Paper No : 12 Special and Research Libraries Principal Investigator Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director Module : 26 Overview& of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools Subject Coordinator INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar
Development Team Paper Coordinator Principal Investigator Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director & Content Writer INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar Subject Coordinator
Content Reviewer Prof I V Malhan Paper Coordinator Professor and Head, Central University of Himachal Pradesh
Dr Shivarama Rao K Content Writer Assistant Librarian, Central University of Kerala
Prof I V Malhan Content Reviewer Professor and Head, Central University of Himachal Pradesh 1
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
PaperContent Coordinator Reviewer
Description of Module
Subject Name Library and Information Science
Paper Name 12 Special and Research Libraries
Module Name/Title Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Module Id LIS/SRL-O/26
Pre-requisites Computers and Internet
To comprehend KM features of select software tools for a better Information Services and Objectives management approach in Special and Research Libraries.
KM tools; KM technologies; Latest trends in KM tools; Groupware technologies; Intranets, Keywords Extranets; Groupware technologies; Data warehousing; Data mining; Decision support systems; Content management system; and Document management systems.
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
1. Introduction
Managing knowledge creation, production and communication is a continuous and interactive process which involves knowledge translation of tacit to explicit among individuals in an organization. Effective knowledge sharing throughout an organization enhances innovation and individual’s performance. ‘Knowledge’ has come to be considered as a resource which needs to be managed well. Though knowledge management is being largely viewed only in the organizational context, it has much larger ramifications and significance when viewed in the context of the entire society, right from educational institutions to governments. Technological focus areas of knowledge management (KM) include, innovation, developing new tools, interactivity, competitiveness and collaboration. Organization should develop clear roadmap and vision strategy in-line with its goals and objectives, for a knowledge enabled organization. Hence, it is important to evaluate and determine appropriate knowledge management tools to participate in knowledge management drive. KM can be defined as a systematic discipline and set of approaches to enable information and knowledge to grow, flow, and create value in the organization. This involves people, information, processes, and workflows, enabling tools, best practices, lessons learnt, alliances and communities of practice (Rao, 2012). Application of IT and automation of organizational processes has invented many innovative and customized knowledge management tools. Therefore, KM system can defined as, any IT driven system that stores and retrieves knowledge, improves collaboration, locates knowledge sources, mines repositories for hidden knowledge, captures, organizes and uses knowledge (Frost, 2010a). KM tools and technologies are one of the many planks of successful KM practice. Rao (2012) gave a detailed framework for understanding the contributions and impact of IT platforms on knowledge work, KM tool design and usage in the form of “8 Cs”: 1. Connectivity 2. Content 3. Community 4. Culture 5. Capacity 6. Cooperation 7. Commerce 8. Capital
Depending on organizational strategy, culture, technical skills, and knowledge requirements, a number of KM tools can be appropriately integrated and deployed. 2. Tools
Largely technologies help organizations in creating electronic data storehouses that end up acting as storehouse of information. However, utilization of such data repositories is often limited and the very basic objective ‘knowledge sharing’ is largely missing. Information and Communication Technologies has opened floodgate opportunities in every organization. For example, a chemist can instantly tap all his company’s research on a chemical compound. A geologist can compare data on an oil field to similar fields across the globe to assess its commercial potential... etc. As a result, many organizations especially corporate business ventures are re-aligning their work culture and systems to how work gets done, linking people through social media so they can leverage manpower knowledge. The difficulty in most KM initiatives lies in changing organizational culture and work culture. And the larger focus is always on information systems (IS) i. e. identifying what information to capture, 3
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
working on taxonomies and data structures for organizing information, determining access and retrieval mechanisms. Most of the today’s KM systems are based on information management concepts and tools. Knowledge is different from information and sharing it requires different set of concepts and tools. Six characteristics of knowledge distinguish it from information (Lesser, Fontaine & Slusher, 2009): Knowledge is human act Knowledge is the residue of thinking Knowledge is created in the present moment Knowledge belongs to communities Knowledge circulates through communities New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old
Information and communication technologies are the enablers of change and facilitate knowledge creation. However, it is important to keep in mind that technology is not the panacea for a KM practice, though an easy to use knowledge-sharing infrastructure is an important enabler. Leveraging knowledge involves a unique combination of human and information systems. Organization wide access to KM architecture, groupware, data mining tools, mobile devices, worldwide access, high performance, user friendliness, a standardised structure, and an easily administered controlling system are key requisites of the supporting KM infrastructure (Rao, 2012). Tools that currently fall under the KM umbrella have evolved in various stages since the 1980s, initially with data computation and DBMS, followed by publishing and communication tools, and then accompanied by sophisticated platforms for collaboration, wireless delivery, remote access and network modelling. From automated agents to workflow tools, KM technologies span almost the entire alphabets. Technologies like email, groupware, digital archives, search engines, and video- conferencing are particularly important in knowledge transfer and innovation for globally dispersed organizations. 2.1. Groupware Technology
Groupware is a class of computer programs that enables individuals to collaborate on projects with a common goal from geographically dispersed locations through shared Internet interfaces as a means to communicate within the group (Techopedia). Groupware may also include remote access storage systems to archive frequently used data files. These can be altered, accessed and retrieved by workgroup members. Groupware is also known as collaborative software. Collaboration is considered to be a key learning skill essential for success in the new global economy and mantra of 21st Century among Critical thinking, Creativity, and Information Literacy. Groupware technologies are designed to support communication, coordination and collaboration through facilities such as information exchange, common repositories, discussion platforms, and messaging services. These technologies normally based on open architecture and need based customization of applications (Orlikowski & Hofman, 1997). For example in academic institutes like George Washington University, tools like Entopia’s Quantum solution are used to build content and collaboration platforms between faculty and students, building social links to tacit knowledge and encouraging knowledge sharing (Rao,2012). The following are broad categories for groupware; Communication tools: Tools for sending messages and files, including email, web publishing, wikis, file sharing, etc. 4
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Conferencing tools: Audio/video and Web conferencing, Chat tools, Forums etc. Collaborative management tools: Tools for managing group activities, e.g. project management systems, workflow systems, information management systems, etc.
