Knowledge Coordination

Knowledge Management focuses on treating knowledge - corporate, individual or scholarly - as an asset to be managed within and for organisations, in similar ways to what occurs with tangible assets such as materials, human resources, physical infrastructure, clients, etc. However, the nature of knowledge requires special techniques and methods to be adopted for proper knowledge management. This book discusses important issues related to specific characteristics of knowledge and the particular techniques and methodology used to manage it including the computer-based models that encapsulate the inherent complexities of knowledge management. Knowledge Co-ordination is the functioning of the knowledge of agents that comprise an organisation to effectively accomplish the ends of the organisation. It can be easily argued that, without an appropriate conceptual framework to describe and analyse knowledge management, the corresponding techniques and methods developed in response to those characteristics shall be limited to provide for ad hoc systems and solutions, with little (if any) reliable applicability in similar cases that may occur in different organisations. In this book the authors present scientific methodological foundations. They start by presenting why one should not rely on techniques, methods and systems for knowledge management (including software systems) without a model for knowledge management that takes into account the features and idiosyncrasies of specific organisations. This is followed by the suggestion of the use of computer-based models as executable models that encapsulate the inherent complexities of knowledge management. The book proposes specific techniques to build systems for knowledge management, founded on most recent research results in Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Object Technology, Agent-based approaches for information systems development, and Ontological Engineering. Finally the book identifies potential applications of the proposed techniques, and with some philosophical and foundational discussion about the real nature and importance of knowledge and of knowledge management. The goal is a rational reconstruction of the field of Knowledge Management, directed to practitioners in this field. The book is directed to a rational reconstruction of model building for knowledge management of which there are no competing titles. This book can be important for people in charge of modelling and designing systems for knowledge management, i.e. people interested in the "hows" and "whys" as well as the "whats" of knowledge management. Based on the authors' rational reconstruction of Knowledge Management, Knowledge Coordination identifies techniques and conceptual tools to build systemic solutions for how to improve on corporate operational efficacy and proposes a general methodological framework to build these solutions. As such it will be highly popular with academic and industrial researchers who need to understand the current thinking in research of knowledge management, as well as those embarking upon senior undergraduate and postgraduate courses in computer science and in particular courses on knowledge engineering, artificial intelligence and knowledge management.