ABSTRACT
Knowledge management (KM) is concerned with understanding, organizing, and providing information. It is the study of how ideas, knowledge, and information are created, represented, communicated, and applied in a range of contexts. Evidence is defined as “information or signs indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid” (Hawker and Elliott 2005) and “data on which to base proof or to establish truth or falsehood, information etc., that gives reason for believing something” (Free Dictionary 2009). Evidence and KM are intertwined; neither exists in isolation. KM is the natural precursor for the provision of evidence, and evidence is similarly a natural product of KM. Issues with KM and the provision of evidence are becoming more frequently documented. Within government, policies are often developed at a frenetic pace to keep in line with global issues, and decisions are expected by an increasingly information-rich society to be justified and fully evidenced. More and more knowledge is required for this, and completeness is imperative to ensure against criticism and rebuttal from any person with Internet access to the vast numbers of documents available around the world. Too often we see careers destroyed by a single piece of information produced as evidence contrary to previous statements or recollections of events. Knowledge is rarely lost, but managing the ever-increasing volumes of knowledge that can be used as evidence is nontrivial.
