Fundamentals

of Information Systems,
Seventh Edition

Chapter 7
Knowledge Management
and Specialized
Information Systems

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Principles and Learning Objectives
• Knowledge management allows organizations
to share knowledge and experience among
managers and employees
– Discuss the differences among data, information,
and knowledge
– Describe the role of the chief knowledge officer
(CKO)
– List some of the tools and techniques used in
knowledge management
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 Principles and Learning Objectives
(continued)
Artificial intelligence systems form a broad and diverse set of
systems that can replicate human decision making for certain
types of well-defined problems
– Define the term artificial intelligence and state the
objective of developing artificial intelligence systems
– List the characteristics of intelligent behavior and compare
the performance of natural and artificial intelligence
systems for each of these characteristics
– Identify the major components of the artificial intelligence
field and provide one example of each type of system

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Principles and Learning Objectives
(continued)
• Expert systems can enable a novice to perform
at the level of an expert but must be
developed and maintained very carefully
– List the characteristics and basic components of
expert systems
– Outline and briefly explain the steps for
developing an expert system
– Identify the benefits associated with the use of
expert systems
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Principles and Learning Objectives
(continued)
• Multimedia and virtual reality systems can
reshape the interface between people and
information technology by offering new ways
to communicate information, visualize
processes, and express ideas creatively
– Discuss the use of multimedia in a business setting
– Define the term virtual reality and provide three
examples of virtual reality applications

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Principles and Learning Objectives
(continued)
• Specialized systems can help organizations
and individuals achieve their goals
– Discuss examples of specialized systems for
organizational and individual use

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 Why Learn About Knowledge
Management and Specialized
Information Systems?
• Knowledge management and specialized
information systems are used in almost every
industry
• Learning about these systems:
– Will help you discover new ways to use
information systems in your day-to-day work

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 Knowledge Management Systems
• Data consists of raw facts
• Information:
– Collection of facts organized so that they have
additional value beyond the value of the facts
themselves
• Knowledge:
– Awareness and understanding of a set of
information and the ways that information can be
made useful to support a specific task or reach a
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 Knowledge Management Systems
(continued)
• Knowledge management system (KMS):
– Organized collection of people, procedures,
software, databases, and devices
– Used to create, store, share, and use the
organization’s knowledge and experience

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Knowledge Management Systems

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 Overview of Knowledge
Management Systems
• Explicit knowledge:
– Objective
– Can be measured and documented in reports,
papers, and rules
• Tacit knowledge:
– Hard to measure and document
– Typically not objective or formalized
• Many organizations attempt to convert tacit
knowledge to explicit knowledge
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Data and Knowledge Management
Workers and Communities of
Practice
• Data workers:
– Secretaries, administrative assistants,
bookkeepers, data entry people, etc.
• Knowledge workers:
– Create, use, and disseminate knowledge
– Professionals in science, engineering, or business;
writers; researchers; educators; corporate
designers; etc.
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Data and Knowledge Management
Workers and Communities of
Practice (continued)
• Chief knowledge officer (CKO):
– Top-level executive who helps the organization
use a KMS to create, store, and use knowledge to
achieve organizational goals
• Communities of practice (COP):
– Group of people dedicated to a common discipline
or practice
– May be used to create, store, and share
knowledge
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 Obtaining, Storing, Sharing, and
Using Knowledge
• Knowledge workers:
– Often work in teams
– Can use collaborative work software and group
support systems to share knowledge
• Knowledge repository:
– Includes documents, reports, files, and databases
• Knowledge map points the knowledge worker
to the needed knowledge

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Obtaining, Storing, Sharing, and
Using Knowledge (continued)

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Technology to Support Knowledge
Management
• Effective KMS:
– Is based on learning new knowledge and changing
procedures and approaches as a result
• Data mining and business intelligence can help
capture and use knowledge
• IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Dashboard,
Web Store Technology, and Access Workflow
Designer are knowledge management tools

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Technology to Support Knowledge
Management (continued)