However, some of the desirable features for collaborative tools in the context of KM include affinity holding, knowledge mapping, threading, polling, group documentation, rating, anonymity, notification and access management. 2.1.1. Examples
Commercial or Proprietary software Sl Description Name No This is one of the leading server based groupware software. Some of the key features of Exchange include; enables the users to share email, manage projects by sharing tasks, documents, files and web enabled access to authorized data within an organization or group. 1 Microsoft Exchange It also allows data storage. Microsoft Exchange is the most reliable name, and the latest features like email archiving updates and inbox management have improved its functionality and effectiveness. Another important feature of this tool is auto- correction tips before a user sends an email. This is another brand product of Microsoft for a group of software plus services subscriptions that provides productivity software and related services to its subscribers. For users, the service allows the use of Microsoft Office apps [applications] on Windows and OS X, provides storage space on Microsoft's cloud storage service 2 Office 365 OneDrive, and grants 60 Skype minutes per month. For business and enterprise users, Office 365 offers plans including e-mail and social networking services through hosted versions of Exchange Server, Lync, SharePoint and Office Web Apps, integration with Yammer, as well as access to the Office software. With 24SevenOffice is a complete and seamless ERP system delivered as SaaS (Software as a Service). The solution provides everything a business needs for daily operations such as Billing, 3 24SevenOffice ERP Accounting, CRM, Project Management, Email, Calendar, File Management and Document sharing and storage – all integrated into one system. 4 Actionmint A web based collaborative and project management software A browser-based digital audio workstation, for easy collaboration 5 Audiomon between musicians, without the need to send around large files Hosted online collaboration software enables dispersed or multi- 6 GroveSite company teams to share files, track tasks and manage issues, 24/7
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
This is a collaborative client server software platform marketed by IBM. IBM Notes provides business collaboration functionality, including email, calendars, to-do lists, contacts management, team IBM Notes (Formerly 7 rooms, discussion forums, file sharing, microblogging, instant Lotus Notes) messaging, blogs, and user directories. IBM Notes also provides access to and integration with other IBM Domino applications and databases. A web-based project management and real-time collaboration 8 Kanban Tool solution. It is also available in online, onsite and mobile versions. It is a project management collaborative website, which has marked its presence across the globe in very little time. The website believes that project completion is all about 9 Basecamp communication among the different members of the team, and that’s where this website makes an impact. The communication network of the website makes it one of the best groupware collaboration websites. TeamBinder is an advanced internet-based project collaboration 10 TeamBinder solution that enables all parties on a project to communicate and share project documents in a controlled environment. This is a Cisco product, and it offers desktop sharing technology, enabling people within a group or organization to interact with each other, share files and remotely participate in the project building activities. Webex offers remote support and meeting 11 Webex center services that are latest groupware technologies and help organizations to reduce costs and improve workflow efficiency. Webex makes it possible to organize meetings among different team members and helps in delivering results in time, through effective communication and sharing information. Web based collaborative tool. One can easily discover, curate and 12 Scoop publish content to get visibility online. NetOffice is a central Contact Page / Virtual Business Card and acts as Home Page. NetOffice works like a Virtual Assistant with 13 NetOffice a built in Business Center. Visitors benefit from next-generation low-cost means of communication, such as one touch technology, social networks and the latest in VoIP/Cloud services. Zimbra has made its presence felt in both the open source and commercial sector. Email, calendars, user interactive interface and Zimbra Collaboration document sharing, are the main features of this website. Zimbra 14 Suite also offers synchronization services for mobile devices, which helps the companies to reduce the overall cost of ownership. Email collaboration is the expertise of Zimbra
Open Source/Free software Sl Description Name No
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
This is considered as the major global repository of the open source codes. Software developers, students and web clients make use of this site across the globe, and this site has become an ever-growing source of quality content and reliable information for open source enthusiasts. Source Forge is a complete sharing and groupware platform. The most popular feature of 1 SourceForge Source Forge is the revision control tool that enables developers to keep a check on the software codes and programs. Online developers can contribute to the existing projects, and it has resulted in the development of numerous open source groupware tools, that are used all across the world by software companies and organizations. Scribd has become a top groupware site that allows its users to share documents, and eBooks of different formats. With the rising popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites, Scribd has introduced a unique feature of Readcasting, that allows users to post their Scribd documents directly onto social networking sites. In a very short span of time, it has 2 Scribd become the largest online book sharing website. The online sharing tools are easy, user friendly and the unique iPaper technology of the site has made it possible for millions of users across the world to, not only access the shared documents and books, but it has also contributed to promote Green Technology across the globe. Drupal is one of the most widely used content management system (CMS). Drupal runs forums, blogs and helps web enthusiasts all over the world to make the maximum use of groupware content management. Drupal is free and it belongs to the amazing world of Open Source. Today, Drupal is used by numerous online communities