Knowledge Management for Information Communities

Researchers and Research Groups

Associate Professor Frada Burstein,Professor Sue McKemmish Dr Kirsty Williamson ,Professor Don Schauder

Professor Ross Harvey (Charles Sturt Uni) ,Professor Edward Lim (Monash University Librarian and SIMS) , Associate Professor Graeme Shanks (University of Melbourne) , Dr Nigel Ward (Distributed Systems Technology Centre).

• To establish knowledge management as a new research strength for Monash university based within the Enterprise Information Research Group by:
• establishing a Virtual Knowledge Management Laboratory,
• supporting quality research students,
• supporting the collaborative work of EIRG researchers through sponsorship of conferences, workshops to bring together research partners and collaborators in the emerging field of knowledge management
• extending EIRG’s collaborative alliances with academic and industry associates locally and internationally
• providing an umbrella for a range of existing and newly funded projects and promoting synergies and links between them.

Knowledge Management for Information Communities was a two year ‘umbrella’ research program rather than a single research project. It addressed the need for a comprehensive approach to enterprise knowledge management and sought to harness the range of complementary experience and perspectives amongst SIMS/EIRG researchers and to nurture strong alliances with industry and academia.

The program has enabled EIRG to:

• establish the Virtual Knowledge Management Laboratory at Monash University’s Caulfield campus. With sponsorship from Xerox, Tower Software and the German National Research Centre for Information Technology and humanIT GmbH, the KM Lab is a flexible, state-of-the-art facility for enterprise knowledge management research, research training and teaching both on campus and remotely.
• establish a research support team including a research coordinator and technical officer
• offer scholarships and other support to researchers and a post-doctoral researcher.
• support and extend a number of research collaborations including:
  
  • a longstanding partnership with the Bureau of Meteorology which has led to ARC Linkage funded research in 2002
  • ongoing collaboration with DSTC’s information ecology project
  • a major Healthcare Knowledge Management Research initiative in collaboration with Colwell-Sacerdoti and Hewlett Packard
  • a substantial new research project: Breast Cancer Knowledge Online
• develop new areas of research strength, particularly community networking and mobile commerce, and establish three new research programs:
  • Information Systems Development Research
  • The Centre for Community Networking Research
  • Information Systems Management and Electronic Business Research
• sponsor and organise the Australian Conference on Knowledge Management and Intelligent Decision Support in 2000 and again in 2001

• Breast Cancer Knowledge Online
• Improving Meteorological Forecasting Practice with Knowledge Management System
• Mobile Commerce Projects
• Community Networking Projects

• Evaluation of the Usability of Electronic Library Resource
• Knowledge Management for Information Communities
• Australian Trade Union Heritage Gateway