Week 1 discussion

Let’s begin with my take of knowledge versus information. Information is nothing more than data or facts about something. That being said about information, knowledge is how you would use this information to accomplish a certain goal. Knowledge is something you pick up as you move through life, an experience maybe. This may sound fairly simple and straight forward but there is definitely a lot more to it the more you think about it.

Let’s take Steve Jobs Stay Hungry Commencement Address for example. The speech itself is one of the most inspirational speeches you will find out there. His goal is very evident in his speech, live your life with passion and meaning. He shares with us what he has discovered throughout his life. He shares with us his knowledge on life.

Knowledge management is not the simplest of subjects in my book. It is however very intriguing. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve worked with Knowledge Management Systems. The most current is SAP’s Enterprise Portal. It has many of the tools sets used in KMS such as a document repository, search and retrieval software, and collaboration functionality. We have spent a great deal of time coming up with a good taxonomy to make the Portal as intuitive as possible so the information and be found easily, structured or unstructured. Even though I still work quite a bit with the Portal, lately I’ve been working more with the Business Intelligence software. Working in a global company, it is extremely important to have an effective communication process in place. Being able to supply everybody within the company with information such as standards, templates, strategy, business model, and key learning’s among other information is of high importance. If I can walk away from this class with at least one way to improve the dispersion of information throughout my company, I will be happy.