and forums. The basic website building 3 Drupal using Drupal is very simple and users can make use of blog posts and advice shared by experienced users on the Drupal forum. The most important feature of this website is the sharing and communication network of experienced users, that enable new users to learn and implement Drupal CMS. Issuu is a free electronic publishing platform for magazines, catalogs, newspapers and more. As a digital newsstand with over 21 million publications and 85 million active readers, Issuu features leading and 4 Issuu emerging titles in fashion, culture, arts, sports, global affairs and hyperlocal content, all of which are accessible on any device. It is like an archive, library and newsstand all gathered in one reading experience. Citadel is open source software using the GNU General Public License. It 5 Citadel has community-oriented collaboration combined with classic email, calendar and content management features OpenKM is an multiplatform application for document management based on open technology (JBoss + GWT + Jackrabbit). It allows the storage, classification and use of all kind of files and documents within an user friendly framework. OpenKM is a Web 2.0 application that works with 6 OpenKM Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. However, one of the more relevant functions to mention is the indexing of the most common types of files: text, Office, Office 2007, OpenOffice, PDF, HTML, XML, MP3, JPEG, etc. Its powerful search motor indexes all documents making it easy 7
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
to find any information.
LogicalDOC is an easy to use Document Management System suitable for organizations of any size. Its design leverages best-of-breed open source Java technologies such as Google's GWT, Spring, Hibernate to create a 7 LogicalDOC modular platform which can be run on any system, from Windows to Linux or MAC OS X. The system allows the storage, classification and use of all types of files and documents within an user friendly framework.
2.2. Intranets and Extranets
Modern technology platforms like Internet, intranet and wireless media are transforming the very way knowledge is managed, experienced and transformed, triggering cascading cycle of re-invention of learning and education. The intranets are powerful tools in the knowledge management process. It allows for the integration of multimedia communication and can act as a platform for groupware applications and publishing. Intranets enhance collaboration, productivity, and socialization, but also to influence organizational culture and to act as a repository for embedded knowledge (Frost, 2010b). An Intranet is a private network, operated by a large company or other organisation, which uses internet technologies, but is insulated from the global internet. Intranets typically start by publishing web pages about company events, health and safety policies, and staff newsletters. Popular applications follow, such as forms to reclaim expenses or request holidays. All these help eliminate paperwork and speed up workflows. The intranet is protected from the global internet by firewalls and by the need to log on with a secure password. Staff working outside the organisation may be able to access the intranet by using a VPN (virtual private network). This means all communications between the intranet and the user’s personal computer are encrypted (Schofield, 2010). Developing highly useful intranets will enhance knowledge sharing and managing process. Some of the prominent activities required during designing intranets are; content strategy and training, design, development, implementation, information architecture, integration of third party tools, SharePoint, social tools, task management applications, usability and user experience research. Below are some of the emerging trends in intranet design (Caya, Pernice & Schade, 2015); Responsive design Search filters (faceted search) Hover effects for immediate information about search - Intranet designers today focus on getting employees more information faster with less user effort. Content on pages is more thorough, yet concise Federated search - offering search capabilities that effectively query multiple knowledge repositories Flat design - Bevels, shadows, and elaborate framing effects Carousels – Automatic image sliders
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Company Performance on Homepage Mega Menus – These are helping users to discover layers deep in the information architecture hierarchy with a simple waive of the mouse. Clever Use of Video Fat Footers - oversized footers, separated from the main content area with a different background colour and containing distinctly headed sections, are an expected and obliging anchor on intranets Cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service) adoption Enterprise Social - more and more organizations increasing social collaboration within their own networks and applications. Private social networks, such as Yammer, are becoming more ingrained in the workplace. Mobile client access - accessing information and communicating using their smart phones and tablets (BYOD-bring your own device concept)
An Extranet is an intranet that is accessible to some people from outside the company, or possibly shared by more than one organisation. Extranets provide access to people who work for different organisations. For example, a company could provide access to a supplier for online ordering, order tracking and inventory management. Instead of sending information to suppliers, it lets them fetch it on a self-service basis. Another example would be a hospital providing local GPs with access to a booking system so they can make appointments for their patients (Schofield, 2010). An extranet should be more efficient because everyone has access to the same data in the same format. Because all extranet communications can be encrypted over a VPN (virtual private network), it should also be more secure than sending data over the public internet. The extranet provides a shared network with limited, controlled access to organizational information and knowledge resources, and uses security protocols, such as user authentication, to limit access. An extranet can enhance collaboration and information transfer with partners in the external network (Frost, 2010b). 2.3. Data Warehousing
