EDUCAUSE Review Articles and Knowledge Management

The author discusses ways higher education can transition soon to be retirees without the abrupt loss of organizational knowledge.

Making knowledge services work in higher education will depend on developments in technology and also on a variety of commitments—academic, institutional, commercial, and public policy—undertaken by a small cadre of innovative institutions and leaders.

"As recently as the year 2000, the phrases in the title of this article were the province of professional librarians, knowledge managers, and other information intermediaries, as well as researchers interested in how to map knowledge of different kinds and in different locations. Since that time, tools suitable for mass knowledge use have emerged. These tools have changed the nature of the power relationships for creating, sharing, and using knowledge. They have also empowered people who, in 2000, were typically not "power users" of knowledge tools (academics, students, researchers, and employees in commercial enterprises) so that today they are able to use mass-market tools to identify, map, exploit, and contribute to their own sources of knowledge, in ways that suit their preferences, resources, and needs."

Portal technology, the foundation of new kinds of business-to-consumer relationships in the digital economy, is offering higher education strategic choices for knowledge management and community building.