Knowledge Management Systems as an Interdisciplinary Communication and Personalized General-Purpose Technology

Ulrich Schmitt

As drivers of human civilization, Knowledge Management (KM) processes have co-evolved in line with General-Purpose-Technologies (GPT), such as writing, printing, and information and communication systems. As evidenced by the recent shift from information scarcity to abundance, GPTs are capable of drastically altering societies due to their game-changing impact on our spheres of work and personal development.

This paper looks at the prospect of whether a novel Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) concept supported by a prototype system has got what it takes to grow into a transformative General-Purpose-Technology. Following up on a series of papers, the KM scenario of a decentralizing revolution where individuals and self-organized groups yield more power and autonomy is examined according to a GPT’s essential characteristics, including a wide scope for improvement and elaboration (in people’s private, professional and societal life), applicability across a broad range of uses in a wide variety of products and processes (in multi-disciplinary educational and work contexts), and strong complementarities with existing or potential new technologies (like organizational KM Systems and a proposed World Heritage of Memes Repository).

The result portrays the PKM concept as a strong candidate due to its personal, autonomous, bottom-up, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and creativity-supporting approach destined to advance the availability, quantity, and quality of the world extelligence and to allow for a wider sharing and faster diffusion of ideas across current disciplinary and opportunity divides.

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