Exploiting tacit knowledge through knowledge management technologies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contributions and suitability of the available knowledge management (KM) technologies, including the Web 2.0 for exploiting tacit knowledge. It proposes an integrated framework for extracting tacit knowledge in organisations, which includes Web 2.0 technologies, KM tools, organisational learning (OL) and Community of Practice (CoP). It reviews a comprehensive literature covering overview of KM theories, KM technologies and OL and identifies the current state of knowledge relating to tacit knowledge exploitation. The outcomes of the paper indicate that Internet and Web 2.0 technologies have stunning prospects for creating learning communities where tacit knowledge can be extracted from people. The author recommends that organisations should design procedures and embed them in their Web 2.0 collaborative platforms persuading employees to record their ideas and share them with other members. It is also recommended that no idea should be taken for granted in a learning community where tacit knowledge exploitation is pursued. It is envisaged that future research should adopt empirical approach involving Complex Adaptive Model for Tacit Knowledge Exploitation (CAMTaKE) and the Theory of Deferred Action in examining the effectiveness of KM technologies including Web 2.0 tools for tacit knowledge exploitation

An active, ontology-driven network service for Internet collaboration

Web portals have emerged as an important means of collaboration on the WWW, and the integration of ontologies promises to make them more accurate in how they serve users’ collaboration and information location requirements. However, web portals are essentially a centralised architecture resulting in difficulties supporting seamless roaming between portals and collaboration between groups supported on different portals. This paper proposes an alternative approach to collaboration over the web using ontologies that is de-centralised and exploits content-based networking. We argue that this approach promises a user-centric, timely, secure and location-independent mechanism, which is potentially more scaleable and universal than existing centralised portals

MULTIMEDIA INTERFACE AS A SUPPORT TOOL FOR LOGISTICS DECISION-MAKING

Growing complexity of problems of logistics management in enterprises anddifferentiation of the used applications without common database force businesses tosearch for solutions which facilitate the processes of logistics decision-making. One ofthe concepts proposed in this chapter is a design of decision-maker/logistics interface.Firstly, technologies of corporate portals were described, being a basis for ergonomicand useful interface. Next the properties typical of functional multimedia interfaceadapted to the logistics decision-makers’ needs were listed. Further in the chapter,methodological assumptions for interface creation were made whereas the benefitsbrought by personalization of both form (in terms of topography, colours andarrangement of main components of the interface) and content were emphasized.corporate portal, dynamic internet applications, graphical user interface model;

Unleashing the Effectiveness of Process-oriented Information Systems: Problem Analysis, Critical Success Factors, Implications

Process-oriented information systems (IS) aim at the computerized support of business processes. So far, contemporary IS have often fail to meet this goal. To better understand this drawback, to systematically identify its rationales, and to derive critical success factors for business process support, we conducted three empirical studies: an exploratory case study in the automotive domain, an online survey among 79 IT professionals, and another online survey among 70 business process management (BPM) experts. This paper summarizes the findings of these studies, puts them in relation with each other, and uses them to show that "process-orientation" is scarce and "process-awareness" is needed in IS engineering

The Hierarchic treatment of marine ecological information from spatial networks of benthic platforms

Measuring biodiversity simultaneously in different locations, at different temporal scales, and over wide spatial scales is of strategic importance for the improvement of our understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems and for the conservation of their biodiversity. Monitoring networks of cabled observatories, along with other docked autonomous systems (e.g., Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVs], and crawlers), are being conceived and established at a spatial scale capable of tracking energy fluxes across benthic and pelagic compartments, as well as across geographic ecotones. At the same time, optoacoustic imaging is sustaining an unprecedented expansion in marine ecological monitoring, enabling the acquisition of new biological and environmental data at an appropriate spatiotemporal scale. At this stage, one of the main problems for an effective application of these technologies is the processing, storage, and treatment of the acquired complex ecological information. Here, we provide a conceptual overview on the technological developments in the multiparametric generation, storage, and automated hierarchic treatment of biological and environmental information required to capture the spatiotemporal complexity of a marine ecosystem. In doing so, we present a pipeline of ecological data acquisition and processing in different steps and prone to automation. We also give an example of population biomass, community richness and biodiversity data computation (as indicators for ecosystem functionality) with an Internet Operated Vehicle (a mobile crawler). Finally, we discuss the software requirements for that automated data processing at the level of cyber-infrastructures with sensor calibration and control, data banking, and ingestion into large data portals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Enterprise portals: addressing the organisational and individual perspectives of information systems

