What Are Knowledge Bases And Why Are They Important?
Knowledge bases are exactly that - a base of centralized information. For instance, your local library or something like Wikipedia are examples of knowledge bases. What do knowledge bases mean in the world of information technology? They're machine (usually computers) based readable resources to disperse information, mostly online or with the capability to be put online.
Knowledge bases are a critical part of any knowledge management system. They're used to optimize the process of collecting information, organizing and finding it for organizations or the general public. If the knowledge bases in use for a company are well organized, it can save the business a serious amount of money. How? It reduces the amount of time employees spend trying to find information. Imagine being able to cut to the chase and find exactly what you need to know about company policies or procedures. Imagine the increased productivity in the workplace with effective, efficient knowledge bases operating behind the scenes.
Customer relationship management also benefits from knowledge bases by giving your customers smooth access to information that would normally mean they'd have to contact someone in your business about. In general, this ability should make interactions simpler for the customer and the staff. Having said that though, there always seems to be exceptions to the rule. Or to put it another way - shortcuts don't always work the way you would like them to work.
Generally speaking, knowledge bases are not static collections of information. Would it surprise you to know that knowledge bases are considered to be dynamic resources that might have the ability to learn? Yes the era of artificial intelligence is closer than we may think. Can you picture a browser that would intuitively serve a user's needs? Hold on to your hats, it's a concept that's already been discussed by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web inventor. Dubbing it the Semantic Web, he predicts a number of ways developers and authors, (working alone or in collaboration with others) can use self-descriptions and other techniques so context-understanding programs can selectively find what users want. Amazing isn't it? Corporations can use knowledge bases as learning or teaching aids. For example, many facts found in books etc. can be deposited in a knowledge base in a condensed, but coherent way. The learner has less to read and can instantly see relationships with other areas of information. A word of caution, knowledge bases should not completely replace other learning aids, but instead act as a complement to them. For example information in knowledge bases is highly organized, but won't tell a learner which are the simplest subjects they should learn first. Other uses for knowledge bases are as aids to using the same terminology so everyone is on the same page using the same terms with the same meanings. They also make highly effective reference documents and can be used as glossaries.
Knowledge Management
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