A data warehouse provides an infrastructure that enables organization to extract, cleanse, and store vast amounts of data from operational systems for efficient and accurate responses to user queries. A data warehouse empowers knowledge workers with information that allows them to make decisions based on a solid foundation of fact. However, only a fraction of the required knowledge exists on computers; the vast majority of a firm's intellectual assets exist as knowledge in the minds of its employees, largely as tacit knowledge. Hence, a data warehouse does not necessarily provide adequate support for knowledge intensive queries in an organization. What is needed is a new generation of knowledge-enabled systems that provides the infrastructure required to capture, enhance, store, organize, leverage, analyze, and disseminate not only data and information but also knowledge. The existing enterprise-wide data warehouses can be extended to create a knowledge warehouse (KW). This warehouse can be used as a clearinghouse of knowledge to be used throughout the organization by the employees to support their knowledge intensive decision-making activities (Nemati et al, 2002). Nonetheless, data warehouses must be understandable, adaptable, and include experience based organizational knowledge. They must provide information that enables managers identify situation requiring action and to understand the situations and causes. In addition, it should enable a manager to locate and apply relevant organizational knowledge and to predict, forecast and measure the impact of a decision over time. Managing the content of a data warehouse is daunting task, as it involves 9
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
identifying and accessing the appropriate data sources, coordinating data capture on time, check on data quality and integrating into system. Ultimately, organizations use data warehousing to support strategic and mission-critical applications. Data loaded into the data warehouses must be transformed into information and knowledge and appropriately disseminated to decision-makers within the organization and to critical partners in various capacities within the organizational value chain system (March & Hevner, 2005) 2.3.1. Examples
Hadoop – an open source software project that enables distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of commodity servers. It is designed to scale up from a single server to thousands of machines, with very high degree of fault tolerance. Rather than relying on high- end hardware, the resiliency of these clusters comes from the software's ability to detect and handle failures at the application layer. Hadoop enables a computing solution that is scalable, flexible, cost effective and fault tolerant. It is composed of four core components—Hadoop Common, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), MapReduce and YARN. Hadoop is supplemented by an ecosystem of Apache open-source projects that extend the value of Hadoop and improve its usability.
Big Data - Big data is a buzzword, or catch-phrase, used to describe a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques. In most enterprise scenarios the data is too big or it moves too fast or it exceeds current processing capacity. Big data has the potential to help companies improve operations and make faster, more intelligent decisions. An example of big data might be petabytes (1,024 terabytes) or exabytes (1,024 petabytes) of data consisting of billions to trillions of records of millions of people—all from different sources (e.g. Web, sales, customer contact center, social media, mobile data and so on). The data is typically loosely structured data that is often incomplete and inaccessible (Beal, n.a). Engineered systems such as Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Exadata Database Machine are some of the examples for Big Data.
“Big data requires exceptional technologies to efficiently process large quantities of data within tolerable elapsed times. A 2011 McKinsey report suggests suitable technologies include A/B testing, crowd sourcing, data fusion and integration, genetic algorithms, machine learning, natural language processing, signal processing, simulation, time series analysis and visualisation. Multidimensional big data can also be represented as tensors, which can be more efficiently handled by tensor-based computation, such as multilinear subspace learning. Additional technologies being applied to big data include massively parallel-processing (MPP) databases, search-based applications, data mining, distributed file systems, distributed databases, cloud based infrastructure (applications, storage and computing resources) and the Internet” (Big Data, 2015).
2.4. Data Mining 10
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Hand, Mannila and Smyth (2001), define the term data mining as follows: Data mining is the analysis of (often-large) observational data sets to find unsuspected relationships and to summarize the data in novel ways that are both understandable and useful to the data owner. Recent progress in scientific and engineering applications has accumulated enormous volume of data. The fast growing, tremendous amount of data, collected and stored in large databases has far exceeded our human ability to comprehend it without proper tools. At the same time, the scope, coverage and volume of digital geographic datasets and multidimensional data have grown rapidly in recent years. It includes vide array of digital data of all sorts created and disseminated by government and private agencies on land use, climate data and vast amounts of data acquired through remote sensing systems and other monitoring devices. It is estimated that multimedia data is growing at about 70% per year. Hence there is a need of advanced data analysis systems and tools that can automatically analyze the data, to summarize it and predict future trends. These technologies have great potential to help organizations to focus on the most important information in their data warehouses and in knowledge discovery (Maimon & Rokach, 2010). Uses of data mining include, market analysis (marketing strategies and advertisement), Health Sciences (DNA and bio-data analysis), risk analysis and management (finance and investments, manufacturing and production), text mining (social networks, news groups, documents), detection of fraud and outliers (telecommunication, financial and accounting, anti- terrorism, etc.) Some of the emerging trends in data mining include; distributed/collective data mining, multimedia mining, spatial and geographic data mining and phenomenal data mining (focuses on the relationship between phenomena and data). A few of the popular domain based data mining tools are discussed below:
2.4.1. Examples (as cited in Gupta & Devanand, 2013):
