Live blogging KM: Just what is knowledge management

Over at AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG, I recently posted about Vice Admiral Peterman's comments about blogging. When the admiral talked about learning things going on in the Coast Guard from main stream media and new media outlets, he was, in part, talking about knowledge management.

Let me provide a few definitions.

• Data is facts and figures, generally presented out of context.


• Information is data that is presented in context so that people might actually make use of it. A former colleague of mine used to teach that analysis turned data into information.


• Knowledge is information in action. That is to say that knowledge is information which people use to make decisions or add value. Knowledge includes the rules and contexts of the information's use.


• Knowledge management is the systematic approach to help information and knowledge get to the right people at the right time so they can act more effectively and efficiently. It's about finding, understanding, sharing, and using knowledge to create value for the organization.

Over the next couple of days, we'll be looking indepth at how we can create an organization which learns, an organization which manages knowledge appropriately.