Rating: 
Summary: Action Plan for Managing Knowledge
Review: "Managing Knowledge - A Practical Web-Based Approach" is an easy to read and apply guidebook for a complicated process. The book breaks down the daunting task of getting the "right knowledge, to the right people at the right time" so you can get started in applying knowledge management. This practical guide to implementing knowledge management techniques can be used on one process or an entire organization. Though, the authors do recommend picking one process/cycle to begin the implementation process.
The authors are straight forward in explaining that the nature of their book is not to explain knowledge management. It is assumed that you have read other books on knowledge management prior to using this guide. I found the book was well written enough that you really just needed some basic understanding of knowledge management, along with the foresight and desire to improve the formation and flow of data, information and knowledge. The book's subtitle states "a practical web-based approach", yet many principals of this book can be used in non web- based applications. Before I finished the book, I was convinced that my organization should implement the needed changes for managing knowledge, and that my organization would benefit greatly from retooling its self for the information economy. The authors should have included a quick reference page for the numerous abbreviations that were used. Some of the abbreviations may have another meaning in other industries.
Rating:
Summary: Action Plan for Managing Knowledge
Review: "Managing Knowledge - A Practical Web-Based Approach" is an easy to read and apply guidebook for a complicated process. The book breaks down the daunting task of getting the "right knowledge, to the right people at the right time" so you can get started in applying knowledge management. This practical guide to implementing knowledge management techniques can be used on one process or an entire organization. Though, the authors do recommend picking one process/cycle to begin the implementation process.
The authors are straight forward in explaining that the nature of their book is not to explain knowledge management. It is assumed that you have read other books on knowledge management prior to using this guide. I found the book was well written enough that you really just needed some basic understanding of knowledge management, along with the foresight and desire to improve the formation and flow of data, information and knowledge. The book's subtitle states "a practical web-based approach", yet many principals of this book can be used in non web- based applications. Before I finished the book, I was convinced that my organization should implement the needed changes for managing knowledge, and that my organization would benefit greatly from retooling its self for the information economy. The authors should have included a quick reference page for the numerous abbreviations that were used. Some of the abbreviations may have another meaning in other industries.
Rating:
Summary: Hits the mark - One of the few practical treatments ...
Review: A Review and Synopsis of Managing Knowledge - A Practical Web-Based Approach by Wayne Applehans, Alden Globe, and Greg Laugero In knowldgWORKS News Volume 1 Number 12 KnowBits pointed you to a series of World Wide Web links on the Microsoft Web Site. The links consisted of a series of case studies offered by Microsoft as examples of how their technology could be used as the basis of knowledge management efforts. Most of the case studies had very little to do with knowledge management, but quite a bit to do with Microsoft technology. One of the case studies distinguished itself. This was the case study describing the knowledge management effort at J.D. Edwards. The description of the effort was so rich that I sprang for the book by the people responsible for the work at J.D. Edwards. My overall opinion: BUY THIS BOOK ! Without equivocation this book is the best compact description of what knowledge management is about. The book consists of practical information and advice about conducting a knowledge management effort. It is short, to the point, and has lots of great diagrams. Here is a synopsis. This book begins with a series of assumptions. They are as follows: Assumption 1: (my favorite) "Knowledge management does not have to be profound." Assumption 2: You have a champion and are figuring out how to get started. Assumption 3: Document management concepts, technologies, and procedures provide the basic disciplines to kick off a successful effort. Assumption 4: Yours is a mid to large size company with an intranet and extranet and an internet presence. Assumption 5: Your business is consciously preparing for the internet economy. The parameters of the discussion are clearly set forth by these assumptions. But consider that even if you don't meet all of the assumption criteria, the information contained in this book is still extremely valuable. One of the challenges of any knowledge management effort is explaining why your organization might want to do knowledge management. Consider adopting these reasons : 1. Ease of partnering 2. Ease of managing expertise turnover 3. Ease of decentralizing decision-making Each of these reasons represents a competitive imperative. Any book about knowledge management needs to define the term. Remember my own definition goes, "Knowledge Management is the process of controlling, using, manipulating, and communicating that which enables us to do things." Consider the authors's definition of knowledge. "Knowledge is the ability to turn information and data into effective action." The authors go on to say this is a tactical definition "because they are not interested in esoteric debates about the nature of epistemology." (Hooray ! ) With regard to managing knowledge, Applehans et al give the following definition. "managing knowledge means delivering the information and data people need to be effective in their jobs." This book does not mince words. It tries to keep things fairly simple and straightforward. The authors represent the trichotemy of data, information and knowledge as a pyramid consisting of data at the base, information in the middle and knowledge at the top. Interpreting this figure, one can infer the relationship between data, information and knowledge fairly easily. The book is divided into four parts and several chapters. Part one, "Getting Started", focuses on strategy and profiling people. Part 2 creates the basis for relating knowledge to the business and covers storyboarding the knowledge and designing the organization around the knowledge it uses. Part three deals with the topics, "Hiring People," "Modeling Content," and "Building the Technical Architecture." Lastly part four presents a 90 day action plan. One of the most interesting parts of the book is in part two where business process is attached to the informational needs and people involved in the process. What this breakdown gives you is the ability to see where the knowledge resides and how it is used in the business. The relationship of knowledge to process to people grounds a knowledge management effort in the business. Given the success of the author's effort at J.D. Edwards, I certainly believe they are on the right track. Given J.D. Edwards, size one has to wonder if the process scales down to smaller organizations. I would argue that, regardless of the size, the processes apply. The technical architecture may be substantially different for a small organization but that does not change the desired results, and the process proposed by the authors should scale up and down for businesses of all sizes.
