KM @ LaG: Home

What is knowledge management?

Perhaps the most widely-quoted definition is "Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers." Notice the use of the term "enterprise" in this definition--knowledge management (KM) is concerned with information assets from the organizational perspective.

Another definition by Olivier Serrat emphasizes people, help and performance: "Knowledge management is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and helping them (with incentives) to apply it in ways that strive to improve organizational performance."

What is the challenge?

To provide consistent, accurate and accessible information for students to successfully navigate processes at the College and to support staff, faculty and peers who provide advising and support services to students.

What is the project?

At its highest level, the Knowledge Sharing Project aims to develop an information management protocol to better manage the increasingly complex knowledge needs of students and staff. At the project’s kick-off meeting, President Mellow expected that this cross-organizational approach to information would “change the way we do business” and that the participation and resource commitment of key areas would be needed. This process of change would not be quick or easy.

The initial step was the creation and implementation of the Ask LaGuardia online knowledge base (Phase I). The goals are for Ask LaGuardia to

• free students from spending so much time in lines, on the phone or emailing to get their business done
• free staff to spend less time on simple questions enabling them to use their expertise on more complex student problems.