Increases in product complexity, the move toward globalization, the emergence of virtual organizations, and the increase in focus on customer orientation all demand a more thorough and systematic approach to managing knowledge. Knowledge management is a major issue for human resource management, enterprise organization, and enterprise culture. But IT plays a major supporting role in managing knowledge.The authors present an approach for ontology-based knowledge management that includes a suite of tools as well as a methodology for developing ontology-based KM systems. Their approach builds on the distinction between knowledge process and knowledge metaprocess. They illustrate their methodology with CHAR, a knowledge management system for corporate history analysis.The challenges lie in analyzing KM processes and dynamically updating the KM solution. The authors' framework is designed to help leverage these evolving systems by providing a concise view of the problem.
