Knowledge management is knowing how to obtain knowledge and knowing how to use it to your advantage. Capturing is not as hard as it use to be because of all the new tools and techniques that are available today. There are many new tools that most people don’t even know about, for e.g. video conferencing.[1]

Knowledge management is best described in these words; “Knowledge management is the name of a concept in which a company or organization consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills”[2] as describes in the Loughborough University glossary page.

What is tacit knowledge?

Knowledge held in a person’s brain is called tacit knowledge; tacit knowledge is only learned with practice [4]. Learning through Experience and implicit learning is called cognitive skills. Not all tacit knowledge is useful as others, some of the tacit knowledge we gain can be out-of-date, getting hold of this knowledge and sharing it becomes difficult at that stage. [3]

Tacit knowledge in business

In a business environment getting better results relies on managing your knowledge in a good manner. What a employee brings to the company is very important, being productive and furthering your knowledge is very important when high success rates are expected by business’s, the key behind success is continuous innovation of employee’s [5], all this, as stated above is managed by good knowledge management skills, that is what makes tacit knowledge in business extremely important.[3]

Many knowledge management tools are made of technology these days, but it is not certain to which degree transforming knowledge from tacit to explicit can be supported by technologies, a few likely solution maybe be identified. Search engines are a key contributor.

The use of text-based chat is an encouragement because it contributes to the communication of tacit knowledge which then is supported and turned into explicit; this also applies to bulleting boards. [10] Knowledge management tools can add value; it will reduce the cost and save plenty of time and effort needed for people when sharing knowledge and information.

Knowledge management assist in doing the following;

-it can assist people in organising, storing and accessing information, for example electronics libraries that provide e-books and journals.

-people can use such tools like video conferencing in order to share tacit knowledge; connecting people in this way will make sharing knowledge easier. [11]

Capturing Knowledge

When a tacit knowledge is mentioned and expressed, after it has been conceptualizes, it will be converted in to explicit knowledge. Capturing this data using e-mails, reports and websites will make the distribution of this data very easy within and organization. This knowledge management tool is helping knowledge to be captured through such things as word processing; this can be saved and generated into electronic documents which then can be e-mailed of put on the company website for easy sharing. [10]

Using technology doesn’t fulfil all our needs. The better we can use the knowledge from tools and technology the more chance we got of fulfilling more, assigning knowledge roles etc. There are many knowledge management tools that can help organisations or people to get better at sharing important knowledge. Taking advantage of these tools needs good knowledge management to find the most suitable tools for your self. These tools cannot produce and distribute knowledge on its own; it will need people to run it and certain processes to support it.

Here is a list of Knowledge Management tools;

Groupware

This type of software is designed for a group of people, but can also be used by individuals. Groupware is used over networks; it allows people to share information and knowledge.

Intranets

Intranet is a network within one building and close by buildings, it can be called private internet, everyone in an organisation can access the same network, even from different buildings and use the same websites, and they can also access such things as discussion boards to exchange ideas or send emails to each other. Any file stored in the intranet can also be accessed by everyone, employees can always add more documents to be shared, sometimes needs file sharing networks etc cab is accesses from the outside too, anywhere in the world in fact. This is how knowledge management is passed on with this tool.

Using collaborative tools to connect people

This tools main functionality is that it supports communication between people and also lets you collaborate to complete a job. This is similar to the Intranet, it is also a network.

When using a collaborative tools there are some things that need to be considered, they are;

* The Time: for e.g. if using video conferencing, is it being used simultaneously, or like an e-mail, at different times.

* The Place: Is the tools used in the same building or are the users a two different place

* Information Quality: is the information that is passed on quality information? When using video conferencing you are communicating with body language and the tone of voice you use, but because e-emails are written it can be misunderstood if the context is not clear.

Email

E-mail is the most used tool between people who use collaboration tools, it is a very easy to use and simple knowledge sharing device/tool, the mail is sent electronically. The reason why it is one of the best tools is because for e.g. if your sending a photocopy of a documents or a presentation then you can attach that to the e-mail attachment and also write a explanation in the body of the e-mail.

Discussion boards

Also known as forums, bulleting boards and message boards. People can post ideas or question which can then be seen by some-one who understands the question and answer’s it, then more people can reply to agree or disagree.

Video conferencing

Video conferencing can be done in groups or by two individuals, some companies use special facilities for video conferencing. Video conferencing can also be done from any desktop pc or laptop from the comfort of your home, considering your computer has the required specifications. Video conferencing mainly used by companies who fro e.g. have a headquarters in London and one in New York, these employee’s can share ideas. If the hardware and software used isn’t good enough to have a clear conference otherwise there wouldn’t be much use of this tool.

Knowledge management tools have many benefits, sharing tacit knowledge is one of them, and this can be done between wide ranges of people. Working together is made easier by some of the tools above, even if your in different countries, this could also save a lot of money, it will save you hotel and flight money to use collaboration.

Now that we looked at a few examples of very useful tools we can say that sharing knowledge and managing knowledge is made easier everyday.