Task 5 - Knowledge

Knowledge is vital for any collaborative work, whether knowledge in a certain topic such as architecture, management, engineering, etc, or maybe social knowledge such as technological or society. Just as an Indian quote goes “knowledge is the true origin of sight not the eyes.”- Panchatantra. It is the eyes of individual, group and organisation. Knowledge is categorised into two types tacit and explicit. Tacit are more embed, it is knowledge that possess by individuals and explicit is tacit knowledge that has become available to everyone.[1]

Figure 1. Knowledge in collaboration
In collaboration knowledge help resolve conflicts face by the group as it provides a wide range of resolutions. Due to the recognition of the important of knowledge possess by individuals many organisations are encouraging the process of documenting and sharing of these knowledge such as in the form of documents, discussions, meeting notes and more, so that they become an explicit knowledge. The process involved “capturing, dispersing and using knowledge…” to “…help them achieve their strategic objectives.”[2] Today technology has become the driving force of knowledge sharing with the introduction of collaborative programs such as the wikis. However there is disadvantage to these technologies as most of the time it is only useful for those that are using them and for those that are not in the collaborative space they “lack the context to understand what they are seeing.”[3] Due to this problem knowledge or information needs to be control and manage by employee or external consultant in such a way that it get review and revise regularly to check its quality and relevant.[4]

Related to this theme, the knowledge possess by each individual before the fabrication task is a tacit knowledge, unless it is reveal and use as explicit knowledge in their fabrication works it would otherwise render as useless. In the process of knowledge or information collection and the learning process, team members need to determine the relevant and usefulness of knowledge and if a knowledge supersede another. Determining and comparing knowledge from different disciplines to find which is most useful to incorporate into the task. In these processes there will be many trials and errors; however this will act as knowledge gained from experiences which helps to better establish strategy in the future.
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[Figure1] C&C Reservoirs, “Customized DIGITAL ANALOGS Knowledge System”, C&C Reservoirs (2007), http://www.ccreservoirs.com/Services/index.htm, viewed on 22 April 2008.

[1] James, W., Cortada, John, A., Woods, “The Knowledge Management Yearbook 1999-2000” (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999), p.1-4.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Step Two Designs Pty Ltd, “Collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?”, CM Briefing (2007), http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_antiknowledgesharing/index.html, viewed on 22 April 2008.
[4] James, W., Cortade, John, A., Woods, op cit., p.202.