Unstructured Knowledge

Knowledge that is difficult to classify and often exists in multiple formats, including text, audio, and video.Public and private-based organizations are increasingly relying on collaboration—the coordination of two or more individuals, groups or companies working together to achieve a common goal or to create mutual value—to meet customer and market needs. Collaboration requires “rich” employee communication mechanisms that involve both people finding and interacting with subject-matter experts inside and outside their organization as well as people tapping into and incorporating structured information (e.g., the latest market research reports) and “unstructured knowledge” (e.g., expert opinions discussed at conferences) as part of their work projects. Today’s collaboration needs require networks of employees, often with different areas of expertise, organizational affiliations, job levels, or company tenure, to coordinate in near real-time to perform knowledge-based work. Organizations with a focus on the acquisition, interpretation, and sharing of intelligence information can benefit by understanding the barriers to collaboration and how fostering social networks among employees and key stakeholders results in more effective collaboration. This article provides an illustrated example involving a government intelligence agency of how social network analysis can be used to understand social networks. A framework composed of three components, collaborative IT tools, talent management and networked work processes, to enable and apply social networks is also introduced.