What Is Knowledge That Generates Value? (original) (raw)
Recently new ways of leveraging information technology such as blogs and SNS (Social Networking Services) are being promoted for the purpose of encouraging communication and exchanging information between mainly companies and consumers.
Along with this rapid digitalization of communication in society and by companies the content of communications is also being digitalized. This means that information that was once consumed on the spot and then gone is now digitalized and stored on networks. It also means that the amount of digital information submitted and stored on networks is exponentially increasing, thus making the development of new information technology and methodology for analyzing and leveraging digital content necessary.
For example, words being used on a network can be researched in real time using natural language analysis of the text as it is submitted on the Web. We humans cannot manually research all the information being submitted on networks in a split second like a computer can. It is said that the intellectual creation and decision-making of human beings can also be supported by knowing what topics people find the most interesting on networks.
However, discussions on research and application of knowledge communication using blogs and SNS by companies and society have only just started. I think it is important to share information on the following issues: How does the digitalization of knowledge communication influence the distribution of knowledge? What kind of approach is necessary to further promote knowledge being distributed?
The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence established a “Special Interest Group on Knowledge Sharing Network” and is addressing these issues. The first workshop held on January 24 reported a case addressing the promotion of information sharing using in-house SNS, a proposal for a social-norm type knowledge distribution model based on (CGM), the availability of a knowledge management and business intelligence (BI) service leveraging knowledge management and web 2.0, and automatic generation of a huge search directory of approximately 1.2 million words. For more information visit the workshop website and download the material. Allow me to now introduce the topic of “What Is Knowledge That Generates Value?” that was discussed by the panel at the workshop.
The huge research directory “Torishiki” is an attempt to utilize a glossary automatically generated from open information available on the Internet in research. The glossary has a two-layer structure consisting of a thesaurus based on a super-subrelationship for use in specifying targets such as “knobsnout parrotfish” and a scenario relationship for specifying its use and preparation such as in “how is it cooked”. By taking into consideration what occasion the technology and service represented with one word are used on, the idea of target words and scenario relationships can also be applied in distributing knowledge via in-house SNS.
“Torishiki” can also present unexpected risks of the word by analyzing expressions used with trouble included in scenarios used for target words. It is important to notice unexpected events with innovation. It can search for unexpected usage from examples of usage scenarios used with the word. Conversely, in-house SNS can be used to exchange knowledge from a variety of perspectives by examining an issue with many employees who have different values in real time. Both methods need not go to war with each other: Research combining the two in a complementary style would be the most preferable.
The number of terms stored in “Torishiki” is six times as many as included in the sixth edition of Kojien, which has 240,000 items and is published by Iwanami Shoten Publishers. However, not all of the words included in “Torishiki” are always useful in business because many of them collected from websites on the Internet are temporary and specific to certain fields. The final determination of humans is essential.
“Changing knowledge into a commodity” was also a topic discussed by the panel.
When knowledge is only distributed within a single organization at first it will be stimulated by differences in perspective and the level of knowledge of individuals; however, I am afraid that knowledge will cease to be over the course of time.
With this issue, too, we have also arrived at the common recognition that not only a technological approach but also social aspects such as the mutual trust of the community are essential in research.
I expect that research of a knowledge distribution network that fuses both technological and social aspects together to solve issues with distribution communication by creating the knowledge required by a knowledge creation society in the 21st century will take place.
Profile of Shuichiro Yamamoto:
Completed a master’s degree in information engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering at Nagoya University and then joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation in 1979. Became the deputy general manager of Research and Development Headquarters , NTT Data Corporation in 2002 and has been in his current position since 2007. He is the first fellow of NTT Data Corporation. He has engaged in research on a program language processing system and software development methods, and research on commercializing a data and service interaction method for the Web environment. He is the author of the book “Goru Sikou niyoru Sisutemuyoukyuu Kanri Gihou “Management Technique of System Requirements using the Goal-oriented Method)” (by Soft Research Center), “-Youkyuu wo Kashikasuru Tame no- Youkuuteigi/youkyuushiyousyo no Tsukurikata (How to Create Requirement Definition/requirement Specifications to Visualize Requirements)” (by Soft Research Center), “Daremo Kataranakatta IT Kokonotsu no Himitsu (Nine IT Secrets that Nobody Talked)”, (by DIAMOND, as a joint author), “IC Kado Jouhou Ryuutsu Purattofomu (IC Card Information Distribution Platform” (by The Telecommunications Association, as a joint author), and “Sougo no Rikai (Mutual Understanding)” as a chapter of Marutimedia Johogaku (Multimedia Information Science)(by Iwanami Shoten, as a joint author).