In Life Cycle Engineering, it is vital that the engineering knowledge for the product is captured throughout its life cycle in a formal and structured manner. This will allow the information to be referred to in the future by engineers... more
In Life Cycle Engineering, it is vital that the engineering knowledge for the product is captured throughout its life cycle in a formal and structured manner. This will allow the information to be referred to in the future by engineers who did not work on the original design but are wanting to understand the reasons that certain design decisions were made. In the past, attempts were made to try to capture this knowledge by having the engineer record the knowledge manually during a design session. However, this is not only time-consuming but is also disruptive to the creative process. Therefore, the research presented in this paper is concerned with capturing design knowledge automatically using a traditional 2D design environment and also an immersive 3D design environment. The design knowledge is captured by continuously and non-intrusively logging the user during a design session and then storing this output in a structured eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. Next, the XML da...
In Life Cycle Engineering, it is vital that the engineering knowledge for the product is captured throughout its life cycle in a formal and structured manner. This will allow the information to be referred to in the future by engineers... more
In Life Cycle Engineering, it is vital that the engineering knowledge for the product is captured throughout its life cycle in a formal and structured manner. This will allow the information to be referred to in the future by engineers who did not work on the original design but are wanting to understand the reasons that certain design decisions were made. In the past, attempts were made to try to capture this knowledge by having the engineer record the knowledge manually during a design session. However, this is not only time-consuming but is also disruptive to the creative process. Therefore, the research presented in this paper is concerned with capturing design knowledge automatically using a traditional 2D design environment and also an immersive 3D design environment. The design knowledge is captured by continuously and non-intrusively logging the user during a design session and then storing this output in a structured eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. Next, the XML da...
The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our thoughts. Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. Excellence in thought can be cultivated and fertilized with creativity.
Organizations are often challenged to identify and resolve workplace problems. The Critical Incident technique gives them a starting point and a process for advancing organizational development through learning experiences. It helps them... more
Organizations are often challenged to identify and resolve workplace problems. The Critical Incident technique gives them a starting point and a process for advancing organizational development through learning experiences. It helps them study "what people do" in various situations.
Organizations are often challenged to identify and resolve workplace problems. The Critical Incident technique gives them a starting point and a process for advancing organizational development through learning experiences. It helps them... more
Organizations are often challenged to identify and resolve workplace problems. The Critical Incident technique gives them a starting point and a process for advancing organizational development through learning experiences. It helps them study "what people do" in various situations.
Information has become ubiquitous because producing, manipulating, and disseminating it is now cheap and easy. But perceptions of information overload have less to do with quantity than with the qualities by which knowledge is presented.
"The paper compares 160 KM framework regarding three aspects: 1. What is the understanding of knowledge within the KM framework? 2. How is the management of knowledge understood? 3. What are the critical success factors identified... more
"The paper compares 160 KM framework regarding three aspects:
1. What is the understanding of knowledge within the KM framework?
2. How is the management of knowledge understood?
3. What are the critical success factors identified in KM Frameworks?
The conclusions are that there (a) is no shared understanding of the core term 'knowledge', (b) there is a consensus regarding the core activities of KM and (c) there is also a consensus about the most critical success factors for implementing KM. "
Exit interviews provide feedback on why employees leave, what they liked about their job, and where the organization needs improvement. They are most effective when data is compiled and tracked over time. The concept has been revisited as... more
Exit interviews provide feedback on why employees leave, what they liked about their job, and where the organization needs improvement. They are most effective when data is compiled and tracked over time. The concept has been revisited as a tool to capture knowledge from leavers. Exit interviews can be a win-win situation: the organization retains a portion of the leaver's knowledge and shares it; the departing employee articulates unique contributions and leaves a mark.
A competency approach befits knowledge management and learning. Knowledge Solutions are handy, quick reference guides to tools, methods, and approaches that propel development forward and enhance its effects. They fit in five... more
A competency approach befits knowledge management and learning. Knowledge Solutions are handy, quick reference guides to tools, methods, and approaches that propel development forward and enhance its effects. They fit in five comprehensive areas: (i) strategy development, (ii) management techniques, (iii) collaboration mechanisms, (iv) knowledge sharing and learning, and (v) knowledge capture and storage. In general, raising organizational performance is contingent on progress in all five areas; however, the Five Competencies Framework can also help determine priorities for immediate action by selecting the area that will yield the greatest benefits if improved. Knowledge Solutions will appeal to the development community and people interested in knowledge management and learning.
