. The promises of better decision making, faster turnaround times, improved organizational communication, and higher levels of cooperation and interaction among personnel, have all combined to create a holy grail kind of aura. Yet, like the grail the goals here are elusive, and the road to reaching them is long and fraught with pitfalls. Each of us, as individuals, performs a variety of functions that can be termed knowledge management. We remember things: names, numbers, experiences, and procedures. We know how to do things such as ride a bike; bake a cake; calculate a derivative; fix a flat tire. We know where to find information that we don’t remember on our own: we write things down; file them; enter them in a PDA. Some of us do it better, some of us are chronically disorganized, but at the end of the day each of us is performing his or her own knowledge management function.