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 An Overview of Artificial
Intelligence
• Artificial intelligence (AI):
– Computers with the ability to mimic or duplicate
the functions of the human brain
• Computer systems that use the notion of AI:
– Play Jeopardy
– Help to make medical diagnoses
– Pick and trade stocks

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Artificial Intelligence in Perspective
• Artificial intelligence systems:
– Include the people, procedures, hardware,
software, data, and knowledge needed to develop
computer systems and machines that
demonstrate characteristics of intelligence

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 The Nature of Intelligence
• Turing Test:
– Determines whether responses from a computer with
intelligent behavior are indistinguishable from those from
a human being
• Characteristics of intelligent behavior include the ability to:
– Learn from experiences and apply knowledge acquired
from experience
– Handle complex situations
– Solve problems when important information is missing

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 The Nature of Intelligence
(continued)
• Characteristics of intelligent behavior include
the ability to (continued):
– Determine what is important
– React quickly and correctly to a new situation
– Understand visual images
– Process and manipulate symbols
– Be creative and imaginative
– Use heuristics

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 The Brain Computer Interface
• Brain Computer Interface (BCI):
– Idea is to directly connect the human brain to a
computer and have human thought control
computer activities
• If successful:
– The BCI experiment will allow people to control
computers and artificial arms and legs through
thought alone

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 The Major Branches of Artificial
Intelligence
• AI is a broad field that includes:
– Expert systems and robotics
– Vision systems and natural language processing
– Learning systems and neural networks
• Expert systems:
– Hardware and software that stores knowledge and
makes inferences, similar to a human expert

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The Major Branches of Artificial
Intelligence (continued)

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 Robotics
• Developing mechanical devices that can:
– Paint cars, make precision welds, and perform
other tasks that require a high degree of precision
• Manufacturers use robots to assemble and
paint products
• Contemporary robotics:
– Combine both high-precision machine capabilities
and sophisticated controlling software

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 Vision Systems
• Hardware and software that permit
computers to capture, store, and manipulate
visual images and pictures
• Effective at identifying people based on facial
features

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 Natural Language Processing and
Voice Recognition
• Processing that allows the computer to
understand and react to statements and
commands made in a “natural” language, such
as English
• Voice recognition:
– Converting sound waves into words

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 Learning Systems
• Combination of software and hardware that:
– Allows the computer to change how it functions
or reacts to situations based on feedback it
receives
• Learning systems software:
– Requires feedback on results of actions or
decisions

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 Neural Networks
• Computer system that simulates functioning
of a human brain
• Can process many pieces of data at the same
time and learn to recognize patterns
• Neural network program:
– Helps engineers slow or speed drilling operations
to help increase drilling accuracy and reduce costs

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 Other Artificial Intelligence
Applications
• Genetic algorithm:
– Approach to solving complex problems in which a
number of related operations or models change
and evolve until the best one emerges
• Intelligent agent:
– Programs and a knowledge base used to perform
a specific task for a person, a process, or another
program

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 An Overview of Expert Systems
• Computerized expert systems:
– Use heuristics, or rules of thumb, to arrive at
conclusions or make suggestions
• The U.S. Army:
– Uses the Knowledge and Information Fusion
Exchange (KnIFE) expert system to help soldiers in
the field make better military decisions

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 When to Use Expert Systems
• People and organizations should develop an
expert system if it can:
– Provide a high potential payoff or significantly
reduce downside risk
– Capture and preserve irreplaceable human
expertise
– Solve a problem that is not easily solved using
traditional programming techniques
– Develop a system more consistent than human
experts
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 When to Use Expert Systems
(continued)
• People and organizations should develop an
expert system if it can (continued):
– Provide expertise needed at a number of locations
at the same time or in a hostile environment that
is dangerous to human health
– Provide expertise that is expensive or rare
– Develop a solution faster than human experts can
– Provide expertise needed for training and
development
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 Components of Expert Systems
• Expert system:
– Consists of a collection of integrated and related
components
• Knowledge base:
– Stores all relevant information, data, rules, cases,
and relationships used by expert system
– Creates knowledge base by:
• Using rules
• Using cases
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Components of Expert Systems
(continued)