Oracle Data Miner - The Oracle Data Miner is an Oracle SQL Developer extension that enables data analysts to work directly with data inside the database, explore the data graphically, build and evaluate multiple data mining models, apply Oracle Data Mining models to new data and deploy Oracle Data Mining's predictions and insights throughout the enterprise. Oracle Data Miner work flows capture and document the user's analytical methodology and can be saved and shared with others to automate advanced analytical methodologies. Oracle Data Miner creates predictive models that application developers can integrate into applications to automate the discovery and distribution of new business intelligence-predictions, patterns and discoveries—throughout the enterprise. SAS (Statistical Analysis System) - SAS is a software suite that can mine, alter, manage and retrieve data from a variety of sources and perform statistical analysis on it. SAS provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for non-technical users and more advanced options through the SAS programming language. SAS programs have a DATA step, which retrieves and manipulates data, usually creating a SAS data set, and a PROC step, which analyzes the data. This software suite was developed by developed by SAS Institute for advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. Clementine - Clementine is a data-mining workbench that enables users to quickly develop predictive models using business expertise and deploy them into business operations to improve decision making. Clementine is designed around the defector industry standard for data mining - CRISP DM (CRoss Industry Standard Process for Data Mining). 11
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Intelligent Miner - Intelligent Miner is a suite of data mining tools for classification, association, sequences, time-series, clustering and value prediction. The availability of multiple tools in itself provides powerful alternatives; several of the tools offer a choice of techniques as well. Classification can be performed using a decision tree or neural net, and clustering can be performed using demographic or neural-net algorithms. RapidMiner (formerly known as YALE – Yet Another Learning Environment) - RapidMiner is a software platform developed by the company of the same name that provides an integrated environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics and business analytics. It is used for business and industrial applications as well as for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, and application development and supports all steps of the data mining process including results visualization, validation and optimization. R-Programming –It is a free programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The R language is widely used among data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. Orange tool - Orange is a powerful free and open source component based data mining and machine learning software suite. It contains complete set of components for data pre- processing, feature scoring and filtering, modelling, model evaluation, and exploration techniques Aureka - Aureka is Thomson Reuter’s tool for analyzing and visualizing patent data and sharing it effectively inside the company. KNIME (Konstanz Information Miner) - KNIME is an open source data analytics, reporting and integration platform. KNIME integrates various components for machine learning and data mining through its modular data-pipelining concept. A graphical user interface allows assembly of nodes for data pre-processing, for modelling and data analysis and visualization. Since 2006, KNIME has been used in pharmaceutical research, but is also used in other areas like CRM customer data analysis, business intelligence and financial data analysis. NLTK - NLTK provides a pool of language processing tools including data mining, machine learning, data scraping, sentiment analysis and other various language processing tasks. OmniViz - OmniViz is BioWisdom’s powerful data mining tool. It is designed mainly for analyzing biological data, but is well suited to treating patent documents from other technology fields as well. STN AnaVist - The American Chemical Society’s tool for flexible analysis of data retrieved from the STN data bank. Search results can be analyzed in a variety of ways to visualize patterns and trends in research. STN AnaVist is part of the STN Family of products operated jointly by FIZ Karlsruhe and CAS. Thomson Data Analyzer VantagePoint – This is patent and scientific data analysis software, which can analyze patent data and scientific literature from any structured database directly on the desktop. Through this data analyzer one can import data from structured database, clean data, analyze data with a variety of applications and generate variety of custom reports and graphs. TANAGRA Tool - It is free data mining software for academic and research purposes. It proposes several data mining methods from exploratory data analysis, statistical learning machine learning and databases area. DBMiner Tool - a data mining system for interactive mining of multiple-level knowledge in large relational databases. The system implements a wide spectrum of data mining functions, including generalization, characterization, discrimination, association, classification, and
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
prediction. By incorporation of several interesting data mining techniques, including attribute- oriented induction, progressive deepening for mining multiple-level rules, and meta-rule guided knowledge mining, the system provides a user-friendly, interactive data mining environment with good performance. Witness Miner Tool - a graphical data mining tool comprising a collection of data structures and algorithms written specifically for the tasks required in knowledge discovery. Weka Tool - WEKA, formally called Waikato Environment for Knowledge Learning, is a computer program that was developed at the University of Waikato in New Zealand for the purpose of identifying information from raw data gathered from agricultural domains. WEKA supports many different standard data mining tasks such as data pre-processing, classification, clustering, regression, visualization and feature selection.
Some of the commercial data-mining software and applications has been listed below: Angoss Knowledge STUDIO - data mining tool Clarabridge - enterprise class text analytics solution E-NI (e-mining, e-monitor) - data mining tool based on temporal pattern IBM SPSS Modeler KXEN Modeler - data mining tool provided by KXEN LIONsolver - an integrated software application for data mining, business intelligence, and modelling.
