Chapter 11: Managing Knowledge

Question 1

3-D Printing

Answer 1

Uses machines to make solid objects, layer by layer, from specifications in a digital file. Also known as additive manufacturing.

Question 2

Agent-Based Modeling

Answer 2

Modeling complex phenomena as systems of autonomous agents that follow relatively simple rules for interaction.

Question 3

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Answer 3

The effort to develop computer-based systems that can behave like humans, with the ability to learn languages, accomplish physical tasks, use a perceptual apparatus, and emulate human expertise and decision making.

Question 4

Augmented Reality (AR)

Answer 4

A technology for enhancing visualization. Provides a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.

Question 5

Backward Chaining

Answer 5

A strategy for searching the rule base in an expert system that acts like a problem solver by beginning with a hypothesis and seeking out more information until the hypothesis is either proved or disproved.

Question 6

Case-Based Reasoning (CBR)

Answer 6

Artificial intelligence technology that represents knowledge as a database of cases and solutions.

Question 7

Communities of Practice (COPs)

Answer 7

Informal social networks of professionals and employees within and outside the firm who have similar work-related activities and interests and share their knowledge.

Question 8

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

Answer 8

Information system that automates the creation and revision of designs using sophisticated graphics software.

Question 9

Data

Answer 9

Streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.

Question 10

Digital Asset Management Systems

Answer 10

Classify, store, and distribute digital objects such as photographs, graphic images, video, and audio content.

Question 11

Enterprise Content Management Systems

Answer 11

Help organizations manage structured and semistructured knowledge, providing corporate repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and best practices and capabilities for collecting and organizing e-mail and graphic objects.

Question 12

Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Systems

Answer 12

General purpose, firmwide systems that collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge.

Question 13

Expert Systems

Answer 13

Knowledge-intensive computer program that captures the expertise of a human in limited domains of knowledge.

Question 14

Explicit Knowledge

Answer 14

Knowledge that has been documented.

Question 15

Folksonomies

Answer 15

User-created taxonomies for classifying and sharing information.

Question 16

Forward Chaining

Answer 16

A strategy for searching the rule base in an expert system that begins with the information entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive at a conclusion.

Question 17

Fuzzy Logic

Answer 17

Rule-based AI that tolerates imprecision by using nonspecific terms called membership functions to solve problems.

Question 18

Genetic Algorithms

Answer 18

Problem-solving methods that promote the evolution of solutions to specified problems using the model of living organisms adapting to their environment.

Question 19

Hybrid AI Systems

Answer 19

Integration of multiple AI technologies into a single application to take advantage of the best features of these technologies.

Question 20

Inference Engine

Answer 20

The strategy used to search through the rule base in an expert system; can be forward or backward chaining.

Question 21

Intelligent Agents

Answer 21

Software program that uses a built-in or learned knowledge base to carry out specific, repetitive, and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process, or software application.

Question 22

Intelligent Techniques

Answer 22

Technologies that aid human decision makers by capturing individual and collective knowledge, discovering patterns and behaviors in large quantities of data, and generating solutions to problems that are too large and complex for human beings to solve on their own.

Question 23

Investment Workstations

Answer 23

Powerful desktop computer for financial specialists, which is optimized to access and manipulate massive amounts of financial data.

Question 24

Knowledge

Answer 24

Concepts, experience, and insight that provide a framework for creating, evaluating, and using information.

Question 25

Knowledge Base

Answer 25

Model of human knowledge that is used by expert systems.

Question 26

Knowledge Discovery

Answer 26

Identification of novel and valuable patterns in large databases.

Question 27

Knowledge Management

Answer 27

The set of processes developed in an organization to create, gather, store, maintain, and disseminate the firm’s knowledge.

Question 28

Knowledge Network Systems

Answer 28

Online directory for locating corporate experts in well-defined knowledge domains.

Question 29

Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)

Answer 29

Information systems that aid knowledge workers in the creation and integration of new knowledge into the organization.

Question 30

Learning Management System (LMS)

Answer 30

Tools for the management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of employee learning.

