Knowledge-Based Organization Evaluation

Knowledge has become the main value driver for organizations nowadays. In particular, knowledge-based organizations (KBOs) allocate resources for intangible assets (e.g., R&D) in the rapidly changing and highly competitive environment in order to gain competitive advantages. Therefore, how to evaluate knowledge-based organizations has become one of the most important issues in knowledge management. This paper aims to provide a framework for the evaluation of KBOs under uncertainty, using the state-ofthe- art methodology in Real Options. We specify the unique features of KBOs and explain their value drivers. This paper makes three contributions: (1) it bridges the gaps existent in the knowledge management literature on evaluating knowledge capital, (2) it provides a systematic application of Real Options models in the context of knowledge-based organization evaluation, (3) it uses a real world case to demonstrate the implications of the main findings for management

Discourse oriented summarization

The meaning of text appears to be tightly related to intentions and circumstances. Context sensitivity of meaning is addressed by theories of discourse structure. Few attempts have been made to exploit text organization in summarization. This thesis is an exploration of what knowledge of discourse structure can do for content selection as a subtask of automatic summarization, and query-based summarization in particular. Query-based summarization is the task of answering an arbitrary user query or question by using content from potentially relevant sources. This thesis presents a general framework for discourse oriented summarization, relying on graphs to represent semantic relations in discourse, and redundancy as a special type of semantic relation. Semantic relations occur on several levels of text analysis (query-relevance, coherence, layout, etc.), and a broad range of textual features may be required to detect them. The graph-based framework facilitates combining multiple features into an integrated semantic model of the documents to summarize. Recognizing redundancy and entailment relations between text passages is particularly important when a summary is generated of multiple documents, e.g. to avoid including redundant content in a summary. For this reason, I pay particular attention to recognizing textual entailment. Within this framework, a three-fold evaluation is performed to evaluate different aspects of discourse oriented summarization. The first is a user study, measuring the effect on user appreciation of using a particular type of knowledge for query-based summarization. In this study, three presentation strategies are compared: summarization using the rhetorical structure of the source, a baseline summarization method which uses the layout of the source, and a baseline presentation method which uses no summarization but just a concise answer to the query. Results show that knowledge of the rhetorical structure not only helps to provide the necessary context for the user to verify that the summary addresses the query adequately, but also to increase the amount of relevant content. The second evaluation is a comparison of implementations of the graph-based framework which are capable of fully automatic summarization. The two variables in the experiment are the set of textual features used to model the source and the algorithm used to search a graph for relevant content. The features are based on cosine similarity, and are realized as graph representations of the source. The graph search algorithms are inspired by existing algorithms in summarization. The quality of summaries is measured using the Rouge evaluation toolkit. The best performer would have ranked first (Rouge-2) or second (Rouge-SU4) if it had participated in the DUC 2005 query-based summarization challenge. The third study is an evaluation in the context of the DUC 2006 summarization challenge, which includes readability measurements as well as various content-based evaluation metrics. The evaluated automatic discourse oriented summarization system is similar to the one described above, but uses additional features, i.e. layout and textual entailment. The system performed well on readability at the cost of content-based scores which were well below the scores of the highest ranking DUC 2006 participant. This indicates a trade-off between readable, coherent content and useful content, an issue yet to be explored. Previous research implies that theories of text organization generalize well to multimedia. This suggests that the discourse oriented summarization framework applies to summarizing multimedia as well, provided sufficient knowledge of the organization of the (multimedia) source documents is available. The last study in this thesis is an investigation of the applicability of structural relations in multimedia for generating picture-illustrated summaries, by relating summary content to picture-associated text (i.e. captions or surrounding paragraphs). Results suggest that captions are the more suitable annotation for selecting appropriate pictures. Compared to manual illustration, results of automatic pictures are similar if the manual picture is mainly decorative

Ontological evaluation in the knowledge based system

In the last few years, several studies have emphasized the use of ontologies as an alternative to organization of the information. The notion of ontology has become popular in fields such as intelligent information integration, information retrieval on the Internet, and knowledge management. Different groups use different approaches to develop and verify de effectiveness of ontologies. This diversity can be a factor that makes the formularization difficult of formal methodologies of evaluation. This paper intends to provide a way to identify the effectiveness of knowledge representation based on ontology that was developed through Knowledge Based System tools. The reason is that all processing and storage of gathered information and knowledge base organization is performed using this structure. Our evaluation is based on case studies of the KMAI system, involving real world ontology for the money laundry domain. Our results indicate that modification of ontology structure can effectively reveal faults, as long as they adversely affect the program state.Applications in Artificial Intelligence - Knowledge EngineeringRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Model Pengembangan Evaluasi Strategi

