Towards Need-driven Knowledge Sharing in Distributed Teams Hans-Jörg Happel, FZI Karlsruhe, 02.09.2009 8th Int. Conference on Knowledge Management. (I-Know 2009) Graz, Austria; 2.-4. September 2009

Agenda Distributed teams Knowledge sharing approaches „ Need-driven“ knowledge sharing Prototypes Conclusion

Distributed teams

Knowledge sharing approaches

„ Need-driven“ knowledge sharing

Prototypes

Conclusion

Task complexity – car example Modern cars consist of ~20k single parts Suppliers cover up to 80% of design and production [MF04]

Modern cars consist of ~20k single parts

Suppliers cover up to 80% of design and production [MF04]

Distributed Work requires, but also impedes knowledge sharing Developing Complex Products and Services Increasing Modularization & Specialization Increasing Distribution of Teams Increasing Agility/ Ad Hoc Teams impedes impedes Knowledge Sharing Coordination requires

Knowledge sharing problems Non-participation of providers Time & Effort Lack of motivation Privacy Amplified in distributed settings (>30 meters) Lack of context Lack of trust Reduced communication channels Important role of mediation technologies (i.e. communication media) “ Developers are usually interested in resolving their problems rather than document ing their own ones, offering new knowledge or extending the knowledge-base.” [Industrial Partner]

Non-participation of providers

Time & Effort

Lack of motivation

Privacy

Amplified in distributed settings (>30 meters)

Lack of context

Lack of trust

Reduced communication channels

Important role of mediation technologies (i.e. communication media)

Knowledge Sharing as a communication process Explicit Implicit Semi-Explicit Information seeker Information provider Query Answer Information need explicit (e.g. query) implicit („push triggered“) Mediation Services Private information space Private information space Shared information space Mediation space Knowledge sharing need-driven („pull“, request) pro-active („push“)

Information need

explicit (e.g. query)

implicit („push triggered“)

Knowledge sharing

need-driven („pull“, request)

pro-active („push“)

Knowledge sharing „ Advanced mediation properties“ Pre-Transfer (Demanding, Matching, Offering) Transfer (Consumption, Negotiation, Provision) Typical approaches Personalization (Face-to-Face, IM/Chat) Codification (Forums, Document sharing)

„ Advanced mediation properties“

Pre-Transfer (Demanding, Matching, Offering)

Transfer (Consumption, Negotiation, Provision)

Typical approaches

Personalization (Face-to-Face, IM/Chat)

Codification (Forums, Document sharing)

Properties of different knowledge sharing approaches

Observations Personalization strategies do not „scale up“ for large organizations (  better for specific needs) Codification strategies decouple seekers and providers and are less „need-driven“ (  better for general needs)  Communication gap between information seekers and information providers No way for information seekers to communicate demands No way for information providers to find out which information is really sought Usually bad support for matching & negotiation Questions Is it possible to solve the trade-off between scalable and need-driven knowledge sharing? Can the communication gap be bridged by better mediation services to achieve „need-driven“ knowledge sharing (NKS)?

Personalization strategies do not „scale up“ for large organizations (  better for specific needs)

Codification strategies decouple seekers and providers and are less „need-driven“ (  better for general needs)

 Communication gap between information seekers and information providers

No way for information seekers to communicate demands

No way for information providers to find out which information is really sought

Usually bad support for matching & negotiation

Questions

Is it possible to solve the trade-off between scalable and need-driven knowledge sharing?

Can the communication gap be bridged by better mediation services to achieve „need-driven“ knowledge sharing (NKS)?

Mediation services and spaces for need-driven knowledge sharing

NKS Prototypes Inverse Search Identify private files worth sharing to better d iffuse them into Shared Information Spaces Woogle Marrying Wikis with Enterprise Search

Inverse Search

Identify private files worth sharing to better d iffuse them into Shared Information Spaces

Woogle

Marrying Wikis with Enterprise Search

NKS prototypes Collect information needs (e.g. from query logs) Calculate aggregate unsatisfied information needs Marry Wikis with Enterprise Search („Woogle“) Identify private files worth sharing („Inverse Search“)

Inverse Search Problem in conventional search & recommendation systems Information seekers (1) match queries against a given corpus and (2) “import” public documents into their local space Information providers are not part of this standard model although they are potential providers of additional information Approach Inverse search: Information providers (3) matching their corpus against a given set of queries (4) to identify documents worth sharing Queries Public Index Public (1) Query (2) Results Information seeker Information provider (3) iSearch (4) Share [Ha08] „ Need to share“

Problem in conventional search & recommendation systems

Information seekers (1) match queries against a given corpus and (2) “import” public documents into their local space

Information providers are not part of this standard model although they are potential providers of additional information

Approach

Inverse search: Information providers (3) matching their corpus against a given set of queries (4) to identify documents worth sharing

