“Assignment
1 -Knowledge Management Techniques
TO BE
INCLUDED
–
REFERENCING
(APA style)
–
All in own words
–
May
NOT use Wikipedia, the textbook or the lecture slides as references in any of
the questions
Question
1

The purpose of this question is to demonstrate
understanding of the many-sided nature of knowledge management.
It addresses the broad learning objectives of:
Critically
discuss the role and importance of knowledge management in todays
organisations
Critically
discuss the issues raised by language and cultural diversity in shared
knowledge systems

Four are given below. The purpose of this
question is for you to evaluate these definitions, and to reflect on your own
interpretation of the subject.
A good operational definition of
knowledge management is the deliberate introduction of an improved and more
effective information environment (Koenig,
1999, p. 77)
[KM is] the capability of an
organization to create new knowledge, disseminate it throughout the
organization and embody it in products, services and systems. (Nonaka &
Takeuchi, 1995, p. 58)
Knowledge management is the
behaviors and processes by which a group of people maintains and increases
their personal and collective actionable knowledge to compete, to increase
performance and innovation, and to decrease risk. (Parsons, 2004, p. 26)
Knowledge Management is about
creating an environment that encourages people to learn and share knowledge by
aligning goals, integrating bits and pieces of information within and across
organizational boundaries, and producing new knowledge that is usable and
useful to the organization. (Corso et al, 2006, p. 210)

(a) Briefly evaluate EACH of the
definitions listed above for its usefulness to knowledge management, by
considering the underlying assumptions of the definition and its scope.
You should consider such issues as: does it
assume a particular view of knowledge (such as subjective/objective)? Is it
more relevant to practice, or to theory? Is it relevant to a specific field
(for example, business) or more generally applicable? Is it more applicable to
a particular culture (for example, Western culture)? In your opinion, what are
the most useful aspects of the definition, and why? (One page)
(b) Which of these definitions of KM best
fits the way in which YOU view the world? Consider your background and
study/work experience before this unit, and any other factors that might
influence your perspective. How do you think that this viewpoint would affect
the way in which you would approach a KM investigation? Would this be a
problem? (Note: there is no correct answer here the aim is for you to
reflect on what you consider knowledge management to be about from your own
perspective, and what implications this may have for practice.) (One Page)

Question 2
The purpose of this question is to demonstrate
understanding of the appropriate use of KM tools for organisational needs.
It
addresses the broad learning objective of:
Analyse a knowledge management
problem and recommend appropriate tools and techniques for its solution
In Knowledge
Sources and KM Tools, we discussed knowledge tools under 4 categories of
processes:
creating
and discovering
explicating
and externalising
communicating
and sharing
internalising and assimilating
In this
question you are to describe how different KM tools and techniques could apply
to the (hypothetical) organisation described in the case study below:
Tatra are
the worlds third oldest car company, which produced a number of rather
advanced streamlined cars during the course of its production run. Because
spare parts and manuals are hard to find for these cars, a group of amateur
enthusiasts has formed the Tatra Owners Spares Club to pool their resources.
They have hired a shed to hold all the spare parts and charged a joiners fee
for new members to defray costs. Members can get photocopies of technical
documents, or buy spare parts such as bearings and seals from the Club when
they are needed. A serious problem they face is that the organisers of the Club
are getting older, and want to take a less active role in running the Club,
while the newer members (despite their enthusiasm) are not as knowledgeable
about what model of what car needed what part. In addition, the mechanics who
have worked on the cars are all retiring, so the Club organisers are very keen
on making videos of them doing standard overhauls of the motors, gearbox,
steering, brakes and suspension with a view to making the knowledge more widely
available. They have a large number of photographs, and they also have
schematics that have come from the manufacturer. All of this information is
being kept on a spreadsheet, which is maintained by the founders of the Club in
rotation on their different computers. They have often had a problem working
out which one is the latest version, and this has caused problems with lost
parts etc in the past.
The Tatra
Owners Spares Club want to make an inventory system that ties together the car
parts, the documentation and the videos (which are not yet made). They also
want to make the entire resulting system searchable from the Internet, and link
up with other groups who are interested in the Tatra marque around the world.
(a) Briefly
summarise the main features of the Tatra Owners Spares Club in terms of
(for example) its structure, membership,
business model, topics they are concerned with, technological infrastructure,
legal obligations, external organisations, and the likely organisational
culture you might expect to find
inside the organisation. This is to clarify the context for your answer to part
(b), as the tools you recommend will
need to fit the organisations needs and habits of working. (Half page)
(b) Select
four KM tools from the list below, and briefly
describe how they might be used to help the organisation. Be as specific as
you can, based on the case study description. You may need to do some research of your own into the tools. State which
category (creating and discovering, etc) each tool falls into. You dont
have to have one tool from each category (although you can if you like).
(c) For
each of the four KM tools/techniques you identified in (b), locate an actual product/technique/standard
that would address the requirements of the case study. Give the reference
for the product, and briefly highlight
the features of it that would be of use to the organisation. Do NOT copy
and paste directly from the website.
Blogging
Database management system
Whiteboard
Lessons Learned
Expert system
Metadata scheme
Decision support system
Workflow modelling
Mind mapping
Data warehousing
Data mining
Social networking
Controlled vocabularies
Expertise locator

Question 3 Metadata

The purpose of this question is for you to demonstrate understanding and
competence in the application of metadata to different types of resources.

