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18 Chapter 1

Personalization 2000 ++

Virtualization 1980
Computerization 1950*

Communications 1900

Transportation 1850

Industrialization 1800

* Birth of the Internet, 1969
Figure 1.4
Developmental phases in KM history

across communication lines. Next, a messaging system was added to this data fi le
transfer network. In 1991, the nodes were transferred to the Internet and World Wide
Web. At the end of 1969, only four computers and about a dozen workers were
connected.
In parallel, there were many key developments in information technologies devoted
to knowledge-based systems: expert systems that aimed at capturing experts on a dis-
kette , intelligent tutoring systems aimed at capturing teachers on a diskette and artifi cial
intelligence approaches that gave rise to knowledge engineering, someone tasked with
acquiring knowledge from subject matter experts, conceptually modeling this content,
and then translating it into machine-executable code ( McGraw and Harrison-Briggs
1989 ). They describe knowledge engineering as “ involving information gathering,
domain familiarization, analysisand design efforts. In addition, accumulated knowl-
edge must be translated into code, tested and refi ned ” (McGraw and Harrison Briggs,
5). A knowledge engineer is “ the individual responsible for structuring and/or con-
structing an expert system ” (5). The design and development of such knowledge-based
systems have much to offer knowledge management that also aims at the capture,
validation, and subsequent technology-mediated dissemination of valuable knowl-
edge from experts.