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82 Chapter 3

The major strength of the Wiig model is that despite having been formulated in
1993, the organized approach to categorizing the type of knowledge to be managed
remains a very powerful theoretical model of KM. The Wiig KM model is perhaps the
most pragmatic of the models in existence today and can easily be integrated into any
of the other approaches. This model enables practitioners to adopt a more detailed or
refi ned approach to managing knowledge based on the type of knowledge, but going
beyond the simple tacit/explicit dichotomy. The major shortcoming is that very little
has been published in terms of research and/or practical experience in implementing
this model.

The Boisot I-Space KM Model
The Boisot KM model is based upon the key concept of an “ information good ” that
differs from a physical asset. Boisot distinguishes information from data by emphasiz-
ing that information is what an observer will extract from data as a function of his or
her expectations or prior knowledge . The effective movement of information goods
is very much dependent on senders and receivers sharing the same coding scheme or
language. A “ knowledge good ” is a concept that in addition possesses a context within
which it can be interpreted. Effective knowledge sharing requires that senders and
receivers share the context as well as the coding scheme.
Boisot (1998) proposes the following two key points:

The more easily data can be structured and converted into information, the more diffusible it
becomes.
The less data that has been so structured requires a shared context for its diffusion, the more
diffusible it becomes.

Together, they underpin a simple conceptual framework, the information space or
I-Space KM model. The data are structured and understood through the processes of
codifi cation and abstraction. Codifi cation refers to the creation of content categories —
the fewer the number of categories, the more abstract the codifi cation scheme. The
assumption is that well-codifi ed abstract content is much easier to understand and
apply than highly contextual content. Boisot ’ s KM model does address the tacit form
of knowledge by noting that in many situations, the loss of context due to codifi ca-
tion may result in the loss of valuable content. This content needs a shared context
for its interpretation and that implies face-to-face interaction and spatial proximity —
which is analogous to the socialization quadrant in the Nonaka and Takeuchi model
(1995).
The I-Space model can be visualized as a three-dimensional cube with the following
dimensions (refer to fi gure 3.10 ):