This study based on research gap strategy evaluation, namely experience andprocedure knowledge. Contribution in this study is intervening variable outputcontrol and, process control. The respondents for this research were the 120executives (from a total of 526 executives) of rural banking in Central JavaProvince. The data were then analyzed using SEM (Structural Equation Model)of AMOS. Result of this study indicates that strategy evaluation in the effort ofincreasing organization performance of main preference is trough output controland process control .Keywords: Experience, Procedure Knowledge, Output Control, Process controlOrganization Performanc

Can a web-based community of practice be established and operated to lead falls prevention activity in residential care?

The aims of this study were to evaluate establishing and operating a web-based community of practice (CoP) to lead falls prevention in a residential aged care (RAC) setting. A mixed methods evaluation was conducted in two phases using a survey and transcripts from interactive electronic sources. Nurses and allied health staff (n = 20) with an interest in falls prevention representing 13 sites of an RAC organization participated. In Phase 1, the CoP was developed, and the establishment of its structure and composition was evaluated using determinants of success reported in the literature. In Phase 2, all participants interacted using the web, but frequency of engagement by any participant was low. Participatory barriers, including competing demands from other tasks and low levels of knowledge about information communication technology (ICT) applications, were identified by CoP members. A web-based CoP can be established and operated across multiple RAC sites if RAC management support dedicated time for web-based participation and staff are given web-based training

A case of web-based collaborative inquiry learning using OpenLearn technologies

We describe and discuss the implementation of “WOPP in Cyberculture”, an elective discipline of the Erasmus Mundus’ European Master Program on Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology (WOPP), offered by the Faculty of Psychology, University of Coimbra, in 2008. We adopted a web-based collaborative inquiry-learning model supported by UK Open University’s OpenLearn technologies: a community-led virtual learning environment based on Moodle called LabSpace, and a knowledge mapping software called Compendium. Rubrics were used to assess students’ maps and presentations. To assess students’ satisfaction and opinion, at the end of the course we applied an evaluation questionnaire. Results indicate that the implementation of the web-based inquiry-learning model we have proposed was relatively successful and adequate to the learning setting. Rubrics’ scores point to an overall improvement of students’ maps and presentations. Reports on students’ satisfaction with different aspects of the course were positive. Nevertheless, further investigation on the validity and reliability of the rubrics is required

And then came complex project management (revised)

The subject of management is renowned for its addiction to fads and fashions. Project Management is no exception. The issue of interest for this paper is the establishment of standards in the area, specifically the 'College of Complex Project Managers' and their 'competency standard for complex project managers'. Both the college and the standard have generated significant interest in the Project Management community. Whilst the need for development of the means to manage complex projects is acknowledged, a critical evaluation show significant flaws in the definition of complex in this case, the process by which the College and its standard have emerged, and the content of the standard. If Project Management is to continue to develop as a profession, it will need an evidence-based approach to the generation of knowledge and standards. The issues raised by the evaluation provide the case for a portfolio of research that extends the existing bodies of knowledge into large-scale complicated (or major) projects. We propose that it would be owned by the practitioner community, rather than focused on one organization. Research questions are proposed that would commence this stream of activity towards an intelligent synthesis of what is required to manage in both complicated and truly complex environments. This is a revised paper previously presented at the 21st IPMA World Congress on Project Management Cracow, Poland

Evaluation of Knowledge Management Levels Based on Multi Criteria Analysis

For thousands of years, humans have been discussing the meaning of knowledge, what it is to know something, and how people can generate and share new knowledge. It is interesting to consider, that despite the pervasiveness of epistemological discussions throughout history, the world of business has begun to recognize the importance of knowledge as a resource recently, and today, it is considered as a leading driving force behind any organization. Today, organizations are getting involved in more and more knowledge management (KM) activities, out of which performance of knowledge management has acquired prime importance. The performance evaluation of knowledge management is a scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of organizing knowledge management activity. In present research work, evaluation of knowledge management levels based on multi criteria analysis is proposed by the candidate. For this purpose, different Multi criteria analysis (MCA) techniques, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), and Višekriterijumsko Kompromisno Rangiranje or Compromise Ranking (VIKOR), are used for evaluation of alternatives. For the purpose hidden variable identification for a set of KM evaluation criteria, a well known multivariate technique Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is also used