since busy professionals rarely have the time to enter a practice into the database unless it is their
job.On the other hand, professionals may not have the time to hand off a document for submission
to an appointed surrogate either. For many professionals who are used to online communication
and accessing databases and discussion lists, we could argue that it is quicker and easier for the
professionals to make the contribution themselves. Nick et al. [2001], noting the importance of
learning by experience, point out that experience bases can be developed using case-based reasoning
as the underlying concept. However, they also note that experience repositories require continuous
maintenance and updating in order to handle continuous streams of experience.
Selvin and Buckingham [2002] describe a tool, Compendium, that claims to support rapid
knowledge construction.They ground their claim on an empirical case study of its use in a corporate
contingency planning situation by demonstrating the creation of knowledge content in a real time
‘on-the-fly’mode of content authoring, complemented by collaborative validation.The authors point
out that the product supports both the construction of knowledge as content, or as the collaborative,
negotiated, co-constructed approach to verifying and validating content, essentially accommodating
both the content and process views of knowledge construction.The developed content is then made
available to others for (re)use, or, for re-combination, to support newinstances of knowledge creation.
Richter et al. [2004] describe a functionally similar tool, TAGGER, designed and operationalized
as allowing knowledge acquisition discussions to be “tagged” in real time with the relevant concepts
so as to lessen the burden on documentation. As awareness increases for the importance of making
knowledge explicit, more and more products will appear to help with creating knowledge bases and
decision recommendations, but it is a mindset open to using, sharing, and creating knowledge that
will make a difference in creating an organizational knowledge culture.