Knowledge management software (KM software) is a subset of

content management Content management (CM) are a set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

software, which consists of software that specializes in the way information is collected, stored and/or accessed. The concept of

knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the set of procedures for producing, disseminating, utilizing, and overseeing an organization's knowledge and data. It alludes to a multidisciplinary strategy that maximizes knowledge utilization to accomplish organ ...

is based on the practices of an

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

, a

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

, or a

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

to identify, create, represent and redistribute

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

in support of organizational goals. Software that enables an information practice or range of practices at any part of the processes of information management can be deemed to be called

information management Information management (IM) is the appropriate and optimized capture, storage, retrieval, and use of information. It may be personal information management or organizational. Information management for organizations concerns a cycle of organiz ...

software. A subset of information management software that emphasizes an approach to build knowledge out of information that is managed or contained is often called

software. KM software in most cases provides a means for individuals, small groups or mid-sized businesses to innovate, build new knowledge in the group, and/or improve customer experience.

Knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the set of procedures for producing, disseminating, utilizing, and overseeing an organization's knowledge and data. It alludes to a multidisciplinary strategy that maximizes knowledge utilization to accomplish organ ...

systems (software) include a range of about 1,500 or more different approaches to collect and contain information to then build knowledge that can be searched through specialised search tools. These include concept building tools and/or visual search tools that present information in a connected manner not originally conceptualised by those collecting or maintaining the information database. One of the main categories of

software is groupware, which can be used for

knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or within or between organizations. It bridges the ind ...

and capture. Groupware is a combination of synchronous, asynchronous and community focused tools. Groupware can be used to exchange knowledge and expertise even when the team members are situated around the world.

Features

Features of KM software usually include: * Aggregation of content from both internal and external sources * Classification of content using

taxonomies image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

* Search * Expertise location * Workflows for creating knowledge * Verification of knowledge * Views/

dashboards A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the driver (or pilot), it displ ...

As business today is becoming increasingly international, the ability to access information in different languages is now a requirement for some organizations. Reported success factors of a KM system include the capability to integrate well with existing internal systems and the

scalability Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work. One definition for software systems specifies that this may be done by adding resources to the system. In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that ...

of the system to grow within the organization.

Range

KM software ranges from small software packages for an individual to use to highly specialized enterprise software suitable for use by hundreds of employees. Often KM software provides a key resource for employees working in customer service or telephone support industries, or sectors of large corporations. Knowledge management software, in general, enables the combination of unstructured information sources, such as individual word processed documents and/or

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

documents,

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

, graphic illustrations, unstructured

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

, website links,

invoice An invoice, bill, tab, or bill of costs is a commercial document that includes an itemized list of goods or services furnished by a seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction, that usually specifies the price and terms of sale, quanti ...

s, and other information bearing collections, such as a simple thought, through to a combination of millions of interactions from a website, and through that combination enables the seeker to obtain knowledge that otherwise would not have been discovered. As Internet access speeds increased, many on-demand (or

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

) products have evolved and are now the leading suppliers of KM software.

Visual search

One of the departures from the almost standard

keyword Keyword may refer to: Computing * Index term, a term used as a keyword to documents in an information system such as a catalog or a search engine * Keyword (Internet search), a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to ...

search approach are those group of companies developing visual search techniques. Some common visual search approaches include: *

Tree traversal In computer science, tree traversal (also known as tree search and walking the tree) is a form of graph traversal and refers to the process of visiting (e.g. retrieving, updating, or deleting) each node in a Tree (data structure), tree data stru ...

– A folder is opened and inside the display of that folder are further sub-folders. The folders are searched in a specific order, exactly once, in a

systematic Systematic may refer to: Science * Short for systematic error * Systematic fault * Systematic bias, errors that are introduced by an inaccuracy inherent to the system Economy * Systematic trading, a way of defining trade goals, risk control ...

manner. This tree traversal approach relies on the naming of folders to provide a rich enough indication as to what is contained in the next folder or level of folders. *

Taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

navigation – A taxonomy (or

topic map A topic map is a standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. Topic maps were originally developed in the late 1990s as a way to represent back-of-the-book index structures ...

) is the classification of things or concepts, as well as the principles underlying such classification. In KM software, taxonomies are often used as a way of visually structuring the available information by tagging it with relevant topics and visually represent them as folders and sub-folders inside the taxonomy. Users can then navigate the taxonomy and select the topic, or combination of topics (

faceted search Faceted search augments lexical search with a faceted navigation system, allowing users to narrow results by applying filters based on a faceted classification of the items. It is a parametric search technique. A faceted classification system clas ...

), to perform the search on. *

Tag cloud A tag cloud (also known as a word cloud or weighted list in visual design) is a visual representation of text data which is often used to depict tag (metadata), keyword metadata on websites, or to visualize free form text. Tags are usually singl ...

search – Once text data has been tagged with certain topics it can be visually represented as a Tag Cloud, where the importance of each tag is represented as a font size and/or color. This way you can identify and pick the most prominent topics. *

Matrix Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to: Science and mathematics * Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions * Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form * Matrix (biology), the m ...

heat map A heat map (or heatmap) is a 2-dimensional data visualization technique that represents the magnitude of individual values within a dataset as a color. The variation in color may be by hue or intensity. In some applications such as crime analy ...

search – The classification of information into topics facilitates visualization and

analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

of the information flow. A combined topic search can be presented as values in a Matrix, and a Heat Map is a

graphical representation Graphic communication as the name suggests is communication using graphic elements. These elements include symbols such as glyphs and icons, images such as drawings and photographs, and can include the passive contributions of substrate, colour a ...

of that data, presented in colors.

Examples

Notable knowledge management tools include: *

Bloomfire Bloomfire is a software-as-a-service company based in Austin, Texas. The business creates web-based software applications that aim to increase virtual knowledge-and-insights-sharing in the workplace. It was founded in 2010 by Josh Little, and o ...

– Knowledge sharing software with AI * Collective Knowledge – An open source, portable and command line framework for knowledge management *

Confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

– Wiki-based knowledge management software that is part of Atlassian's suite *

eGain eGain Corporation builds and sells AI knowledge SaaS products for service and support. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, eGain provides applications for customer self-service, contact centers, and employee service. History eGain Corporat ...

– Knowledge management and AI software *

Elium Elium, previously referred to as Knowledge Plaza, is a Software as a Service used for enterprise knowledge sharing within organisations. It supports use cases for knowledge management, social bookmarking, document management, wikis and internal so ...

– Knowledge management software * Joplin – Open source knowledge management software *

Obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

- knowledge management software * Trillium - Open source knowledge management software *

Logseq Logseq is a free and open-source, personal knowledge base and note-taking application which can store data locally. It supports both Markdown and org-mode syntax. History Tienson Qin started Logseq as a platform to store interconnected informat ...

– Open source knowledge management software *

Notion (productivity software) Notion is a productivity and note-taking web application developed by Notion Labs, Inc. It is an online-only organizational tool with options for both free and paid subscriptions. It is headquartered in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, U ...

– Proprietary knowledge management software *

Microsoft OneNote Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking software developed by Microsoft. It is available as part of the Microsoft 365 suite and since 2014 has been Freeware, free on all platforms outside the suite. OneNote is designed for free-form information gat ...

– Proprietary knowledge management software *

OpenKM OpenKM is a document management system that provides a web interface for managing nonspecific files. It has a Free/Libre Community Edition, and a proprietary Enterprise Edition. OpenKM includes a content repository, Lucene indexing, and jBPM work ...

– Open source knowledge management software

References

External links