| Knowledge Management (KM) is the discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identify, capture, retain and share the knowledge of individuals in order to achieve organizational business results. (from an internal Ontario provincial government white paper) |
| KM allows organizations to utilize their explicit (written) information efficiently and to document their implicit (undocumented) information. |
| Government of Ontario |
| KM Taxonomy Working Group Analysis |
| Member of the working group, Business Analyst, Information Designer |
| The client needed a product which could introduce its audience to the concepts, people, process and tools of KM. The audience had some experience with KM, but needed a teaching tool to help illustrate its principles in a visual manner. |
Upon consultation, the client wanted to achieve several goals:
- to perform an inventory of the people, process and tools of KM;
- to create a document which visually illustrated how these people, processes and tools could help people improve their own practices within the Provincial government;
- to create a document that reinforced the concept of the information lifecycle and the role it plays in KM
While knowledge of the information life cycle existed, nothing visually illustrated that lifecycle to those outside the larger KM Community of Practice within the government. A conceptual information design document was needed that visually illustrated how individual KM initiatives fit into the strategic corporate schema of the entire Public Service. |
Using a market scan of glossaries in use in the KM community, I created an inventory of terms used in KM to describe its people, processes and tools. I then classified and categorized the inventory to create a taxonomy.
This taxonomy was designed as a visual document to function as a learning tool. This tool illustrated the cyclical nature of knowledge and information management. It can be expanded upon to include new terms. |
| Final deliverable: Knowledge Management inventory and visual taxonomy presented to the Provincial Government KM Community of Practice for approval. |