Tenix Defence, one of Australia's largest defence contractors, depends on winning bids and managing contracts for long-lifecycle engineering projects. The ability to capture, manage and deliver project knowledge in explicit formats is... more
Tenix Defence, one of Australia's largest defence contractors, depends on winning bids and managing contracts for long-lifecycle engineering projects. The ability to capture, manage and deliver project knowledge in explicit formats is crucial to its success. Tenix is moving from a paradigm of traditional paper documents to electronically managing and automating structured knowledge artefacts in a knowledge management framework based on Karl Popper's (1973) three worlds of knowledge. The new technology captures the authors' implicit knowledge that was inevitably lost when working with paper documents and also moves aspects of personal cognition from the subjective and personal World 2 into the objective, virtual and persistent World 3.
Remembering times past stimulates the mind and helps give perspective and a sense of who we are. Social reminiscence is a gain in performance without practice.
Exit interviews provide feedback on why employees leave, what they liked about their job, and where the organization needs improvement. They are most effective when data is compiled and tracked over time. The concept has been revisited as... more
Exit interviews provide feedback on why employees leave, what they liked about their job, and where the organization needs improvement. They are most effective when data is compiled and tracked over time. The concept has been revisited as a tool to capture knowledge from leavers. Exit interviews can be a win-win situation: the organization retains a portion of the leaver’s knowledge and shares it; the departing employee articulates unique contributions and leaves a mark.
A number of research groups and software companies have developed digital annotation tools for textual documents, web pages, images, audio and video resources. By annotations we mean subjective comments, notes, explanations or external... more
A number of research groups and software companies have developed digital annotation tools for textual documents, web pages, images, audio and video resources. By annotations we mean subjective comments, notes, explanations or external remarks that can be ...
In this paper we discuss a tool for semantic annotation and search in a collection of art images. Multiple existing on- tologies are used to support this process, including the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, WordNet, ULAN and Icon-... more
In this paper we discuss a tool for semantic annotation and search in a collection of art images. Multiple existing on- tologies are used to support this process, including the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, WordNet, ULAN and Icon- class. We discuss knowledge-engineering aspect such as the annotation structure and links between the ontologies. The annotation and search process is illustrated
The large amount of available design information from different areas has become common in most organizations. Under these conditions, there are difficulties in sharing and reusing knowledge, especially by the fact that this knowledge is... more
The large amount of available design information from different areas has become common in most organizations. Under these conditions, there are difficulties in sharing and reusing knowledge, especially by the fact that this knowledge is available within the company in different formats and locations. Due to this, design engineers often fail to use such information. To ensure a better use, it is important to organize and integrate the available knowledge in a collaborative manner. In this context, the Knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) approach can be associated. Through KBE concepts, the current study aims to develop a set of tools for assisting decision making, by storing and providing useful information in a timely manner. Such solution should meet the needs of its users (i.e. designers), as well as improve the quality of design activities along the Product Development Process (PDP). For this study, still under development, the following steps have been adopted: (a) delimitation of action scope (i.e. steps of PDP to be focused); (b) knowledge capture; (c) knowledge structuring through ontologies; (d) standardization; (e) development of rules; (f) creation of application solutions; and (g) performance evaluation of solutions. The application of the present proposal is expected to facilitate the access to information, significantly reduce the number of Engineering Change Requests (ECR's), as well as allow acquired knowledge to be used in subsequent projects (e.g. lessons learned).
There is now a great deal of interest among researchers and practitioners regarding the importance of knowledge management (KM) in an organisational context. Few large construction organisations have implemented and reaped the benefits of... more
There is now a great deal of interest among researchers and practitioners regarding the importance of knowledge management (KM) in an organisational context. Few large construction organisations have implemented and reaped the benefits of formal KM approaches. However, there are very few empirical studies on knowledge capture geared towards small and medium enterprises (less than 250 employees) in the construction industry. This paper is based on a research conducted among 26 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK construction industry. The paper explores the characteristics of SMEs as well as the key knowledge capture issues that confront them. These issues involve social, cultural and technological considerations, which demand a robust research methodology in their investigation. The research methodology for the study is also appraised in this paper. The paper concludes that if knowledge capture is to lead to a source of sustainable competitive advantage, SMEs should adopt ...
