Personal knowledge management

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Personal knowledge management (PKM) refers to a collection of processes that an individual needs to carry out in order to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve, and share knowledge in his/her daily activities (Grundspenkis 2007) and how these processes are applied to support work activities (Wright 2005). It is a response to the idea that knowledge workers increasingly need to be responsible for their own growth and learning (Smedley 2009).

An aim of PKM is “helping individuals to be more effective in personal, organisational and social environments” (Pauleen 2009) (p. 221), often through the use of technology. PKM represents a bottom-up approach to knowledge management, as opposed to more traditional, top-down KM (Pollard 2008).

History and Background

The term “personal knowledge management” (PKM) appears to be relatively new, and its origin can be traced in a working paper from Frand and Hixon (Frand & Hixon 1999).

Personal knowledge management (PKM) integrates personal information management (PIM), focused on individual skills, with knowledge management (KM) in addition to input from a variety of disciplines such as cognitive psychology, management, and philosophy (Pauleen 2009). From an organizational perspective, understanding of the field has developed in light of expanding knowledge about human cognitive capabilities and the permeability of organizational boundaries. The other approach for PKM is metacognitive - it compares various modalities within human cognition as to their competence and efficacy (Sheridan 2008). It is an underresearched area (Pauleen 2009).

PKM Models

The term Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) has two main dimensions:

Personal Knowledge - Ultimately, all knowledge is personal knowledge. Following the tradition of Nonaka and Takeuchis spiral model (and later Ba model) knowledge resides partially in the minds of people and can partially be codified as external artifacts. PKM investigates the use of methods and tools to amplify the abilities of the individual to work better with knowledge. E.g.

• recall previously learned knowledge faster (or at all) when it is required
• model personal knowledge and beliefs with external modeling tools to derive new insights (spreadsheets are often used for this today)
• strategies for filing ideas to retrieve them when needed

Personal Management - Management is a systematic approach to define goals, measure, define and execute actions and repeat this control loop until the goal is reached. Different from traditional management, in personal management one has to manage oneself. This involves the problem of fulfilling two roles (executing and managing) and learning when and how to switch between them. Typical management problems in PKM are e.g.

• time and task management
• matching work habits with personal productivity level variations
• investing time into personal learning and PKM improvements
• work-life balance

Wright’s model involves four interrelated domains: analytical, information, social, and learning. The analytical domain involves competencies such as interpretation, envisioning, application, creation, and contextualization. The information dimension comprises the sourcing, assessment, organization, aggregation, and communication of information. The social dimension involves finding and collaborating with people, development of both close networks and extended networks, and dialogue. The learning dimension entails expanding pattern recognition and sensemaking capabilities, reflection, development of new knowledge, improvement of skills, and extension to others. This model stresses the importance of both bonding and bridging networks (Wright 2007).

Smedley has developed a model of PKM based on Nonaka and colleagues’ SECI model of knowledge creation (see under knowledge management) in which an expert provides direction and a community of practice provides support for personal knowledge creation (Smedley 2009). Trust is central to knowledge sharing in this model.

Criticisms of PKM

Not everyone agrees that the focus on the individual is a good thing, or that PKM is anything more than a new wrapper around personal information management (PIM). Most notably, some argue that knowledge is never an individual product - that it emerges through connections, dialog and social interaction (see Sociology of knowledge). However, in Wright’s model, PKM involves the application to problem solving of analytical, information, social, and learning dimensions, which are interrelated (Wright 2007), and so is inherently social.

Dave Snowden has asserted that most individuals cannot manage their knowledge in the traditional sense of managing and has advocated thinking in terms of sensemaking rather than PKM (Snowden & Pauleen 2008).

PKM has been associated with a focus on personal branding, responsibility for personal learning, personal networking - using networking engines (Ryze, Friendster, LinkedIN) and management of individual documents, thought and writings. These activities do not illustrate the rich reach of the concept.

PKM Skills

Skills associated with personal knowledge management.

• Reflection. Continuous improvement on how the individual operates.
• Manage learning. Manage how and when the individual learns.
• Information literacy. Understanding what information is important and how to find unknown information.
• Organizational skills. Personal librarianship. Personal categorization and taxonomies.
• Networking with others. Knowing what your network of people knows. Knowing who might have additional knowledge and resources to help you
• Researching, canvassing, paying attention, interviewing and observational 'cultural anthropology' skills
• Communication skills. Perception, intuition, expression, visualization, and interpretation.
• Creative skills. Imagination, pattern recognition, appreciation, innovation, inference. Understanding of complex adaptive systems.
• Collaboration skills. Coordination, synchronization, experimentation, cooperation, and design.

