Knowledge management is the process by which organizations generate value from their knowledge-based assets. In most cases, generating value from such assets involves documenting what employees, partners, and customers know and sharing that information with employees, departments, and even other companies in order to spread best practices.
Knowledge management forums are the best place for information exchange, discussion and debates. Forums and bulletin boards are often informal, but they are a good source of information. Emails and messages posted on bulletin boards are the main source of knowledge for your users. Many organizations encourage the use of forums among their customers as one of the alternatives to access support services.
Clients post their messages describing their problems, and subject matter experts respond with solutions. These messages are generally public so that other customers with similar problems can easily access them in the future.
However, these forums do not always represent free-for-all websites. Forums take various forms. One of those ways is? Communities of practice? representing a group of people working on similar projects or using similar tools. Forums may also represent people with a similar job function, who may or may not be located in the same physical location. Various organizations have developed community portals that allow employees or members to share resources in the form of posting emails, uploading files, conducting online chat sessions, and maintaining contact information.
Another type of forum is the corporate intranet, which is an excellent choice for a first-time knowledge management initiative, as it provides easy access to quickly promote the system and encourage its use.
Another type of forum is the Yellow Pages and other directories. These are excellent options for organizations with knowledge bases that consist primarily of tacit knowledge or are experiencing rapid obsolescence. The purpose of a knowledge management system in such cases is not only to facilitate the creation and reuse of knowledge, but also to provide a mechanism by which the source of knowledge can be easily located.
Consulting organizations are widely known to use directories and yellow pages as a means of finding employees with the right skills for given requirements. Therefore, knowledge management has proven to be a great source for generating value from knowledge-based assets.