Healthcare (HC) utilizes informatics to provide its service through Information Technology (IT). In this context, knowledge management‘s (KM’s) Web 2.0’s e-Health (telemedicine) social computing, i.e. HC virtual communities (VCs)... more
Healthcare (HC) utilizes informatics to provide its service through Information Technology (IT). In this context, knowledge management‘s (KM’s) Web 2.0’s e-Health (telemedicine) social computing, i.e. HC virtual communities (VCs) facilitate medical decision making (DM) to improve HC quality. Therefore, in the given context of this paper, these topics deem important for such a study; considering that HC KM and social media are new research areas as well as research lacks in the area of medical DM. This study has reviewed literature to critique its proposed conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of culture and ICT to facilitate knowledge sharing to support medical DM. As a result, findings of this study projected a conceptual model viable for further empirical and practical assessment and practical implementation. Keywords - Virtual Community; Healthcare Knowledge Management Processes; Knowledge Management Infrastructure; Medical Decision Making. Paper Type - Literature Review
Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Assessments by executing... more
Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Assessments by executing agencies of the effectiveness of assistance in capacity development are prominent among these.
E-learning or electronic learning platforms facilitate delivery of the knowledge spectrum to the learning community through information and communication technologies. The transfer of knowledge takes place from experts... more
E-learning or electronic learning platforms facilitate delivery of the knowledge spectrum to the learning community through information and communication technologies. The transfer of knowledge takes place from experts to learners, and externalization of the knowledge transfer is significant. In the e-learning environment, the learners seek subject expertise to clarify their subject queries, and a learner query can be routed to an expert for externalization of expert knowledge provided the learner knows the subject expert or the expertise group. However, learners new to e-learning systems are not aware of the expertise group to which the query should be sent, which results in time delays, non-response, inaccurate solutions and loss of knowledge capture. Several models have been proposed to resolve this task, but thus far, these efforts have focused completely on returning the most conversant people as experts on a particular topic to retrieve valuable knowledge. To address this problem, we propose an approach that externalizes the tacit knowledge of a subject expert by creating a dynamic query handling system that automatically transfers a user query to the best subject expert.
Discussion cases are commonly used at business schools because of their pedagogical values as they expose students to real-life situations through a comprehensive interaction and collaboration among students and their instructors as well... more
Discussion cases are commonly used at business schools because of their pedagogical values as they expose students to real-life situations through a comprehensive interaction and collaboration among students and their instructors as well as enabling students to be proficient in communication, self-management, decision-making and problem-solving skills. In this research, discussion cases were developed by instructors in collaboration with the industry as educational supports to expose students to real-life business situations and challenges. The paper focuses on the knowledge capture, sharing, and retention during the students' group work in a semester-long project where they use these pedagogical discussion cases to solve problems, which had already been solved in real life. The paper introduces a conceptual framework for knowledge sharing behavior and its potential effects on the students' learning experience during a semester long project. The framework provides the infrastructure for the capture/sharing of knowledge during the students' quest of find solutions to the discussion cases as well as showing the effect of knowledge sharing on the students' intension to share what they know. It also examines the effects of the involvement of the instructors as well as representatives from local industry on improving the students' knowledge sharing. The paper also discusses the hypotheses which have been developed to test the validity of the framework. Little prior research has carried out with such an integrated analysis, especially in the educational context. This paper will have significant value in designing higher education class settings to involve students' teamwork and industry engagement to enhance knowledge sharing.
Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasing being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Monthly progress notes on... more
Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasing being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Monthly progress notes on project administration, which document accomplishments as well as bottlenecks, are prominent among these.
Discussion cases are commonly used at business schools because of their pedagogical values as they expose students to real-life situations through a comprehensive interaction and collaboration among students and their instructors as well... more
Discussion cases are commonly used at business schools because of their pedagogical values as they expose students to real-life situations through a comprehensive interaction and collaboration among students and their instructors as well as enabling students to be proficient in communication, self-management, decision making, and problem-solving skills. In this research, discussion cases were developed by instructors in collaboration with the industry as educational supports to expose students to real-life business situations and challenges. The paper focuses on the knowledge capture, sharing, and retention during the students' group work in a semester-long project where they use these pedagogical discussion cases to solve problems, which had already been solved in real life. The paper introduces a conceptual framework for knowledge sharing behavior and its potential effects on the students' learning experience during a semester long project. The framework provides the infra...
