KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

Knowledge management technology is maturing, which will enable an organization to build a knowledge management and human capital infrastructure. According to Ovum in the January 2003 KMWorld magazine, the estimated knowledge management and business intelligence software market in 2002 is around $16 billion and is expected to grow to $21 billion in 2006. Ovum indicates that there have been three main phases to knowledge management software thus far. The first phase, during 1998–2000, was the "hype" phase, which could be termed the "Discovery" stage. The second phase, during 2000–2002, was the "accepted" phase, which might be called the "Collaboration" stage. The current phase, from 2003 and beyond, is the "embedded" phase, which is characterized by software "Integration."

Etienne Wenger produced a report for the Federal CIO Council's Subcommittee on Knowledge Management in March 2001 on communities of practice and knowledge management software (http://km.gov/documents/Technology_Survey.doc). Some of the popular online community software programs are Intranets.com, Communispace, Groove, and Open Text's LiveLink. Popular expertise locator software programs include AskMe Enterprise, Tacit Knowledge System's KnowledgeMail, Sopheon Organik, and Kamoon's Connect. Often-used taxonomy and high-end knowledge management tools are Autonomy, Semio Stratify (Discovery System), Documentum, Grapevine, Verity, Intraspect, and IBM Lotus' Knowledge Discovery System. Popular online searchable video software includes Convera, Virage, and Streamsage.

According to the January 2003 KMWorld magazine, five key trends in knowledge management to watch are:

• The move toward integrated KM suites (e.g., Documentum/Plumtree bought e-Room; IBM and Oracle have filled gaps in their KM offerings)

• Collaboration (handle collaboration across the enterprise)

• Expertise location (a high growth area)

• Real-time business information needs: enhance the role of the enterprise portal and integrate the portal with core infrastructure technologies and decision support

• The rise of the semantic enterprise: web services standards will provide the technical basis for integration across the organization