Knowledge Architecture

Programme Features
Information Architecture (IA) has established itself in recent years as a portfolio of practices combining aspects of web design, usability, metadata management and information science with a view to creating information systems which people find both useful and usable. Yet, IA conventionally addresses only one component of organizational competence - explicit knowledge (information). Although information must be managed effectively, in the knowledge economy this is not sufficient on its own, leaving out of account as it does, that other vital component of organizational competence tacit knowledge.

IA however, is evolving in some quarters into Knowledge Architecture (KA), a compound discipline addressing all the sources of organizational competence - explicit and tacit - within a single, holistic framework. In order to add the missing tacit dimension, an additional set of tools and techniques needs to be included in the Knowledge Architect's toolkit.
This interactive workshop blends presentation, discussion and practical exercises to consider the evolutionary stages involved in the transition from IA to KA and to examine the most important tools and techniques involved. It presents a number of case studies and invites delegates to discuss the implications for information professionals, information managers, information architects, knowledge managers and knowledge workers alike.

Topics include:

• The evolution of Information Architecture
• Content Scatter & Integration
• Case Study 1: The World Bank
• Metadata & interoperability
• Ontologies: the organizational context
• Vocabulary control: Taxonomies & Thesauri
• Case Study 2: A European Bank
• Knowledge Architecture: Communities & social networks
• Knowledge Architecture: Competence Management
• Case Study 3: An engineering organization

Who should attend?
Knowledge Architecture brings a variety of conventionally isolated roles and functions together into a common framework for managing the totality of organizational knowledge effectively. This workshop is therefore relevant to:

• information professionals
• documentalists
• records managers
• information managers
• knowledge managers
• human resource managers
• user-facing IT specialists

On completing the workshop you will have gained:

• an understanding of what IA is and how it is evolving into KA
• appreciation of the key roles of ontologies and vocabulary control
• an insight into the importance of communities and social networks
• familiarity with the types of problems encountered in KA
• recognition that KA and KM converge in Competence Management

Time: 09.45-16.30