Final Report Summary - ORGANIK (An organic knowledge management approach for small European knowledge-intensive companies)
The ORGANIK project involves nine partners from four EU Member States (Germany, Greece, Italy and UK). This inter-related multinational cooperation between five participating knowledge-intensive SMEs and four academic research partners) is deemed essential in order to implement the rising requirements caused by the European industry in the area of business collaboration and knowledge management. This need imposes a pressing requirement for deploying a new breed of digital environments for generating, sharing and refining organizational knowledge.
ORGANIK aims being a next generation knowledge management system, by integrating lightweight and intuitive Web 2.0 tools, with semantic and intelligent information processing technologies. As a result, the participating SMEs can manage content and knowledge while allowing for informal, people-centred and ad hoc every-day procedures to be employed, upon which they heavily rely. In order to achieve this, a small group of innovative SMEs have subcontracted leading European RTD-partners for solving the above identified technological problems. The ORGANIK research results can help the participating SMEs to develop innovative know-how, products and services. Finally it provides the involved SMEs with an excellent opportunity to improve their competitiveness.
The SME participants are the direct beneficiaries of the project: they invest in the RTD project and subcontract most of the research and demonstration activities to RTD performers and receive in return the technological know-how they need to improve current knowledge management schemes. KM also needs to be integrated into the strategic management of the organisation. This can be achieved by building knowledge management awareness, determining its intended outcomes, auditing and valuing knowledge assets and resources, and finally by developing and implementing those knowledge management solutions that have the best potential to enhance knowledge and add value to the organization.
During the complete duration of the ORGANIK project the following milestones have been successfully met:
-Milestone 1: Availability of the ORGANIK requirements analysis and state of the art review.
- Milestone 2: Availability of the ORGANIK KM framework: The specification of the ORGANIK KM framework.
- Milestone 3: Availability of a research prototype version of the ORGANIK KM system.
- Milestone 4: Availability of the fully working release of the ORGANIK KM system.
- Milestone 5: Availability of the customised, deployed, and integrated ORGANIK solutions in the SMEs partners.
- Milestone 6: Availability of analysed data from evaluation results performed with knowledge workers in the SMEs.
The ORGANIK technical architecture is designed around the core services of knowledge management systems - search and retrieval, publication, and collaboration. As such, the ORGANIK technical architecture will provide intelligent functions for:
- discovery: providing the search, retrieval and presentation of knowledge artifacts and experts with the help of advanced information retrieval, visualisation, and navigation tools,
- publication: supporting the authoring, structuring, contextualisation and release of knowledge artifacts,
- collaboration: enabling the joint creation, sharing and application of knowledge by knowledge providers and seekers with the help of the communication, coordination, and community management services of Web 2.0 technologies such as Wikis.
The ORGANIK consortium has generated significant results to support the ongoing advancement of European knowledge-intensive SMEs. The ORGANIK solution will facilitate the knowledge collaboration and the efficiency of European SMEs.
ORGANIK aims being a next generation knowledge management system, by integrating lightweight and intuitive Web 2.0 tools, with semantic and intelligent information processing technologies. As a result, the participating SMEs can manage content and knowledge while allowing for informal, people-centred and ad hoc every-day procedures to be employed, upon which they heavily rely. In order to achieve this, a small group of innovative SMEs have subcontracted leading European RTD-partners for solving the above identified technological problems. The ORGANIK research results can help the participating SMEs to develop innovative know-how, products and services. Finally it provides the involved SMEs with an excellent opportunity to improve their competitiveness.
The SME participants are the direct beneficiaries of the project: they invest in the RTD project and subcontract most of the research and demonstration activities to RTD performers and receive in return the technological know-how they need to improve current knowledge management schemes. KM also needs to be integrated into the strategic management of the organisation. This can be achieved by building knowledge management awareness, determining its intended outcomes, auditing and valuing knowledge assets and resources, and finally by developing and implementing those knowledge management solutions that have the best potential to enhance knowledge and add value to the organization.
During the complete duration of the ORGANIK project the following milestones have been successfully met:
-Milestone 1: Availability of the ORGANIK requirements analysis and state of the art review.
- Milestone 2: Availability of the ORGANIK KM framework: The specification of the ORGANIK KM framework.
- Milestone 3: Availability of a research prototype version of the ORGANIK KM system.
- Milestone 4: Availability of the fully working release of the ORGANIK KM system.
- Milestone 5: Availability of the customised, deployed, and integrated ORGANIK solutions in the SMEs partners.
- Milestone 6: Availability of analysed data from evaluation results performed with knowledge workers in the SMEs.
The ORGANIK technical architecture is designed around the core services of knowledge management systems - search and retrieval, publication, and collaboration. As such, the ORGANIK technical architecture will provide intelligent functions for:
- discovery: providing the search, retrieval and presentation of knowledge artifacts and experts with the help of advanced information retrieval, visualisation, and navigation tools,
- publication: supporting the authoring, structuring, contextualisation and release of knowledge artifacts,
- collaboration: enabling the joint creation, sharing and application of knowledge by knowledge providers and seekers with the help of the communication, coordination, and community management services of Web 2.0 technologies such as Wikis.
The ORGANIK consortium has generated significant results to support the ongoing advancement of European knowledge-intensive SMEs. The ORGANIK solution will facilitate the knowledge collaboration and the efficiency of European SMEs.