To develop an approach to find one’s expertization level in a given field. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The search engines were utilized to extract the expert’s data available in the internet. The results generated by the search engines... more
To develop an approach to find one’s expertization level in a given field. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The search engines were utilized to extract the expert’s data available in the internet. The results generated by the search engines were downloaded in the database. Intern these results were used as an input to the relevance and expertise mapping process. We have used Relevance Algorithm and Expertise Mapping Algorithm to process the data generated by the search engines. These process yields one’s expertization level on a particular area. Findings: E-learning systems were automated to identify an expert by using two methods self-classification and document-based-relevance. These methods assume that relevance of one’s specified keywords or documents to the query is positively related to their expertise. In reality, one can be identified as an expert in a specific domain by the contribution made on that particular domain. The expert expertization data available in websites could be utilized by the e-learning systems to evaluate the expert’s. Hence it is proposed to ensure the expertise level of an expert using a Dynamic Expertization Estimating System (DEES) in an e-learning environment. In this approach, search engines were utilized as an agent to extract the expert’s data available in the internet and weightage were given to the expert according to their contribution made by the expert towards the given expertise area. The results retrieved by applying this mechanism yielded data with high accuracy levels to ensure the expertization level of an expert. Application/Improvements: Connecting the Dynamic Expertization Estimating System (DEES) with social media to fetch more data pertaining to the expert expertization and produce accurate expertise level for each expert.
Maps are visual design representations used by engineers to model the information behind a design. This paper evaluates the application of mapping methods supported by the Decision Rationale editor (DRed) in aerospace engineering... more
Maps are visual design representations used by engineers to model the information behind a design. This paper evaluates the application of mapping methods supported by the Decision Rationale editor (DRed) in aerospace engineering industry. Specifically, the research investigates what DRed mapping methods are used, where engineers find them useful and why. DRed was selected because it has been formally embedded in the design processes of the partner company and all engineering staff have access to it. The tool was investigated using semistructured interviews with 14 engineers, each already trained with DRed through their work and representing diverse departments and experience levels. Nineteen use cases were collected, ranging from high-profile, multistakeholder projects to everyday individual work. Collected cases were analyzed for the methods applied, common contexts of use, and reasons for use. The results validate baseline DRed mapping methods to capture design rationale and analyze the root causes of engineering problems. Further, it provides empirical evidence for new DRed mapping methods to manage requirements, analyze functional interactions in complex systems and manage personal information. The contexts where mapping methods are most used involve: system-level information that cuts across subsystem boundaries; irregular intervals between map applications; dealing with loosely structured information; individual use or small team collaborations; and addressing on-going problems. The reasons stated by engineers for using maps focus on engineering design thinking, communication, and planning support. Using empirical evidence of its recurrent use, this research establishes that DRed is a powerful and versatile tool for engineers in industry and its mapping methods aid important and otherwise unsupported work. The range and impact of the use cases found in practice suggest that engineers need better support for work with loosely structured information. Organizations involved in the design of complex systems should make greater use of semiformal, graph-based visual tools like DRed. The understanding of mapping software gained through this research demonstrates a shift in emphasis from the enrichment of the engineering record to the provision of immediate cognitive benefits for engineers. The results also support an incremental, adaptive approach for deploying this emerging class of tools in other organizations.
Organizations spend millions of dollars on management systems without commensurate investments in the categorization needed to organize the information they rest on. Taxonomy work is strategic work: it enables efficient and interoperable... more
Organizations spend millions of dollars on management systems without commensurate investments in the categorization needed to organize the information they rest on. Taxonomy work is strategic work: it enables efficient and interoperable retrieval and sharing of data, information, and knowledge by building needs and natural workflows in intuitive structures.
This communication is about a field experience involving Central Brazil's Xavante performances of "tradition" to Japanese visitors and the participation of this researcher in them. It comments about the visit of a group of Japanese... more
This communication is about a field experience involving Central Brazil's Xavante performances of "tradition" to Japanese visitors and the participation of this researcher in them. It comments about the visit of a group of Japanese medicine students to watch rituals and do health examinations on the Xavante people from the Abelhinha village; the preparations for the rituals; the painting of this researcher as a "Xavante"; the games, dances and singing showed as difference markers - and also other performances not noted as such (like pranks) - by the Xavante and the Japanese students. It also talks about the gift giving at the encounter. Tradition and "tradition" (between quotes, as Manuela Carneiro da Cunha could say) were pulled together at once by the Xavante. Xavante tradition might be exactly about relating to others. While they act as the others would expect, they also capture the "other", only to recreate more difference towards other "others". By painting this researcher, calling me to take part on one collective shamanic dance, offering me one of the very gifts that the Japanese students brought to the Xavante themselves, washing me in the river and so on, the Xavante played a small part of the long (and maybe never ending) process of transforming "the other" into "the same". The "Western" (or "Oriental"?) medicine enters this relation as something to be captured too, which does not eliminate the Xavante medicine. The coexistence between "the other" and "the same" would be a constant part of the Xavante tradition."
