Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

KnowledgeBase Roadmap 9
A framework for building the knowledge base in a specific area of knowledge.
Supports: knowledge sharing, communities of practice, knowledge reuse, knowledge
retention
LEVEL OF EFFORT
SIZE OF UTILITY
SCOPE OF WORK
HIGH
MED-LARGE
WIDE
The KnowledgeBase roadmap provides a framework for building the knowledge base in a
specific area of knowledge. A knowledge base is the collection of information, supporting
context, and the individuals and groups who possess and can share and apply the knowledge
necessary to ensure the performance and sustainability of the Utility. A knowledge base is
generally focused in a specific domain of practice (thus the emergence of the term community of
practice). It may support an established community of practice, or a group of employees
working in the same functional area. (See also Shared Space.) While a Utility may already
have an information infrastructure in place, the KnowledgeBase development process focuses
on creating collaborative processes and information support for a specified area of knowledge.
An KnowledgeBase example is the IWRM (integrated water resources management)
knowledge base which includes data from basic hydrological monitoring for estimating
sustainable water supplies and data on water resources from remote sensing. While political,
institutional and economic instability caused a severe decline in basic hydrological monitoring
(for example, downsizing of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Venezuela
resulted in most stations of the original network no longer operational), the World Hydrological
Cycle Observation System is now making an important contribution to the available knowledge
base (UN World Water Development Report 2).
The Implementing Community
Development of a knowledge base is best implemented by community members practicing in
that functional area. It requires a core group of community members involved in the entire initial
process. These individuals would take on the roles of Community Leader, Coordinator,
Cybrarian and Technologist. The Leader provides day-to-day support while serving as an active,
contributing member. The Leader strives to further the community's goals by: (1) serving as a
subject matter expert; (2) coordinating with and connecting other team or community members;
(3) planning, scheduling and managing activities; (4) interfacing with senior leadership; (5)
representing the KnowledgeBase effort at briefings; (6) recognizing contributions; and (7)
tracking budget expenditures, if applicable. The Coordinator assists the Leader in performing
the above tasks, but focuses on internal coordination rather than external relations with the
organization. While Cybrarian is a new cyber-term, it easily resonates with most people.
Cybrarian conveys the notion of one who looks after the collecting and access to library-type
resources needed by the Utility. Regardless of the extent of dedicated Web support that is
available to the Utility, the Cybrarian will provide help with finding and connecting domainrelated
assistance in the Web environment. This person has at his or her fingertips both Internet
9 Adapted from the Department of the Navy cPort Toolkit
C-61
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