It addresses the broad learning objective of:
Analyse a knowledge management problem and recommend appropriate tools
and techniques for its solution

The Dublin Core Metadata Set is
intended to provide a core set of metadata descriptors that can be applied to
any resource. In this question you are
to apply Dublin Core metadata to types of resources that could potentially be
used by an organisation in its KM practice.
For simplicity we will use the
legacy set of Dublin Core elements:

Contributor Coverage
Creator Date
Description Format
Identifier Language
Publisher Relation
Rights Source
Subject Title
Type

Select any TWO of the resources
listed below, and create Dublin Core metadata for each of them:

A
physical object:
Teletype punch from the SNOCOM
computer:
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=30275

A
web page:
Kaplan Higher Education:

A
document:
This assignment document, which was
written by the unit coordinator.

In your answer, set the metadata
elements out as a list, e.g.
DC.Title = Murdoch University
Assessment Policy
DC.Date.Created SCHEME=””ISO8601″”
CONTENT=””2004-10-25″”

IMPORTANT: Read the following notes
before answering the question.

NOTES

Refer
to the Dublin Core Element definitions here
http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
and here: http://dublincore.org/documents/2012/06/14/dcmi-terms/?v=elements#H3

and to the usage guides here:
http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/elements.shtml and here:
http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/User_Guide/Creating_Metadata

Where
appropriate you should make use of the Dublin Core Qualifiers, as described
here http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/qualifiers.shtml. Examples of
qualifiers include Encoding Scheme (such as using the ISO8601 encoding scheme
for dates) and Element Refinements, such as using DC.Date.Created to specify a
more precise meaning for Date.

To
answer this question, you will need to examine the resource and any available
information about it and make a judgement as to how that information should
best be represented in the DC Elements. You can make use of any metadata or
descriptive information that is already given for the resource, if you think it
is useful (for example by looking at the source code of the web page). However,
this alone will not be sufficient for your answer.

