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Personalization, on the other hand, refers to automatically changing content and
interfaces based on observed and analyzed behaviors of the intended end user. For
example, many MS Offi ce applications offer the option of dynamically reordering pop
down menu items based on frequency of usage (the ones used most often will be
displayed on the top). One way of automatically personalizing knowledge acquisition
makes use of recommender systems. Recommendations regarding content that is likely
to be considered useful and relevant by a given knowledge worker may be based on
a user profi le of that knowledge worker (e.g., with themes checked off) or the recom-
mendation may be based on affi nity groups. Affi nity groups make use of similarity
analysis of users in order to develop groups of individuals who appear to share the
same interests. Amazon uses affi nity groups for example, when after ordering a book
online, visitors to the site are provided with information on related books that others
who have bought the same book have also purchased.
Communities of practice are affi nity groups to some extent. Personalization tech-
nologies are often used to target or push certain types of content that is of interest to
a given community. Community profi les can be established just as individual profi les
and used in the same manner in order to better adapt content and interfaces to the
community members.

Strategic Implications of KM Tools and Techniques

Historically, the IT horse has always been placed before the KM carriage. It is crucial
to think of KM tools in strategic terms. It is often said that if we hold a hammer in
our hand, then all the problems we see look very much like nails. It is important to
avoid this bias in knowledge management. Tools and techniques are a means and not
an end. The business objectives must fi rst be clearly identifi ed and a consensus reached
on priority application areas to be addressed. For example, an initial KM application
will typically be some form of content management system on an internally managed
intranet site. This is a good building block for subsequent applications, such as yellow
pages or expertise fi nders and groupware tools to enable newly connected knowledge
workers to continue to work together. An illustration is provided in box 8.7.
A number of the techniques presented here address the phenomenon of emergence
that can help discover existing valuable knowledge, experts, communities of practice,
and other valuable intellectual assets that exist within an organization. Once this is
done, the intellectual assets can be better accessed, leveraged, and made use of. KM
tools and techniques have an important enabling role in ensuring the success of KM
applications.