Gillian A. Dionne on data, information, knowledge, and wisdom

Long-time readers will recall that I previously wrote about Sujatha Das on data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. It turns out that Gillian A. Dionne, in a post on the 24 Hour Company website (yeah, those people), also addresses this.

[DISCLOSURE: I HAVE USED THE SERVICES OF 24 HOUR COMPANY FOR ONE OF MY PROPOSALS.]

[ANOTHER DISCLOSURE: I RECENTLY WON AN AMAZON GIFT CARD THAT WAS DONATED BY 24 HOUR COMPANY.]

OK, enough disclosures - back to data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. Specifically, Dionne concentrates on tools to use to convert information to knowledge. Dionne speaks of knowledge management, and because people are people, this is abbreviated as KM.

Dionne:

The not so new field of KM seeks to apply technologies and tools listed below to transform information into meaningful knowledge. A KM system (KMS) is not plug and play, it is more typically a custom integration of tools into an organization once a cultural change has been established to acknowledge the role and capabilities of such a system.

This is an important point - if senior management doesn't buy in, it's not going to happen. If you assume that senior management buys in, then you can adopt a wide variety of tools and integrate them together. Dionne mentions several possible tools, including everything from social and groupware tools to simulation and artificial intelligence tools.

Dionne's post discusses how business development artifacts can be used as inputs to these tools, then talks about the need to move from information management to knowledge management. In this case, one size does not fit all.

There are several turnkey KM systems in the proposal/business development marketplace. Some systems require a wholesale replacement of your existing IT infrastructure and your BD process. Turnkey systems are best deployed in a small centralized organization that will readily accept such fundamental change and has the financial commitment to support a complete overhaul of systems, processes, and procedures.

If you don't work in a small centralized organization, however, you'll need to adapt your existing tools (and/or acquire new ones piecemeal) to create your knowledge management system.