Scientific Knowledge Management: an introduction

The Forest Encyclopedia Network is a scientific content management system.  Scientific content management systems are one category of a large and growing list of internet-based knowledge management tools (Table:Examples of Knowledge Management Tools).

Until fairly recently, many people did not think in terms of “managing knowledge”.  They felt that knowledge was a personal asset accumulated from experiences, education, and trusted colleagues (Plunkett 2001).  As computer technology improved and became cheaper in the early 1990’s, researchers began to explore the gains that could be made by organizing knowledge, codifying it, and sharing it more widely.  Innovators demonstrated that improving the management of knowledge could: (1) help scientists improve communication of research results to users (Rauscher 1987), (2) help government cope with downsized budgets and increased work (Plunkett 2001), and (3) help private industry to gain competitive advantages (Heinrichs et al. 2003).  The advancement of information management technologies presented new opportunities for business and governmental organizations.  In some cases, the implementation of information technologies represented major changes for organizations, as knowledge was now viewed by some as a resource much like facilities, finances, equipment, or workers (Nesbitt et al. 1996, Evans and Wurst 2000).

Knowledge exists in either explicit or tacit states.  Explicit knowledge is that which has been codified in some way, such as in scientific journal articles, operating procedures, best management practices, and simulation models.  Tacit knowledge is that which people carry in their minds.  It consists of facts, opinions, intuition, feelings and judgments.  People seldom fully understand their own knowledge stores.  As Polyani (1958) said “we know more than we know how to say.”

Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined as the systematic strategy of creating, conserving, and sharing knowledge to increase performance (Plunkett 2001; Heinrichs et al. 2003).  KM provides methods for managing both explicit and tacit knowledge.  Some methods help people to exchange knowledge.  Others make existing explicit knowledge more readily accessible (Hansen et al. 1999).  But KM also concentrates on methods that help to codify tacit knowledge so that it can be converted to explicit knowledge for general use (Heinrichs et al. 2003).  Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) describe four processes for conversion of knowledge from one form to another:

• Socialization: Tacit knowledge is shared through shared experiences.
• Externalization: Tacit knowledge is articulated into explicit knowledge.
• Combination: Explicit knowledge is organized, systematized and refined.
• Internalization: Explicit knowledge is converted into tacit knowledge.

Knowledge about natural resource management is multifaceted and spans the biological, physical and social sciences (Simard 2000, Innes 2003).  Such knowledge includes facts, propositions, laws and theories that provide general knowledge about the behavior and functioning of ecosystems and their interactions with social systems.  It also includes knowledge about places, events at specific times, and implications for management.

Rauscher (1987) introduced the concept of modern knowledge management to the natural resource field in the same year that the first hypertextext software programs became available for personal computers.  Rauscher (1991) then provided the first electronic hypertext encyclopedia in forestry -- “The Encyclopedia of AI Applications to Forest Science.”  The purpose of this encyclopedia was to demonstrate the functional difference between electronic hypertext and print-based methods by taking the same content published in the scientific journal AI Applications and providing it on a disk as an insert for that issue.  Other hypertext products for non-networked personal computers followed in rapid succession:  (Rauscher et al. 1993) “Managing the Global Climate Change Knowledge-base”; (Thomson et al. 1993) “Computer-assisted Diagnosis Using Expert System-guided Hypermedia”; (Reynolds et al. 1995) “A Hypermedia Reference System to the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team Report”; and (Rauscher et al. 1997) “Oak Regeneration: a Knowledge Synthesis”  among others.

As the Internet became more popular, it was obvious to some that KM systems using web-based hypertext had an enormous competitive advantage over stand-alone systems.  Saarikko (1994) authored an early comprehensive summary of forestry information resources available on the Internet.  He concluded in 1994 that Internet activity had been growing exponentially and that such growth would continue.  In a pioneering effort, Thomson et al. (1998) combined knowledge-based systems processing and a hypertext user interface (HTML) to provide forest tree disease diagnosis over the Internet.  A primary benefit of this approach was that anyone with a Web browser could access the diagnostic software from any Internet connected computer.  Universally available access and inexpensive updating appear to be the critical elements for making KM in natural resource management an attractive alternative to traditional, paper-based methods.  Examples of natural resource management KM systems on the Internet can be found at the Forest Encyclopedia Network, which contains a growing number of scientific encyclopedias (Kennard et al. 2005).  More and more knowledge management services of different types are appearing at a dizzying rate. 

KM uses information technology to identify, create, structure and share knowledge, with the goal of improving decision-making (Tyndale 2002).  A number of technologies commonly associated with the term “knowledge management” have been evaluated for their potential to support management processes (Ruggles 1997; Plunkett 2001; Tyndale 2002).  See (Table:Examples of Knowledge Management Tools).