Dave Pollard advocates a personalised approach to knowledge management that aims to increase individual worker productivity and effectiveness. In looking at the processes of knowledge management he advocates a bottom-up approach that is centered on the activities of the individual. He classifies these activities as involving information acquiring (finding data, reading, compiling information), information processing (review, analysis, interpretation, knowledge transfer) and social activities (finding experts, collaboration, conversation). He claims that knowledge management activities which have centred on capturing ever increasing amounts of content into storage systems have not helped the individual worker become more productive in the above activities.
So what are the alternatives? Pollard advocates that
a) greater emphasis be placed on social networks, communities and expertise location and tools that aid and support such activities.
b) personalised content management systems that filter and organise content needed by the individual.
Tools already do exist to support these approaches although many continue to require further development. But this development should be forthcoming and not pose a major obstacle to support the personalised knowledge management approach advocated.
What are the challenges for the pharma and life science industry in adopting such an approach?
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