Preservation

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Definition

Preservation is The process of keeping knowledge in its original state

Source: Planning and Execution of Knowledge Management Assist Missions for Nuclear Organizations

Summary

One paragaph summary which summarises the main ideas of the article.

Description

Description

Nuclear knowledge has been developed and accumulated over decades. This knowledge base stems from both research and development and the industrial application of nuclear technologies, and includes both energy and nonenergy applications. In response to an increased awareness in many countries of the importance of managing nuclear knowledge, the IAEA has published a number of guidance and technical documents, including a document outlining high level issues and objectives for nuclear KM [1]; it is widely agreed that these are relevant and applicable to activities in the nuclear sector as a whole. This section draws from and builds upon these IAEA publications to provide a general summary introduction to the subject of KP in the context of nuclear KM (for further information see Ref. [1]).

Categorizing knowledge preservation methods and tools

Source: Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tools for Nuclear Knowledge Preservation

Description

Within the KM context, it is obvious that nuclear KP plays a vital role. Preserving existing nuclear knowledge, specialist expertise, and in general preventing the loss of vital technical and historical information is starting to be recognized as strategically important to the nuclear industry, in particular for nuclear facilities. As such, the development of KP approaches and tools based on innovative approaches, including the use of modern information technology, are becoming a necessity.

The IAEA has formalized the definition of knowledge preservation to state (see Refs [1, 13]): “a process of maintaining an organizational system of knowledge and capabilities that preserves and stores perceptions, actions and experiences over time and secures the possibility of recall for the future.”

In this report, KP is viewed as including the processes required to capture, understand, archive, retrieve and protect explicit and tacit knowledge and to maintain accessibility and readability of it as technology evolves for as long as the knowledge remains useful. KP can be seen as a process of maintaining an organizational system of knowledge and capabilities that preserves and stores perceptions, actions and experiences over time and secures the possibility of recall for the future. The preservation of knowledge is an important phase within the KM cycle, from creation to implementation (see Fig. 1). KP, as a component of KM, plays an important role in supporting the entire management system, which ensures the effectiveness of industrial business processes. The main factors and driving forces of such a management system are human resources, organizational structure and responsibilities, IT, leadership, and cooperative culture.

Fig. 1. Fraunhofer reference model for knowledge management

Organizations that intentionally manage their experiences for them to be available for the future have to master three basic processes of knowledge management:

• Select from the large number of organizational events, persons or experts and processes only those worth preserving;
• Store their experience in a suitable form;
• Ensure the setting up and operation of organizational memory.

The preservation of tacit knowledge assumes the maintenance of core competencies, specialized expertise, and experience within an organization or industry. This is often referred to as knowledge retention and focuses on the human aspects of KM. The preservation of explicit knowledge, on the other hand, by definition assumes a knowledge repository or organizational memory system (OMS). A knowledge repository is a place to store and from which to retrieve explicit knowledge. A set of file folders are an example of a low technology knowledge repository. A high technology knowledge repository might be an OMS in the form of a database. Thus, KP underlies all aspects of KM, including the creation or generation of new knowledge (e.g. capturing knowledge as it is produced).

Source: Comparative Analysis of Methods and Tools for Nuclear Knowledge Preservation

Description

The preservation of knowledge is an important building block within the knowledge management field. Organizations that intentionally manage their experiences for them to be available for the future have to master three basic processes of knowledge management:

• select, from the large number of organizational events, persons or experts and processes, only those that are worth preserving;
• store their experience in a suitable form;
• ensure the setting up and operation of the organizational memory.

Source: Planning and Execution of Knowledge Management Assist Missions for Nuclear Organizations

References

[1] INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Knowledge Management for Nuclear Industry Operating Organizations, IAEA-TECDOC-1510, IAEA, Vienna (2006).

[13] INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Nuclear Knowledge Management Glossary, IAEA, Vienna (2005).

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