Woogle

Anatomy of Woogle4MediaWiki External data sources can be accessed Collaborative description of the information need Notifications concerning search activities Discussion page Directly create new knowledge from the search dialog Search has a URI and can be linked from within the Wiki (one page per search term) Chose from different sources and/or content types Additional clues with meta-information about a need http://myHost/wiki/Woogle:SOAP

Woogle4MediaWiki: Demand guidance „ Red links“ signal „desired pages“ in the Wiki However, users are not informed how strong the information need is, and in which context it is required Woogle uses queries and further metadata to qualify desired content http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz

„ Red links“ signal „desired pages“ in the Wiki

However, users are not informed how strong the information need is, and in which context it is required

Woogle uses queries and further metadata to qualify desired content

Initial empirical results Provider‘s perspective KOMA Online-Survey of Software Developers (n=1477) >90% would share context of a problem (libraries used, version, tools) and actions performed to solve the problem 88% share knowledge personally (F2F, E-Mail) but only 33% with more than one person (Wiki/Groupware systems) 54% indicated to have no time for sharing; 30% can not identify information worth sharing Analyzing software developers descriptions of work sessions from multiple systems (n~750.000)  10% were „pseudo descriptions“ [MH2009] Seeker‘s perspective Analysis of intranet query logs of a german IT company: 500 of 2000 queries yielding zero results (one month of log data) Inverse search: out of 50 ranked terms, 40 were ranked „actively interested“ (activvely sought within last 6 years or planning to seek) by at least one person (10 of them by at last 4 people)

Provider‘s perspective

KOMA Online-Survey of Software Developers (n=1477)

>90% would share context of a problem (libraries used, version, tools) and actions performed to solve the problem

88% share knowledge personally (F2F, E-Mail) but only 33% with more than one person (Wiki/Groupware systems)

54% indicated to have no time for sharing; 30% can not identify information worth sharing

Analyzing software developers descriptions of work sessions from multiple systems (n~750.000)  10% were „pseudo descriptions“ [MH2009]

Seeker‘s perspective

Analysis of intranet query logs of a german IT company: 500 of 2000 queries yielding zero results (one month of log data)

Inverse search: out of 50 ranked terms, 40 were ranked „actively interested“ (activvely sought within last 6 years or planning to seek) by at least one person (10 of them by at last 4 people)

Summary Distributed work requires but also impedes knowledge sharing Especially, codified, asynchronous knowledge sharing is more producer-oriented and less „need driven“ due to limitations of current media & tools Hypothesis: novel mediation services and mediation spaces can help to improve knowledge sharing in such settings Supported by intial evaluation studies Real world evaluation is ongoing (online field study) Interested MediaWiki users sought! Further Information, Screencasts, Live Demos and Downloads at http://www.teamweaver.org

Distributed work requires but also impedes knowledge sharing

Especially, codified, asynchronous knowledge sharing is more producer-oriented and less „need driven“ due to limitations of current media & tools

Hypothesis: novel mediation services and mediation spaces can help to improve knowledge sharing in such settings

Supported by intial evaluation studies

Real world evaluation is ongoing (online field study)

Interested MediaWiki users sought!

Further Information, Screencasts, Live Demos and Downloads at http://www.teamweaver.org

Literature [Ha09] Hans-Jörg Happel: Social Search and Need-driven Knowledge Sharing in Wikis with Woogle. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym'09) (to appear) [Ha08] Hans-Jörg Happel: Closing Information Gaps with Inverse Search. In Proceeedings of the 7th International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management (PAKM2008). [MF04] Mercer Management Consulting; Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung -IPA-, Stuttgart; Fraunhofer-Institut für Materialfluss und Logistik -IML-, Dortmund: Future Automotive Industry Structure (FAST) 2015 - die neue Arbeitsteilung in der Automobilindustrie. Frankfurt/M.: VDA, 2004. [MH09] Walid Maalej, Hans-Jörg Happel: From Work to Word: How Do Software Developers Describe Their Work? In: Proceedings of the 6th IEEE Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2009)

[Ha09] Hans-Jörg Happel: Social Search and Need-driven Knowledge Sharing in Wikis with Woogle. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym'09) (to appear)

[Ha08] Hans-Jörg Happel: Closing Information Gaps with Inverse Search. In Proceeedings of the 7th International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management (PAKM2008).

[MF04] Mercer Management Consulting; Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung -IPA-, Stuttgart; Fraunhofer-Institut für Materialfluss und Logistik -IML-, Dortmund: Future Automotive Industry Structure (FAST) 2015 - die neue Arbeitsteilung in der Automobilindustrie. Frankfurt/M.: VDA, 2004.

[MH09] Walid Maalej, Hans-Jörg Happel: From Work to Word: How Do Software Developers Describe Their Work? In: Proceedings of the 6th IEEE Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2009)