Tracking the Role and Evolution of Commercial Knowledge Management Software

With a plethora of commercial Knowledge Management (KM) tools and portals on the market, it has been difficult to understand the similarities and differences between these products and their role(s) in supporting various knowledge processes. This paper presents several frameworks to categorise, better appreciate the power of these tools, and relate them to common types of KM applications. These frameworks are based on the origin, characteristics, problem solving capabilities, alignment with business processes, and control (i.e., centralised versus localised) of KM Systems (KMS). The majority of commercial KM software are enterprise-wide software packages; tools that support knowledge processes at the individual level (i.e., Personal KM (PKM) tools) are seriously inadequate. Tools that foster virtual collaborations across organisational boundaries are becoming popular. For the latter, it is felt that Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing will have a significant impact on KM at the group level in three aspects — file sharing, collaboration, and search. Criteria for the evaluation of tools and portals are outlined. KM tools are increasingly being absorbed into Portal products that host, among others, E-Business and intranet services. Emerging business models for the deployment of (technical) KM systems are also discussed. By identifying the dominant fields of KM, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Retrieval (IR), it is possible to develop a broader perspective of the applicable technologies available for KM and align appropriate tools/gadgets to support various applications.