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 The Inference Engine
• Purpose:
– To seek information and relationships from the
knowledge base
– To provide answers, predictions, and suggestions,
like a human expert

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 The Explanation Facility
• Allows a user or decision maker to understand
how the expert system arrived at certain
conclusions or results
• Example:
– A doctor can find out the logic or rationale of a
diagnosis made by a medical expert system

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The Knowledge Acquisition Facility
• Provides convenient and efficient means of
capturing and storing all components of
knowledge base
• Knowledge acquisition software:
– Can present users and decision makers with easy-
to-use menus

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The Knowledge Acquisition Facility
(continued)

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 The User Interface
• Permits decision makers to develop and use
their own expert systems
• Main purpose:
– To make development and use of an expert
system easier for users and decision makers

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 Participants in Developing and
Using Expert Systems
• Domain expert:
– Person or group with the expertise or knowledge
the expert system is trying to capture
• Knowledge engineer:
– Person who has training or experience in the
design, development, implementation, and
maintenance of an expert system
• Knowledge user:
– Person or group who uses and benefits from the
expert system
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 Participants in Developing and
Using Expert Systems (continued)

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Expert Systems Development Tools
and Techniques
• Theoretically, expert systems can be
developed from any programming language
• Expert system shells and products:
– Collections of software packages and tools used to
design, develop, implement, and maintain expert
systems

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Expert Systems Development Tools
and Techniques (continued)

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 Multimedia and Virtual Reality
• Use of multimedia and virtual reality:
– Has helped many companies achieve a
competitive advantage and increase profits
• The approach and technology used in
multimedia:
– Is often the foundation of virtual reality systems

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 Overview of Multimedia
• Multimedia is:
– Text and graphics
– Audio
– Video and animation
– File conversion and compression
• Designing a multimedia application:
– Requires careful thought and a systematic
approach
– Requires that the end use of the document or file
be carefully considered
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 Overview of Virtual Reality
• Virtual reality system:
– Enables one or more users to move and react in a
computer-simulated environment
• Immersive virtual reality:
– User becomes fully immersed in an artificial, 3D
world that is completely generated by a computer

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 Interface Devices
• To see in a virtual world:
– Often the user wears a head-mounted display
(HMD) with screens directed at each eye
• Haptic interface:
– Relays sense of touch and other sensations in a
virtual world
– Most challenging to create

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 Forms of Virtual Reality
• Immersive virtual reality
• Applications that are not fully immersive:
– Mouse-controlled navigation through a 3D
environment on a graphics monitor
– Stereo projection systems
– Stereo viewing from the monitor via stereo glasses

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 Virtual Reality Applications
• Medicine:
– VR program called SnowWorld helps treat burn
patients
• Education and training:
– Virtual technology has also been applied by the
military

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 Virtual Reality Applications
(continued)
• Business and Commerce:
– Boeing used virtual reality to help it design and
manufacture airplane parts and new planes
• Entertainment:
– Movies use CGI to bring realism to the silver
screen

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 Specialized Systems
• Segway:
– Uses sophisticated software, sensors, and gyro
motors to transport people
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags:
– Contain small chips with information about
products or packages
– Can be quickly scanned to perform inventory
control

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 Specialized Systems (continued)
• Game theory:
– Involves the use of information systems to
develop competitive strategies for people,
organizations, or even countries
• Informatics:
– Combines traditional disciplines, such as science
and medicine, with computer systems and
technology

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 Summary
• Knowledge:
– Awareness and understanding of a set of
information
• Knowledge workers:
– People who create, use, and disseminate
knowledge
• Artificial intelligence:
– Broad field that includes:
• Expert systems, robotics, vision systems
• Natural language processing, learning systems, and
neural networks
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 Summary (continued)
• Expert system consists of a collection of
integrated and related components
• Inference engine:
– Processes the rules, data, and relationships stored
in the knowledge base
• Virtual reality system:
– Enables one or more users to move and react in a
computer-simulated environment

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 Summary (continued)
• Virtual reality:
– Can refer to applications that are not fully
immersive
• Specialized systems:
– Segway
– Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags
– Game theory

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