Rating: 
Summary: The first practical guide to Web-based Knowledge Management
Review: If you've read the academic research on Knowledge Management (KM) and are still confused about how to get started, you need this book. The tools, techniques, and methodologies we discuss are based on our experiences setting up and running the J.D. Edwards Knowledge Garden(SM) -- an intranet/extranet that serves 6000 employees and business partners around the world. Our aim is to teach you how to identify the "intellectual capital" that is essential to your organization's success and how to build the human and technical infrastructure -- the knowledge architecture -- to support it. You'll get practical advice on profiling your important knowledge workers, staffing appropriately to support a knowledge-driven intranet/extranet, and evaluating and capturing content in the context of your organization's goals. Save yourself about two years of time and effort by learning from our experiences. As the first practical guide to knowledge management, it will be most helpful to organizations seeking to build an integrated and powerful enterprise-wide intranet and extranet supported by meaningful approaches to managing content. We conclude with the steps you can take to get your KM project off the ground in less than 90 days.
Rating:
Summary: Learn how to transform information into knowledge.
Review: Information anxiety is today's constant challenge for every person working in the fast-paced, ever-changing world of business. Recommended for anyone with an interest in knowledge management, "Managing Knowledge: A Practical Web Based Approach", is a highly graphical, how-to guide, offering step-by-step advice on how to transform information into a strategic business asset: knowledge. I gained valuable insights on how to apply the principles in the book to my non-profit organization.
Rating: 
Summary: Spend you money better
Review: It does not tell me about any real cases. Limited value beyond plain internet discussions. It appears to me that this book was put together in a real hurry. Good ideas that were never developed.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good and concise treatment
Review: It may not give you any insights. In many places it will look just like plain common sense. It is also weak on the technical architecture side. But it is concise, printed nicely, clear, and focused. And it will make you wonder why other books can't just be like that.
Rating:
Summary: Ready, Set, KM Lite!
Review: Less filling with great taste! Managing Knowledge presents a high-level understanding of knowledge management, a "just enough" analysis to understand where your best opportunities are, and an overview of your 90-day plan to implement your prototype/pilot. This book won't help you manage more than a small effort, but "a journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step". This book can help you get your KM project underway; other KM texts (Davenport, O'Dell, etc.) will help you to build on your initial efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Ready, Set, KM Lite!
Review: Less filling with great taste! Managing Knowledge presents a high-level understanding of knowledge management, a "just enough" analysis to understand where your best opportunities are, and an overview of your 90-day plan to implement your prototype/pilot. This book won't help you manage more than a small effort, but "a journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step". This book can help you get your KM project underway; other KM texts (Davenport, O'Dell, etc.) will help you to build on your initial efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the boat
Review: Managing knowledge, takes an incomplete and very shallow view of knowledge, and the practices associated with sustainable KM. "Managing knowledge means delivering the information and data people need to be effective in their jobs" (p18) "Providing the right content to the right people at the right time" (p17), echos the major theme of this book, which I believe misses the boat as the authors confuse, downplay and not concerned with the essential differences between information & knowledge. Let's ask some questions: 1) What about learning and KM? Surely KM is about knowledge creation, not just distribution and access to content? 2) What about people and KM? Surely people not content and publishing is at the core of KM? 3) Do you really exchange knowledge when you distribute content? There are many reasons why some of the deepest thinkers believe it is information that is being transfered and knowledge emerges from people to people interactions, dialog and apprenticeship. Most companies soon discover that leveraging knowledge is actually very hard and is more dependent on community building than information technology and content publishing. This is not because people do not read or are reluctant to use information technology, rather it is because they often need to share, create, test knowledge that is neither obvious nor easy to document, knowledge that requires a human relationship to think about, understand, share, and apply appropriately. If you are looking to leverage the knowledge within your organization, following the advice of Managing knowledge may help you with the first baby steps, help you show some fast positive ROI and maybe please your sponsor. However if you wish to gain sustainable competitive advantage from KM, you would well advised to take a deeper look at people rather than the content, enable practices such as dialog, build and support learning communities, concentrate on making meaning and distinctions that matter, support knowledge sharing through recognition, raising the level of awareness and increasing critical thinking. I found chapter 6 to be the most valuable part of this book. The authors are spot on when they say "One of the very early steps you need to take is establishing the common terms that will be used across all the content in all the repositories you are seeking to manage" (p78). The reason is a common vocabulary and agreement on meaning assists with dialog. Knowledge and all action emerge in conversations, not in the indexed repositories. In the looming knowledge economy, the premium will be on making distributed, fast, intelligent responses, building connections and relationships, holding open communication in community, fostering strong critique, driving knowledge creation, being agile and cultivating awareness of market shifts. You will not find one of those terms in the index of this book!
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