km initiatives at depaul university

Knowledge Management

Initiatives at

DePaul UniversityMay 9, 2006

Alan BurnsSchool of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI)

DePaul University243 S. Wabash Ave.

Chicago, IL 60604312-362-8237

http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/aburns

May 9, 2006 Alan Burns, [email protected] of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI)

DePaul University

Outline

• Current KM initiatives at DePaul– Teaching: Schools, Programs, Courses– Research

• Where DePaul is headed– Emergent trends in IT and KM– Virtual workplace environments

• Questions / Request for Feedback


DePaul University

About Us

• DePaul– Founded in 1898 by Vincentians and have

grown to become the country’s largest Catholic university.

– Well respected, student focused, diverse, committed to your success, connected to Chicago and flexible

http://www.depaul.edu/


DePaul University

About Us

• School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI)– CTI is the largest technology school in the United

States with about 4,300 students enrolled. – With 12 bachelor’s degrees, 15 master’s degrees, a

Ph.D. in Computer Science, and 15 certificate programs, CTI offers the broadest range of Information Technology programs in the Chicago area.


DePaul University

About Us

• School of CTI– In the fall of 2006, for example, we will offer 196 courses across

these areas: • Computer Gaming• Computer Science• Computer, Information and Network Security• Digital Cinema• E-Commerce Technology• Graphics and Animation• Human-Computer Interaction• Information Systems• Information Technology• Instructional Technology Systems• Software Engineering• Telecommunications


DePaul University

Current KM initiatives at DePaul

• KM is embedded in programs and courses – School of Computer Science,

Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI)• KM concentration in the Masters of Science in Information

Systems program

– School for New Learning (SNL)• Focus areas / specially designed competencies in the Master

of Arts in Applied Professional Studies program• Special topics focus in the Master of Arts in Applied

Technology program


DePaul University


• CTI Courses

IS456, Knowledge Management Systems

IS512, Groupware and Virtual Collaboration

ECT 480, Intranets and Portals

CSC594, Case-Based Reasoning tools

ECT584, Web Data Mining for Business Intelligence

IS549, Data Warehousing and Data Mining

• CTI Courses (Cont.)

HCI454, Information Architecture

IS 575, Intelligent Information Retrieval

CSC480, Foundations of Artificial Intelligence

CSC457, Expert Systems

• Commerce Courses– MIS689, Knowledge

Management– MIS364, Knowledge

Management (u/g)


DePaul University


• CTI Research– Artificial Intelligence Labs

• “...home to a number of active research projects, including studies in information retrieval, natural language processing, data mining and intelligent agents.”

– Virtual Workplace Environment Lab• Currently in development (more later)


DePaul University


• Social networking example– Celia Ross

• DePaul Reference & Instruction Librarian• Bibliographer for Finance• American Library Association member

– Also Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) member

– Maintains a "Best of the Best Business Web Sites" guide for Knowledge Management


DePaul University

Outline


• Where DePaul is headed– Emergent trends in IT and KM– Virtual workplace environments



DePaul University

Emerging Trends in IT and KM

• Globalization of customers, suppliers and organizations• Improved capacity for data processing, storage and

transport• The Network Economy (virtual vs. vertical integration)• Movement toward knowledge work/workers• “Brain Drain” of retiring Baby Boomers• Emphasis on knowledge as a strategic asset

– The basis for sustainable competitive advantage?– Reason for resource heterogeneity across firms?– See next slide

• Information overload and the loss of down time


DePaul University

Emerging Trends in IT and KM

• Technologies previously under the KM umbrella have become their own entity

• Shift in IT investment focus – Over the last 18 months or so– Goal is now to improve decision making and

effectiveness• Fewer opportunities for improving productivity and

efficiencies• Workflow automation, B2B, etc. have matured• To grow, companies are turning toward innovation and

creativity and to a lesser extent, M&A/system integration


DePaul University

The New KM: High Performance Workplace?

from Systems Analysis & Design 5th Edition Shelley, Cashman and Rosenblatt

TPS

MIS

DSS

EIS

A shift back to DSS?


DePaul University

Gartner’s PCC Conference

CONTENT CONSUMER / USER

CONTENT PRODUCER

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

SYSTEM

PORTALS REPOSITORY OF CONTENT

PCC: Portals, Content (Management) and Collaboration


DePaul University

The New KM: Organizational Intelligence (?)

• Has KM expanded?• Organizational Intelligence, defined. (S. LaFloer):

– The integration of content-, document-, information- and knowledge management processes and technologies into an adaptable and measurable solution

• What an organization’s intelligence strategy requires (Burns):– Knowledge management, where knowledge is

• a stock of what we know• a process of knowing• a capacity for absorbing knowledge (intelligence)

– across individual, team and enterprise levels– for tacit and explicit dimensions of knowledge, considering– what we knew, what we know and what we will know


DePaul University

Organizational Intelligence

Explicit:Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS)

Tacit:Communities of practice

Explicit:Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

Tacit:Social NetworksTelephonesDirectories of resident experts

Process of knowing(the learning process)

Explicit:Best Practices * (the morphing of KM?)PortalsContent Management Systems

Tacit:Conversational KM

Explicit:Knowledge Based Systems

Tacit:Learning Management SystemsWeb Logs

Stock of what you know

KNOWLEDGE AS

EnterpriseIndividual

SCOPE OF MANAGEMENTLately, I think of Organizational Intelligence as the larger umbrella under which KM resides.

The table is incomplete and the technologies can transcend cell borders.

* For example, see past KM Chicago presentations by Jason Marty, Susan Lendri


DePaul University

A need for VWE designers?

• Given the ever-increasing array of disparate KM/OI technologies, and their pace of development...

• Is there a need for Virtual Workplace Environment designers?– Who in the organization does this?

• A case for IT workers• A case for line managers

– Requires multidisciplinary approach, i.e. no one group (IT, Business, Information Science) owns the requisite knowledge


DePaul University

Requisite skills/knowledge areas for VWE designersDesign

Design of High Tech work environments (office of the future)Design of High Tech educational environment (classroom of the future)Workplace design (physical workplaces)Community design (physical communities)

People Leading virtual meetings Leading virtual projects Relationship building Change management Training

TechnologyKnowledge Management systems PortalsContent management systems Conversational KM tools (wikis, blogs, CoP, etc.)Personal KM toolsCollaboration, the tools, their selection and adoptionInformation architectureTaxonomies

OrganizationsDiagnosing organizational problems Root cause analysisOrganizational designOrganizational behaviorPrescribing OD, OB and technological solutions


DePaul University

Anticipated Outputs of DePaul’s VWE Project

• Certificate programs

• Collaborative research with universities, organizations

• Collaboration within CTI, inter-college within DePaul

• Serendipitous others (?)


DePaul University

Summary


• Where DePaul is headed

– Emergent trends in IT and KM

– Virtual workplace environments



DePaul University

Questions

• Discussion

• Feedback!