Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Syed Moneeb Ali, Mark Woodman and Aboubakr A Moteleb Zade
denote <strong>the</strong> replication <strong>of</strong> all <strong>the</strong> knowledge agents at different campuses. SMA works as a portal in
which different tools and technologies are co-located for registered stakeholders. SMA comprises two
main sections. One is related to capturing narratives with <strong>the</strong> help <strong>of</strong> a blogging system, where
stakeholders can share <strong>the</strong>ir experiences and knowledge in <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> narratives and o<strong>the</strong>rs would
be able to read <strong>the</strong>m. The o<strong>the</strong>r part provides management tools to <strong>the</strong> PS development team so that
<strong>the</strong>y can make sense <strong>of</strong> large-scale data using XML. The figure shows how <strong>the</strong> stakeholders
(knowledge agents) are connected to <strong>the</strong> SMA. This connectivity is expected to result in a more
efficient approach (than <strong>the</strong> PS) to share experiences and knowledge in a friendly environment. For
example if a similar kind <strong>of</strong> problem is being faced by o<strong>the</strong>r stakeholders, <strong>the</strong> PS team will be able to
detect it with <strong>the</strong> help <strong>of</strong> blogs, where stakeholders can read stories by o<strong>the</strong>rs, tag and comment on
<strong>the</strong>se stories. This contrasts with <strong>the</strong> orthodox approach currently used by <strong>the</strong> university, and enables
<strong>the</strong> university to respond faster to <strong>the</strong> needs <strong>of</strong> its stakeholders.
Figure3: Sense-making Anecdotes (KM System)
The primary output <strong>of</strong> this pro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> concept is to convert <strong>the</strong> XML file from PS into a relational table to
allow data to be read and interpreted on any platform, which was not available before to <strong>the</strong> PS
development team. For <strong>the</strong> pro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> concept, Oracle 11g was used, although <strong>the</strong> relational tables
could be made on virtually any database. All <strong>the</strong> tools used were integrated using IBM Mashups,
which also supports <strong>the</strong> Oracle database. The mashup allows <strong>the</strong> story telling blogs and <strong>the</strong>
management tools to appear on <strong>the</strong> same mashup (with different tabs).
Figure 4 shows <strong>the</strong> technical view <strong>of</strong> Sense-making Anecdotes (SMA). The tools and <strong>the</strong> technologies
are applied in <strong>the</strong> KMS as follows:
Blogs: are used by <strong>the</strong> students, academic staff and non-academic staff to input <strong>the</strong>ir
experiences and knowledge in <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> story narratives and to give feedback on <strong>the</strong> story
narratives published by o<strong>the</strong>rs in <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> Blog comments. For example a student can improve
his/her learning abilities by following <strong>the</strong> Blogs <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r more experienced colleagues in <strong>the</strong> same
course for better results and this student can also comment on <strong>the</strong>se Blogs, for instance to
provide feedback on how <strong>the</strong>se experiences and knowledge were <strong>of</strong> use (or not) to <strong>the</strong>m.
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