Interoperability and Standards. G51IDB Lecture 18 : Organisational Connectivity and Knowledge Management. Development of Open Source Software

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1 G51IDB Lecture 18 : Organisational Connectivity and Knowledge Management Tim Brailsford Interoperability and Standards Standards are essential for interoperability and the implementation of a DNS Standards may be open or closed Standards may be achieved by using integrated tools and infrastructure designed by a software vendor (usually Microsoft) Open source also provides standards, and is a viable alternative Free Software Public domain software given away to the world Open source Source code is published, rather than protected so the software may be modified Free software is free as in freedom of speech, not as in free beer! Various Licence terms Free Software Foundation / GNU General Public Licence Other open source licences (eg Netscape) Development of Open Source Software Developers may be: amateur enthusiasts people or organisations with a special need researchers commercial organisations looking to improve the software Collaborative development on the Internet (eg mailing lists, web sites etc). Examples Linux (operating system) Apache (web server) Emacs (text editor / development environment) Open vs Closed Source Development The Cathedral and the Bazaar Essay by Eric Raymond Closed source projects are large monolithic designs - the cathedral Open source projects involve a chaotic exchange of ideas - the bazaar In the bazaar there is a kind of natural selection of ideas - the best ideas survive This makes the open source methodology very suitable for large projects Business Models for Open Source The source code for open source software must be made available Usually any modifications must also be made publicly available However, open source software may legally be sold Value added package As a part of a services deal Many large corporations are starting to become extensively involved with open source eg IBM, Apple, Netscape, Novell, Corell

viable alternative Free Software Public domain software given away to the world Open source Source code is published, rather than protected so the software may be modified Free software is free as in

2 Corporate IQ The sum knowledge of an organisation is inevitably greater than that of any individual within it. Organisations can be considered as intelligent organisms capable of: learning remembering intelligent decision making Corporate IQ is the manifestation of these Knowledge Management is based upon the concept of corporate IQ Organisational Memory Organisational memory is the collective memory of an organisation The history of an organisation is usually only stored in detail as organisational memory Rarely needed knowledge is often only stored as organisational memory Organisational memory is very vulnerable to personelle changes Organisational memory is difficult to define or disseminate Corporate IQ Increasing corporate IQ is invaluable to any knowledge lead company Corporate IQ is increased by sharing knowledge about both the past history and the current situation An effective digital nervous system can serve to increase corporate IQ What is Knowledge Management? KM is not necessarily IT-based - it is a form of management that revolves around the effective sharing of data-information-knowledge Know what you know, and make effective use of this Recognise the obsolescence of knowledge before the competition, and profit by creating the challenges and opportunities others haven't even thought about The benefits of a high corporate IQ (1) During a crisis the right people need to have the right knowledge to be able to act rapidly and independently When corporate IQ is high, knowledge workers collaborate efficiently to keep key people well informed A team should be able to draw upon the best ideas from throughout an organisation Digital information flow can enhance all of this The benefits of a high corporate IQ (2) A collaborative culture, reinforced by effective information flow makes most effective use of knowledge workers Critical mass of intelligence leads to synergistic effects upon ideas and motivation A high corporate IQ leads to a high morale - this makes the recruitment and retention of high quality employees much easier

concept of corporate IQ Organisational Memory Organisational memory is the collective memory of an organisation The history of an organisation is usually only stored in detail as organisational

3 Criticisms of IT based KM Consider the following issues: Can KM technologies get the right information to the right person at the right time? Can human intelligence and experience cannot be effectively stored in a database? Can human intelligence and experience be communicated by a computer? Data / Information / Knowledge Data The raw letter, numbers etc Information The meaning that is contained in the data Knowledge Information interpreted in the light of prior knowledge, in such a way that it can be effectively applied to achieve desired ends Case Study: Answer Garden Answer Garden is an experimental software tool that was developed by Mark Ackerman in MIT AG was designed to capture Organisational Memory AG was particularly intended to support isolated knowledge workers (eg technical sales staff in the field) The Answer Garden System AG contains a database of frequently asked questions AG asks a series of diagnostic questions about the users problem The users descends into an increasingly specialised hierarchical database Eventually they either find an answer to their problem, or reach a dead end When the users reach a dead end, their problem is ed to a human expert The answer is incorporated into the Answer Garden, causing the system to grow organically Case Study: Knowledge Tree Knowledge Management in Education Although this is not a business example, it illustrates an example of knowledge capture and information flow as it may be applied in business Computer Assisted Learning Most CAL is very declarative Declarative teaching only forms one aspect of the part of the learning process.

Data / Information / Knowledge Data The raw letter, numbers etc Information The meaning that is contained in the data Knowledge Information interpreted in the light of prior knowledge, in such a way

4 IT Based Teaching Strategies IT Based Teaching Strategies Conventional Teaching Lectures Essays Practicals Tutorials Discussions IT Based Teaching Strategies The Learning Process Conventional Teaching Computer Based Learning There must be a continuing dialogue between teachers and students. Lectures Primary The dialogue must reveal both participants conceptions. Essays Practicals Tutorials Discussions Secondary Tertiary The teacher should analyse the relationship between the student s and the target conception to determine the focus for the continuation of the dialogue This cycle is repeated until the target is achieved. Collaborative Learning The social processes of interaction and collaboration during learning should be modelled in CAL. is important Student - Teacher dialogue Student - Student dialogue Knowledge Tree The unit of knowledge is an answered question USENET - style threaded bulletin board functionality Answer Garden - style expert mailing system Concept-oriented hypermedia database Brailsford, Davies & Trewhella (1996)

Essays Practicals Tutorials Discussions Secondary Tertiary The teacher should analyse the relationship between the student s and the target conception to determine the focus for the continuation of

5 Knowledge Tree: System Model Subject Expert Forum Knowledgebase Concept Thesaurus Student

Traditional Commercial Software Development. Open Source Development. Traditional Assumptions. Intangible Goods. Dr. James A.

Open Source Development Dr. James A. Bednar [email protected] http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/jbednar Traditional Commercial Software Development Producing consumer-oriented software is often done in