Be
as thorough as you can in applying relevant metadata to the resource you
should aim to use all of the Elements. Where you do not have enough information
for an element, give your best assessment and state your assumptions
separately.Assignment
1 -Knowledge Management TechniquesTO BE
INCLUDED-
REFERENCING
(APA style)-
All in own words-
May
NOT use Wikipedia, the textbook or the lecture slides as references in any of
the questionsThe purpose of this question is to demonstrate
understanding of the many-sided nature of knowledge management.It addresses the broad learning objectives of:Critically
discuss the role and importance of knowledge management in todays
organisationsCritically
discuss the issues raised by language and cultural diversity in shared
knowledge systemsFour are given below. The purpose of this
question is for you to evaluate these definitions, and to reflect on your own
interpretation of the subject. A good operational definition of
knowledge management is the deliberate introduction of an improved and more
effective information environment (Koenig,
1999, p. 77) [KM is] the capability of an
organization to create new knowledge, disseminate it throughout the
organization and embody it in products, services and systems. (Nonaka &
Takeuchi, 1995, p. 58) Knowledge management is the
behaviors and processes by which a group of people maintains and increases
their personal and collective actionable knowledge to compete, to increase
performance and innovation, and to decrease risk. (Parsons, 2004, p. 26) Knowledge Management is about
creating an environment that encourages people to learn and share knowledge by
aligning goals, integrating bits and pieces of information within and across
organizational boundaries, and producing new knowledge that is usable and
useful to the organization. (Corso et al, 2006, p. 210)(a) Briefly evaluate EACH of the
definitions listed above for its usefulness to knowledge management, by
considering the underlying assumptions of the definition and its scope. You should consider such issues as: does it
assume a particular view of knowledge (such as subjective/objective)? Is it
more relevant to practice, or to theory? Is it relevant to a specific field
(for example, business) or more generally applicable? Is it more applicable to
a particular culture (for example, Western culture)? In your opinion, what are
the most useful aspects of the definition, and why? (One page)(b) Which of these definitions of KM best
fits the way in which YOU view the world? Consider your background and
study/work experience before this unit, and any other factors that might
influence your perspective. How do you think that this viewpoint would affect
the way in which you would approach a KM investigation? Would this be a
problem? (Note: there is no correct answer here the aim is for you to
reflect on what you consider knowledge management to be about from your own
perspective, and what implications this may have for practice.) (One Page)Question 2The purpose of this question is to demonstrate
understanding of the appropriate use of KM tools for organisational needs. It
addresses the broad learning objective of: Analyse a knowledge management
problem and recommend appropriate tools and techniques for its solutionIn Knowledge
Sources and KM Tools, we discussed knowledge tools under 4 categories of
processes: creating
and discovering explicating
and externalising communicating
and sharing internalising and assimilatingIn this
question you are to describe how different KM tools and techniques could apply
to the (hypothetical) organisation described in the case study below:Tatra are
the worlds third oldest car company, which produced a number of rather
advanced streamlined cars during the course of its production run. Because
spare parts and manuals are hard to find for these cars, a group of amateur
enthusiasts has formed the Tatra Owners Spares Club to pool their resources.
They have hired a shed to hold all the spare parts and charged a joiners fee
for new members to defray costs. Members can get photocopies of technical
documents, or buy spare parts such as bearings and seals from the Club when
they are needed. A serious problem they face is that the organisers of the Club
are getting older, and want to take a less active role in running the Club,
while the newer members (despite their enthusiasm) are not as knowledgeable
about what model of what car needed what part. In addition, the mechanics who
have worked on the cars are all retiring, so the Club organisers are very keen
on making videos of them doing standard overhauls of the motors, gearbox,
steering, brakes and suspension with a view to making the knowledge more widely
available. They have a large number of photographs, and they also have
schematics that have come from the manufacturer. All of this information is
being kept on a spreadsheet, which is maintained by the founders of the Club in
rotation on their different computers. They have often had a problem working
out which one is the latest version, and this has caused problems with lost
parts etc in the past.The Tatra
Owners Spares Club want to make an inventory system that ties together the car
parts, the documentation and the videos (which are not yet made). They also
want to make the entire resulting system searchable from the Internet, and link
up with other groups who are interested in the Tatra marque around the world.(a) Briefly
summarise the main features of the Tatra Owners Spares Club in terms of
(for example) its structure, membership,
business model, topics they are concerned with, technological infrastructure,
legal obligations, external organisations, and the likely organisational
culture you might expect to find
inside the organisation. This is to clarify the context for your answer to part
(b), as the tools you recommend will
need to fit the organisations needs and habits of working. (Half page)(b) Select
four KM tools from the list below, and briefly
describe how they might be used to help the organisation. Be as specific as
you can, based on the case study description. You may need to do some research of your own into the tools. State which
category (creating and discovering, etc) each tool falls into. You dont
have to have one tool from each category (although you can if you like).(c) For
each of the four KM tools/techniques you identified in (b), locate an actual product/technique/standard
that would address the requirements of the case study. Give the reference
for the product, and briefly highlight
the features of it that would be of use to the organisation. Do NOT copy
and paste directly from the website.BloggingDatabase management system WhiteboardLessons LearnedExpert systemMetadata scheme Decision support systemWorkflow modelling Mind mapping Data warehousingData miningSocial networkingControlled vocabulariesExpertise locatorQuestion 3 MetadataThe purpose of this question is for you to demonstrate understanding and
competence in the application of metadata to different types of resources.It addresses the broad learning objective of: Analyse a knowledge management problem and recommend appropriate tools
and techniques for its solutionThe Dublin Core Metadata Set is
intended to provide a core set of metadata descriptors that can be applied to
any resource. In this question you are
to apply Dublin Core metadata to types of resources that could potentially be
used by an organisation in its KM practice. For simplicity we will use the
legacy set of Dublin Core elements: Contributor Coverage Creator Date Description FormatIdentifier LanguagePublisher Relation Rights Source Subject Title Type Select any TWO of the resources
listed below, and create Dublin Core metadata for each of them: A
physical object:Teletype punch from the SNOCOM
computer:
http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=30275 A
web page:Kaplan Higher Education:
http://www.kaplan.com.sg/ A
document: This assignment document, which was
written by the unit coordinator.In your answer, set the metadata
elements out as a list, e.g.DC.Title = Murdoch University
Assessment PolicyDC.Date.Created SCHEME=””ISO8601″”
CONTENT=””2004-10-25″”IMPORTANT: Read the following notes
before answering the question.NOTES Refer
to the Dublin Core Element definitions here
http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
and here: http://dublincore.org/documents/2012/06/14/dcmi-terms/?v=elements#H3
and to the usage guides here:
http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/elements.shtml and here:
http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/User_Guide/Creating_Metadata Where
appropriate you should make use of the Dublin Core Qualifiers, as described
here http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/qualifiers.shtml. Examples of
qualifiers include Encoding Scheme (such as using the ISO8601 encoding scheme
for dates) and Element Refinements, such as using DC.Date.Created to specify a
more precise meaning for Date. To
answer this question, you will need to examine the resource and any available
information about it and make a judgement as to how that information should
best be represented in the DC Elements. You can make use of any metadata or
descriptive information that is already given for the resource, if you think it
is useful (for example by looking at the source code of the web page). However,
this alone will not be sufficient for your answer. Be
as thorough as you can in applying relevant metadata to the resource you
should aim to use all of the Elements. Where you do not have enough information
for an element, give your best assessment and state your assumptions
separately.”