2.5. Decision Support Systems
As cited in Techopedia1, a decision support system (DSS) is “a computer-based application that collects, organizes and analyzes business data to facilitate quality business decision-making for management, operations and planning. A well-designed DSS aids decision makers in compiling a variety of data from many sources: raw data, documents, personal knowledge from employees, management, executives and business models”. Decision-making is seen as a knowledge-intensive activity. Decision-making is a regular function of every organization. Everyday businesses, non-profit organizations, and governments make decisions that have major economic, social, and environmental implications. These decisions include multiple stakeholders with complex and competing trade-offs. DSSs are seen as knowledge representation and processing mechanisms that further augment human knowledge management. The integration of the knowledge management function into classic DSS can improve decision making performance in two senses: (1) enhancing the quality of services by having an “expert” readily available to users when human experts are in short supply; (2) assisting a human expert by making their decisions more consistently. Since 1990s, knowledge management has been playing an important role in the new generation of DSS known as KB-DSS (Knowledge-Based DSS). In today’s rapidly changing business world, agile and flexible organisations require their employees to change their work focus very frequently. Therefore KB-DSS with domain knowledge can provide better support for decisions in general, and specifically through facilitating integration of decision models and decision processes (represented by expert advice, generating alternatives and choice of choices) (Liu et al., 2015). 2.5.1. Examples
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
Below are some of the examples of decision support system (cited from Capterra Directory); Analytica - a visual software package developed by Lumina Decision Systems for creating, analyzing and communicating quantitative decision models. As a modelling environment, it is interesting in the way it combines hierarchical influence diagrams for visual creation and view of models, intelligent arrays for working with multidimensional data, Monte Carlo simulation for analyzing risk and uncertainty, and optimization, including linear and nonlinear programming. Paramount Decisions - Paramount Decisions aims at helping companies make more collaborative and better group decisions. This decision-making platform lets enterprises to develop firm decision, to clearly document their decisions and enable transparency in the decision-making procedure. This platform is based the full-fledged decision-making methodology called Choosing By Advantage (CBA) Style Intelligence - Web-based operational Business Intelligence suite providing enterprise reporting, advanced data analytics, monitoring and executive dashboards. Tribium Decisions - Decision Support System that evaluates multiple alternatives in order to evaluate and publish the crucial details of decisions done. The application allows creation of complex nonlinear deterministic decision problem models that contain hundreds of criteria ordered in hierarchies for easier management. One can match facts and opinions by using various preference functions that can be applied to inputs and functions. GoldSim - GoldSim helps in decision and risk analysis by simulating future performance while quantitatively representing the uncertainty and risks inherent in all complex systems. Companies globally use GoldSim simulation software to evaluate and compare alternative designs, plans and policies in order to minimize risks and make better decisions in an uncertain world. 1000Minds – This is online decision-making software for prioritization, group decision- making, conjoint analysis, MCDM and maximizing value for money. Assisstum - Empowers staff to make decisions on the spot, within a framework of policy and principles Blaze Advisor – FICO’s Blaze Advisor is the business rules management system (BRMS), maximizing control over high-volume operational decisions. Blaze Advisor provides companies with a scalable solution that delivers unprecedented agility and actionability for smarter business decisions. Blaze Advisor empowers business users with multiple methods for rule development, authoring and testing—including decision trees, scorecards, decision tables, graphical decision flows and customized templates. CART - Easy-to-use decision tree that automatically sifts large, complex databases for significant patterns and relationships. CoBRA - Decision support software for large-scale and all hazard incidents; critical tools, guides, forms, checklists and incident reporting. Datawatch Desktop - Extract data from all types of existing reports, customize, analyze and visualize data in a variety of views, and more. Decision Knowledge Centre - Decision Knowledge Centre leverages leaders to unlock new value and maximise organizational potential using a systematic and scalable decision making process. Users achieve high quality, aligned decision making through knowledge reuse, focused visualizations, and results-oriented collaboration. The application goes to accelerate organizational learning through strategic decision management.
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
SAP Business Objects - Application to help you optimize business performance by connecting people, information, and businesses across business networks.
2.6. Content Management Systems (CMS)
A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your library keeps track of books, stores and retrieves them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or in simple words ‘multi-media’. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage, as the CMS manages all the content. The systems that require regular content updates cannot survive without a Content Management System (CMS). A large number of organizations today evolved with content management systems to record various project outputs like – lessons learned, product development knowledge, customer knowledge base, human resource management, talent acquisition, transformation and methods based knowledge. Content architect tools like meta-data, knowledge maps, and a workflow contextualization can ensure effective use and re-use of content. Some of the advanced features of content management system include, seamless exploration, authoring templates, maintaining integrity of web pages, periodical review, archiving, meta-data, version control, rule setting, indexing and surrogate records, audits, access control, usage tracking, administration alerts, and interoperability platforms and formats. A well-designed content management platform should be able to handle different content formats, types, sources and access patterns. These content resources include library and information centres, project repositories, and personnel directories. Content management systems are very relevant to knowledge management (KM) since they are responsible for the creation, management, and distribution of content on the intranet, extranet, or a website (Frost, 2010c). Hence there is should be a well designed enterprise knowledge portal with versatile content management system. For example in web content management system, “as library websites have evolved over the years, so has their role and complexity. In the beginning, the purpose of most library websites was to convey basic information, such as hours and policies, to library users. As time passed, more and more library products and services became available online, increasing the size and complexity of library websites. Many library web designers found that their web authoring tools were no longer adequate for their needs and turned to CMSs to help them manage and maintain their sites” (Connel, 2013). Below are select examples of content management systems (Renee, 2015); 2.6.1. Examples
WordPress - WordPress is a free and open-source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. WordPress is currently the fastest growing CMS software. Initially, WordPress was largely associated with blogs as its main functionality was to allow easy blog experience. Yet, over time, its developers expanded its functionality to allow the creation of more complicated websites and grew it into a content management system rather than a blogging tool. In addition, user reviews states; WordPress is considered the easiest to use content management system. It has a large number of plug-in which allow extension of its functionality in various possible ways. Features include plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress was used by more than 23.3% of the top 10 million 15
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