Question 31

Machine Learning

Answer 31

Study of how computer programs can improve their performance without explicit programming.

Question 32

Neural Networks

Answer 32

Hardware or software that attempts to emulate the processing patterns of the biological brain.

Question 33

Organizational Learning

Answer 33

Creation of new standard operating procedures and business processes that reflect organizations’ experience.

Question 34

Social Bookmarking

Answer 34

Capability for users to save their bookmarks to Web pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords to organize documents and share information with others.

Question 35

Structured Knowledge

Answer 35

Knowledge in the form of structured documents and reports.

Question 36

Tacit Knowledge

Answer 36

Expertise and experience of organizational members that has not been formally documented.

Question 37

Taxonomy

Answer 37

Method of classifying things according to a predetermined system.

Question 38

Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)

Answer 38

A set of specifications for interactive three-dimensional modeling on the World Wide Web.

Question 39

Virtual Reality Systems

Answer 39

Interactive graphics software and hardware that create computer-generated simulations that provide sensations that emulate real-world activities.

Question 40

Wisdom

Answer 40

The collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems.

Question 41

What is the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business?

Answer 41

Knowledge management is a set of processes to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge in the organization. Much of a firm’s value depends on its ability to create and manage knowledge. Knowledge management promotes organizational learning by increasing the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes. There are three major types of knowledge management systems: enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, knowledge work systems, and intelligent techniques.

Question 42

What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?

Answer 42

Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are firmwide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge. Enterprise content management systems provide databases and tools for organizing and storing structured documents and tools for organizing and storing semistructured knowledge, such as e-mail or rich media. Knowledge network systems provide directories and tools for locating firm employees with special expertise who are important sources or tacit knowledge. Often these systems include group collaboration tools (including wikis and social bookmarking), portals to simplify information access, search tools, and tools for classifying information based on a taxonomy that is appropriate for the organization. Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems can provide considerable value if they are well designed and enable employees to locate, share, and use knowledge more efficiently.

Question 43

What are the major types of knowledge work systems and how do they provide value for firms?

Answer 43

Knowledge work systems (KWS) support the creation of new knowledge and its integration into the organization. KWS require easy access to an external knowledge base; powerful computer hardware that can support software with intensive graphics, analysis, document management, and communications capabilities; and a user-friendly interface. Computer-aided design (CAD) systems, augmented reality applications, and virtual reality systems, which create interactive simulations that behave like the real world, require graphics and powerful modeling capabilities. KWS for financial professionals provide access to external databases and the ability to analyze massive amounts of financial data very quickly.

Question 44

What are the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management?

Answer 44

Artificial intelligence lacks the flexibility, breadth, and generality of human intelligence, but it can be used to capture, codify, and extend organizational knowledge. Expert systems capture tacit knowledge from a limited domain of human expertise and express that knowledge in the form of rules. Expert systems are most useful for problems of classification or diagnosis. Case-based reasoning represents organizational knowledge as a database of cases that can be continually expanded and refined.
Fuzzy logic is a software technology for expressing knowledge in the form of rules that use approximate or subjective values. Fuzzy logic has been used for controlling physical devises and is starting to be used for limited decision-making applications.
Machine learning refers to the ability of computer programs to automatically learn and improve with experience. Neural networks consist of hardware and software that attempt to mimic the thought processes of the human brain. Neural networks are notable for their ability to learn without programming and to recognize patterns that cannot be easily described by humans. They are being used in science, medicine, and business to discriminate patterns in massive amounts of data.
Genetic algorithms develop solutions to particular problems using genetically based processes such as fitness, crossover, and mutation. Genetic algorithms are beginning to be applied to problems involving optimization, product design, and monitoring industrial systems where many alternatives or variables must be evaluated to generate an optimal solution.
Intelligent agents are software programs with built-in or learned knowledge bases that carry out specific tasks for an individual user, business process, or software application. Intelligent agents can be programmed to navigate through large amounts of data to locate useful information and in some cases act on that information on behalf of the user.