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Knowledge Management Tools 283

between two people, even relatively basic e-mail systems today typically include inter-
esting features for forwarding messages, fi ling messages, creating mailing groups, and
attaching fi les with a message. Other features that have been explored include auto-
matic sorting and processing of messages, automatic routing, and structured commu-
nication (messages requiring certain information).
Newsgroups and mailing lists are similar in spirit to e-mail systems except that they
are intended for messages among large groups of people instead of one-to-one com-
munications. In practice the main difference between newsgroups and mailing lists is
that newsgroups only show messages to a user when they are explicitly requested (an
on-demand service), while mailing lists deliver messages as they become available (an
interrupt-driven interface).
Work fl ow systems allow documents to be routed through organizations using a
relatively fi xed process. A simple example of a work fl ow application is an expense
report in an organization. An employee enters an expense report, submits it, a copy
is archived, and then routed to the employee’s manager for approval. The manager
receives the document, electronically approves it, and sends it on. The expense is
registered to the group ’ s account and forwarded to the accounting department for
payment. Work fl ow systems may provide features such as routing, development of
forms, and support for differing roles and privileges.
Hypertext is a system for linking text documents to each other with the web being
an obvious example. Whenever multiple people author and link documents, the
system becomes group work, constantly evolving and responding to others ’ work.
Some hypertext systems include capabilities for seeing who else has visited a certain
page or link or at least seeing how often a link has been followed, thus giving users a
basic awareness of what other people are doing in the system. Page counters on the
web are a crude approximation of this function. Another common multi-user feature
in hypertext that is not found on the web is allowing any user to create links from
any page, so that others can be informed when there are relevant links that the original
author was unaware of.
Group calendars allow scheduling, project management, and coordination among
many people and may provide support for scheduling equipment as well. Typical
features detect when schedules confl ict or fi nd meeting times that will work for every-
one. Group calendars also help to locate people. Typical concerns are privacy (users
may feel that certain activities are not public matters) and completeness and accuracy
(users may feel that the time it takes to enter schedule information is not justifi ed by
the benefi ts of the calendar).
Collaborative writing systems may provide both real-time support and non-
real-time support. Word processors may provide asynchronous support by showing