Enterprise portals are being viewed as the next generation application platform of choice, offering benefits over both client/server and thin client arrangements. By providing a mediating layer between the information applications and resources of the organisation and the individuals using them, enterprise portals appear to provide a unique context to allow both the organisational and individual perspectives of information systems to be addressed. This study seeks to examine these often competing perspectives of information systems by using an exploratory empirical survey to investigate the actual deployment of enterprise portals within a range of different organisations. It is found that both the individual and organisational benefits that enterprise portals can offer appear to have been recognised, and coherent sets of services addressing each of these perspectives are being developed. Consistent with diffusion and acceptance of technology models, organisations appear to be commencing their portal developments with services that will ensure utilisation by individuals, and are subsequently seeking to realise organisational level benefits

Mediated data integration and transformation for web service-based software architectures

Service-oriented architecture using XML-based web services has been widely accepted by many organisations as the standard infrastructure to integrate heterogeneous and autonomous data sources. As a result, many Web service providers are built up on top of the data sources to share the data by supporting provided and required interfaces and methods of data access in a unified manner. In the context of data integration, problems arise when Web services are assembled to deliver an integrated view of data, adaptable to the specific needs of individual clients and providers. Traditional approaches of data integration and transformation are not suitable to automate the construction of connectors dedicated to connect selected Web services to render integrated and tailored views of data. We propose a declarative approach that addresses the oftenneglected data integration and adaptivity aspects of serviceoriented architecture

Astrocomp: a web service for the use of high performance computers in Astrophysics

Astrocomp is a joint project, developed by the INAF-Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, University of Roma La Sapienza and Enea. The project has the goal of providing the scientific community of a web-based user-friendly interface which allows running parallel codes on a set of high-performance computing (HPC) resources, without any need for specific knowledge about parallel programming and Operating Systems commands. Astrocomp provides, also, computing time on a set of parallel computing systems, available to the authorized user. At present, the portal makes a few codes available, among which: FLY, a cosmological code for studying three-dimensional collisionless self-gravitating systems with periodic boundary conditions; ATD, a parallel tree-code for the simulation of the dynamics of boundary-free collisional and collisionless self-gravitating systems and MARA, a code for stellar light curves analysis. Other codes are going to be added to the portal.Comment: LaTeX with elsart.cls and harvard.sty (included). 7 pages. To be submitted to a specific journa

An Evolution of Corporate Software Support Systems

This paper is a brief literature survey on Software Support Systems (SSSs) and Knowledge Management (KM). This paper aims to evaluate strategic decision making perspective where enterprise information and knowledge management plays a vital role. For this evaluation, Software Support Systems (SSSs) and Knowledge Management (KM) which helps in selecting different types of support systems and human factors that affect adoption of such computer based systems in organizations are reviewed. This paper helps to analyze different types of the software support systems and system adoption concepts for the enterprises. This paper also includes concepts related to the Knowledge Management, which helps organizations to learn. Organizations knowledge and the support systems help the enterprises to take strategic decisions. Concerned literature describes Software Support Systems (SSSs) as Corporate Portals (CPs), Decision Support Systems (DSSs), Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs), Computerized Decision Support Systems, and Adaptive Decision Support System (ADSSs). In addition, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that analyzes factors which would affect peoples in the enterprises is included. The factors, such as individual perception, ease of use and usefulness are analyzed. Keywords: Software Support Systems, Knowledge Management, Technology Acceptance Models