tailieunhanh - Centralized Versus Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Management Systems

The term knowledge management system (KMS) has been used widely to denote information and communication technologies in support of knowledge management. However, so far investigations about the notion of KMS, their functions and architecture as well as the differences to other types of systems remain on an abstract level. This paper reviews the literature on KMS and distills a number of characteristics concerning the specifics of knowledge to be managed, the platform metaphor, advanced services, KM instruments, supported processes, participants and goals of their application. | Knowledge and Process Management Volume 13 Number 1 pp 47–61 (2006) Published online in Wiley InterScience (). DOI: & Research Article Centralized Versus Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Management Systems Ronald Maier* and Thomas Ha¨drich Department of Management Information Systems And OR, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany The term knowledge management system (KMS) has been used widely to denote information and communication technologies in support of knowledge management. However, so far investigations about the notion of KMS, their functions and architecture as well as the differ- ences to other types of systems remain on an abstract level. This paper reviews the literature on KMS and distills a number of characteristics concerning the specifics of knowledge to be managed, the platform metaphor, advanced services, KM instruments, supported processes, participants and goals of their application. The paper then presents two ideal architectures for KMS, a centralized and a peer-to-peer architecture, discusses their differences with the help of two example systems and suggests that each of these architectures fits a different type of KM initiative. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. MOTIVATION (Alavi and Leidner, 2001, p. 114), and do not answer the question whether a concrete tool or sys- Knowledge management (KM) has been discussed tem qualifies as a KMS or, in other words, what ser- intensively from a human-oriented and from a vices a KMS has to offer. A general frame of technology-oriented perspective. Knowledge man- reference in the sense of a system architecture is agement systems are seen as enabling technologies needed for the analysis of existing tools and sys- for an effective and efficient KM. However, up- tems as well as for the development of individual to-date the term knowledge management system KMS solutions. (KMS) is often vaguely defined and used ambigu- Goals of this paper are to define the term .