PKM Tools

Some organizations are now introducing PKM 'systems' with some or all of four components:

• Just-in-time Canvassing - templates and e-mail canvassing lists that enable people to identify and connect with the appropriate experts and expertise quickly and effectively
• Knowledge harvesting - software tools that automatically collect appropriate knowledge residing on subject matter experts' hard drives
• Content management tools - taxonomy processes and desktop search tools that enable employees to subscribe to, find, organize, and publish information that resides on their desktops
• Personal Productivity Improvement - knowledge fairs and one-on-one training sessions to help each employee make more effective personal use of the knowledge, learning, and technology resources available in the context of their work

PKM has also been linked to these tools:

• social bookmarking and enterprise social bookmarking
• knowledge logs (K-logs)
• e-mail, calendars, task managers
• Online Web Assistants
• Wikis
  • Desktop wikis
  • Personal wikis
  • Semantic Wikis

Other useful tools include Open Space Technology, cultural anthropology, stories and narrative, mindmaps, concept maps and eco-language, and single frames and similar visualization techniques. Individuals use these tools to capture and ideas, expertise, experience, opinions, or thoughts, and this 'voicing' will encourage cognitive diversity and promote free exchanges away from a centralized policed knowledge repository. The goal is to facilitate knowledge sharing and personal content management.

See also

• Adaptive hypermedia
• Comparison of knowledge base management software
• Knowledge management
• Personal information management
• Personal wiki
• Semantic desktop
• User modeling

References

Most recent ones first

• Pauleen, David (2009). "Personal knowledge management: putting the 'person' back into the knowledge equation". Online Information Review 33 (2): 221-224. doi:10.1108/14684520910951177. 
• Smedley, Jo (2009). "Modelling personal knowledge management". OR Insight 22 (4): 221-233. doi:10.1057/ori.2009.11. 
• Pollard, Dave (2008), PKM: A bottom-up approach to knowledge management. In Knowledge Management in Practice: Connections and Context, ed. T.K. Srikantaiah and M.E.D. Koenig, Information Today, pp. 95-114 
• Sheridan, William (2008), How to Think like a knowledge worker, United Nations Public Administration Network, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/unpan/unpan031277.pdf 
• Snowden, David; Pauleen, David J. (2008), Knowledge management and the individual: it's nothing personal—an interview with Dave Snowden by David J. Pauleen, http://pauleen.massey.ac.nz 
• Völkel, Max; Abecker, Andreas (2008), Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Design of Personal Knowledge Management Systems, Proc. of 10th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/Publikationen/showPublikation_english?publ_id=1735 
• Grundspenkis, J. (2007). "Agent based approach for organization and personal knowledge modelling: knowledge management perspective". Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 18 (4): 451-457. doi:10.1007/s10845-007-0052-6. 
• Max Völkel (2007) "From Documents to Knowledge Models" in Proc. of the 4th Conference on Professional Knowledge Management, volume 2, pp. 209—216. GITO mbh, Berlin, March 2007
• Wright, Kirby (2007), Rethinking Knowledge Work: Supporting Work and Learning through Personal Knowledge Management, KRW Knowledge Resources, http://www.knowledgeresources.ca/Knowledge_Resources/PKM_Planning.html 
• Wright, Kirby (2005). "Personal knowledge management: supporting individual knowledge worker performance". Knowledge Management Research and Practice 3 (3): 156–165. doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500061. 
• Dace Apshvalka, Peter Wendorff: A Framework of Personal Knowledge Management in the Context of Organisational Knowledge Management. ECKM 2005: 34-41
• Apshvalka, Dace; Wendorff, Peter (2005), A Framework of Personal Knowledge Management in the Context of Organisational Knowledge Management, ECKM 2005, pp. 34-41, http://integrative-paradigm.org/papers/Eckm2005Dace_156.pdf 
• Efimova, L. (2005) "Understanding personal knowledge management: A weblog case". Enschede: Telematica Instituut.
• Dorsey, Paul A. (2001). Personal Knowledge Management: Educational Framework for Global Business. Tabor School of Business, Millikin University. http://www.millikin.edu/pkm/pkm_istanbul.html. 
• Avery, Susan; O’Conner, Michael (2001), Personal Knowledge Management: Framework for Integration and Partnerships, In ASCUE 2001, http://www.millikin.edu/pkm/pkm_ascue.html 
• Frand, Jason; Hixon, Carol (1999), "Personal Knowledge Management : Who, What, Why, When, Where, How?", Working paper, UCLA Anderson School of Management, http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/researcher/speeches/PKM.htm 

External links

• Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) -- an Update, blog post in How to Save the World by Dave Pollard
• My personal KM, Knowledge work framework (PKM + tasks) in Mathemagenic.vom, blog post by Lilia Efimova
• Personal Toolkit: Three thousand communities of practice, article by Steve Barth in KMWorld
• KM Question of the Week: "What is personal knowledge management? How can individuals manage their own knowledge?", blog post at Hp.com by Stan Garfield
• Millikin.edu, Personal Knowledge Management Home Page
• Climbing the Personal Knowledge Mountain by James Dellow - a goal-based approach to PKM focused on Relationships & Networks, Information and Technology posted on ThinkingShift.com
• Personalknowledge.org, First International Workshop on Personal Knowledge Management at the 5th Conference on Professional Knowledge Management, 25-27 March 2009, Solothurn, Switzerland.
• (Russian) Blogspot.com, PKMateur blog by Evgeniy Beloshytskiy
• Knowledge-management-online.com, Effective Personal Knowledge Management in a Global Knowledge Economy

Notes