websites as of January 2015. WordPress is the most popular blogging system in use on the Web, at more than 60 million websites (Wikipedia). Joomla - Joomla is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing web content. It is built on a model–view–controller web application framework that can be used independently of the CMS. Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques (since version 1.5) and software design patterns, stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL (since version 2.5), or PostgreSQL (since version 3.0) database, and includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization. As of February 2014, Joomla has been downloaded over 50 million times. Over 7,700 free and commercial extensions are available from the official Joomla! Extension Directory, and more are available from other sources. It is estimated to be the second most used content management system on the Internet after WordPress (Wikipedia1). Drupal - is a free and open-source content-management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end framework for at least 2.1% of all Web sites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites. It is also used for knowledge management and business collaboration. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS feeds, taxonomy, page layout customization, and system administration. The Drupal core installation can serve as a simple Web site, a single- or multi-user blog, an Internet forum, or a community Web site providing for user-generated content. As of April 2015, there are more than 30,000 free community-contributed add-ons, known as contributed modules, available to alter and extend Drupal's core capabilities and add new features or customize Drupal's behaviour and appearance (Wikipedia2). WebGUI - WebGUI is an open source content management system written in Perl and released under the GNU General Public License. The system permits non-technically minded users to arrange content in pages and layouts, containing 'Assets' (applets) which permit website visitors to view and interact with various types of data from basic Articles to full- blown content management system and custom applications. Rubedo - Rubedo is an open-source content management solution, based on a Big Data (NoSQL) platform, to create multi-websites. Rubedo gives flexibility to users and provides them with strong foundations to build a comprehensive web strategy (websites, mobile websites, business applications, extranet, commerce, etc.) eZPublish - eZ Publish (pronounced "easy publish") is an open source enterprise PHP content management system developed by the Norwegian company eZ Systems. eZ Publish is freely available under the GNU GPL version 2 license, as well as under proprietary licenses that include commercial support. MODX - is a free, open source content management system and web application framework for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. MODX is licensed under the GPL, is written in the PHP programming language, and supports MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server as the database. Concrete5 - Concrete5 is an open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and for intranets. Concrete5 code is based on Model-View- Controller architecture and object-oriented programming. Some core features are integrated server caching, developer API, optional openID, version tracking system and search engine optimization. Concrete5 features in-context editing (the ability to edit website content directly 16
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
on the page, rather than in an administrative interface or using web editor software). Editable areas are defined in concrete5 templates, which allow editors to insert 'blocks' of content. These can contain simple content (text and images) or have complex functionality, for example image slideshows, comments systems, lists of files, maps etc. Further add-ons can be installed from the concrete5 Marketplace to extend the range of blocks available for insertion (Wikipedia3). X3 CMS - X3 is a simple CMS system that is capable of creating impressive, secure websites almost as well as one of the best content management systems. ocPortal - ocPortal is a free and open source content management system (CMS) written in PHP and based on a MySQL backend database. The software has been developed by British software developer Chris Graham since 2004, along with contributions from his fellow programmers.
2.7. Document Management System
Document management systems, as the name implies, are systems that aid in the content capture, publishing, storage, document repositories, indexing, metadata and retrieval of documents. It is often viewed as a part of Enterprise Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Standard Operating Procedures, workflow systems and record keeping systems. Document management is one of the precursor technologies to content management. Although such systems deal almost exclusively with explicit knowledge, the sheer volume of documents that an organization has to deal with makes them useful and in some cases even mandatory. Often they are a part of content management systems (Frost, 2010d). “Document management, often referred to as Document Management Systems (DMS), is the use of a computer system and software to store, manage and track electronic documents and electronic images of paper based information captured through the use of a document scanner” (AIIM). Features of document management include storage location, security, use privileges and access control, version control, audit trails, document protection and lockdown. Document control is an important aspect of document management system in certain organizations. For example, government regulations require that companies working in certain industries control their documents. Industries like accounting firms (e.g., 8th EU Directive, Sarbanes–Oxley Act), food safety (e.g., Food Safety Modernization Act), ISO, medical device manufacturing (FDA), manufacture of blood, human cells, and tissue products (FDA), Healthcare (JCAHO), etc. Particular industries are also held to a higher level of documentation control, for privacy, warranty and insurance purposes. Documents stored in a document management system — such as procedures, work instructions, and policy statements—provide evidence of documents under control. Failing to comply could cause fines, the loss of business, or damage to a business's reputation (Wikipedia4). Below are select examples for document management systems (Singh, 2014). 2.7.1. Examples
M-Files DMS – This is an enterprise information management solution, developed by M-Files Corporation, that provides users with metadata-driven system for organizing and managing 17
Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools
documents and other information. M-Files supports deployment on-premises, cloud or hybrid environments. M-Files also provide both pure web-based access using standard web browsers as well as mobile apps supported by most smart phones and tablets. eFileCabinet – eFileCabinet offers a suite of services that provides integrated document management, which in turn creates a paperless office environment. Paperless office environments are generally viewed as more ‘green’ options for larger businesses. PaperPort Pro – PaperPort Professional is a popular scanning and document management software application designed for home and office use. PinPoint – PinPoint is powerful document management software that can run over a server or from PinPoint’s cloud data center. With the right permissions, one can access stored data using PinPoint and any PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone. FileCenter Pro - FileCenter Pro is document management system application that is easy to install and integrate into office processes. Dokmee – Dokmee is a secure, easy to use document management system designed for a variety of purposes including document capture and storage, search and retrieval, and file sharing. DocPoint – DocPoint is a commercial document management system. DocPoint targets a wide variety of audiences ranging from corporations and government institutions, to small and medium enterprises across a broad spectrum of market verticals. Alfresco – Alfresco is the open source alternative for Enterprise Content Management (ECM), providing Document Management, Collaboration, Records Management, Knowledge Management, Web Content Management, Image Management, Content Repository, Workflow. OpenDocMan – OpenDocMan is a free, web-based, open source document management system (DMS) written in PHP designed to comply with ISO 17025 and OIE standard for document management. It features web-based access, fine-grained control of access to files, and automated install and upgrades. LogicalDoc – LogicalDOC is a Free/Libre document management system that is designed to handle and share documents within an organization. LogicalDOC is a content repository, with Lucene indexing, jBPM workflow, and a set of automatic import procedures. The system was developed using Java technology. LetoDMS – LetoDMS is an open-source document-management-system based on PHP and MySQL published under the GPL. KnowledgeTree – KnowledgeTree provides supports to easily secure, share, track and manage the documents. It features include WebDAV support, Version-controlled Document Repository, Search within Document Contents or Metadata, Workflow etc.
