ABSTRACT
Knowledge Management (KM) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with all aspects of knowledge processes including knowledge creation, discovery, acquisition, sharing, transfer, retention and organization. Knowledge capture picks up where knowledge discovery leaves off as it provides the vehicle for recording the uncovered knowledge. A critical component to capturing knowledge is assigning, or tagging, descriptive information, metadata, to content. Search technologies rely on metadata tags to help knowledge users locate the right content. Knowledge capture should include defining templates for significant organizational knowledge along with required and recommended metadata. Creating knowledge content templates and metadata should be the work of peer groups or communities of practice who share an interest in the capture and use of a common knowledge type. The ultimate objective of any KM implementation is to facilitate the reuse of existing organizational knowledge to improve performance and reduce costs. Knowledge portals are an effective mechanism for making knowledge use a natural business process.