Other than above discussed representative examples, there are hundreds of tools out there, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Selection through evaluation is must before using these tools, some of the points to consider are purchasing and installation costs in case of proprietary tools, types of features, training modules, maintenance, ease of use, user friendliness, and technical support. As we have discussed various categories of technologies and examples, new technology is a major driving force behind the changes that compels organizations to continuous innovation and change management. Knowledge management is entering an era where ordinary people and employees are expected to make significant contribution to knowledge creation and management, helped by a new KM thinking and a breed of new tools and exploiting disruptive technologies like Web 2.0 and cloud computing. 18
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3. References
AIIM. Retrieved from http://www.aiim.org/What-is-Document-Management Beal, Vangie (n.d.). Big Data. In Webopedia. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/big_data.html Big data. (2015, May 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_data&oldid=660711175 Capterra. Top Decision Support Software Products. In Capterra. Retrieved from http://www.capterra.com/decision-support-software/ Caya, Patty, Pernice, Kara & Schade, Amy (2015). 10 Best Intranets of 2015. In Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/intranet-design/ Connel, Ruth Sara (2013). Content Management Systems: Trends in Academic Libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 32(2). Frost, Alan (2010a). In KMT: An Educational KM Site. Retrieved from http://www.knowledge- management-tools.net/knowledge-management-systems.html Frost, Alan (2010b). In KMT: An Educational KM Site. Retrieved from http://www.knowledge- management-tools.net/intranet-and-extranet.html Frost, Alan (2010c). In KMT: An Educational KM Site. Retrieved from http://www.knowledge- management-tools.net/content-management-systems.html Frost, Alan (2010d). In KMT: An Educational KM Site. Retrieved from http://www.knowledge- management-tools.net/document-management-systems.html Gupta, Vikas & Devanand (2013). A survey on Data Mining: Tools, Techniques, Applications, Trends and Issues. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 4 (3). Retrieved from http://www.ijser.org/researchpaper%5CA-survey-on-Data-Mining-Tools-Techniques- Applications-Trends-and-Issues.pdf Hand, D., Mannila, H., Smyth, P. (2001). Principles of Data Mining. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lesser, Eric, Fontaine, Michael and Slusher, Jason (2009). Knowledge and Communities. Routledge. Liu, Shaofeng (2015). Where can Knowledge-Based Decision Support Systems Go in Contemporary Business Management — A New Architecture for the Future. Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 3(5). Maimon, Oded and Rokach, Lior (2010). Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook. Springer Science & Business Media. March, Salvatore T. and Hevner, Alan R. (2005). Integrated decision support systems: A data warehousing perspective. Decision Support Systems, 43(2007), 1031-1043.
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Nemati, Hamid R et. al (2002). Knowledge warehouse: an architectural integration of knowledge management, decision support, artificial intelligence and data warehousing. Decision Support Systems, 33(2), 143-161. Orlikowski, W. J., & Hofman, D. J. (1997). An Improvisational Model for Change Management: The Case of Groupware Technologies. Sloan management review, 38(2), 11-21. Retrieved from http://www.nulearningforlife.org/wp- content/uploads/2012/09/Orlikowski_W_1997_An_Improvisational- Model_of_Change_Management.pdf Rao, Madanmohan (2012). Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques. Routledge. Schofield, Jack (9 Sept 2010). What are intranets and extranets? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/intranets-and-extranets Shipley, Renee (2015). Content Management System Software Review: Reviews and Comparisons. In Top ten reviews. Retrieved from http://cms-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ Singh, Saurabh (2014, May 30). And The 8 Best Open Source Document-Management Systems Are... In EFYTIMES News Network. Retrieved from http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=139820&PageSpeed=noscript Techopedia. Retrieved from http://www.techopedia.com/definition/7481/groupware Techopedia1. Retrieved from http://www.techopedia.com/definition/770/decision-support-system-dss Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress Wikipedia1. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joomla Wikipedia2. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal Wikipedia3 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete5 Wikipedia4 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_management_system
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Library and Special and Research Libraries Information Science Overview of Emerging Knowledge Management Tools