Kuali Days 2012

Stop by our booth in the Collaboration Showcase to learn more about our project and discuss how KITS-KMS can benefit your project and your efforts to launch and support Kuali applications at your institution. We'll be there Monday, Oct 15 1:45-2:00 and Tuesday, Oct 16 5:30-6:45 during the closing reception.

Featured session:

KITS-KMS: A Solution to Manage and Customize Delivery of Your Support Documentation

EDUCAUSE 2012

If you won't be at Kuali Days, perhaps you will be attending EDUCUASE 2012 in Denver, CO.

Featured sessions:

Contrasting Solutions: Shared Knowledge Base Content, a Crowdsourced Approach

Moving to the Cloud with Our Friends: Developing and Supporting Internet2 NET+ Services

Webinar archive

EDUCAUSE Podcast: Chuck Aikman on Knowledge Management and Kuali IT Support from Oct 2011

Introducing Kuali IT Support from Decemer 13, 2011

Kuali KMS for Knowledge Centered Support from January 17, 2012

Upcoming webinar schedule

The webinar series is currently postponed and will resume this fall.

Connection requirements

• Requires a pc (Windows or Mac) with headphones or speakers for the main presentation.
• For the Q/A portion questions may be submitted online and will be read and answered by the presenter. Surplus & follow-up questions will be posted with the webinar archive for later review.

Connection instructions

1. Go to: http://breeze.iu.edu/kits
2. Select "Enter as a Guest"
3. Type in your email in the Name field
4. Click the Enter Room button

Overview

The goal of knowledge management can be described as delivering the information people need at the point and in the format it is needed. The type of knowledge management that provides the context for the Kuali KMS project is not the broad field of Enterprise Content Management, but the support environment as described by Knowledge Centered Support (KCS). The content of the repository is driven by efforts to solve the problems people have accomplishing tasks and is dynamic.

KCS is a methodology and set of practices and processes that focuses on knowledge as a key asset of the customer/technical support organization. A basic assumption of KCS is that the best people to capture and maintain support knowledge are the people who create and use it every day. As such, the identification of content and its collection is driven by demand and usage. The software developed in the Kuali KMS project will enable the practices and processes needed to identify, collect, maintain, and make accessible the information people need to accomplish goals defined by the community or organization.

Indiana University is seeking partners to create a KMS for higher education based on the Indiana University Knowledge Base (KB) and extend the KMS into a next-generation collaborative system that shares content between institutions. Delivering support to the higher education community through this endeavor could eventually lead to use beyond information management and into disciplines other than IT support.

How institutions will benefit

The Kuali KMS community development project will lay the foundation for institutions of higher education to implement best practices in delivering excellent knowledge centered support.

The KMS will make it possible to work collaboratively when institutions find good partners. Each institution produces the content it needs, but that content's structure is well understood by the others because the technology to manage it is itself open and standard. The potential is there for the information store to be porous. The academic environment, with its innate culture of sharing, is exceptionally suited to such an endeavor.

As opposed to normal business contexts, the academic environment presents unique challenges in the management of information capture and delivery. Rather than documenting help for static products as in a manufacturing environment, multiple entities in the higher ed setting continually create and deliver services that are both less predictable and far more dynamic and broad; content creation and revision are often event-driven. The KMS will leverage the deep understanding of providers about their own services and deliver that expert information as the exact piece a customer needs.

At most institutions, the pervasiveness of information technology is reflected in across-the-board increases: in number of users, in time spent using technology, and in the proliferation of types and brands of devices and systems. But financial and human resources often fall short of the ability to fund and staff 1:1 interaction. As a result, forward-thinking institutions leverage their existing support resources, enhancing self-service systems to serve more people and using more devices 24x7x365, regardless of their location.

One of the most useful portions of a KMS is the ability to create and maintain documents in a single repository and use them in multiple places. Through web services technology, these documents can be used in class materials, online application help systems, online tutorials, step-by-step support tools, newsletters, IT notices, RSS feeds, and more. The beauty is that the information—the most expensive part of any KMS—is maintained in one place. Additions or changes are made once, and the content automatically populates as many places as designated, leveraging the information to serve innumerable audiences and purposes.

A well-designed KMS can stretch support resources exponentially, broadening the reach of staff expertise, extending the hours people can access support, and making support available wherever people connect. The savings that accrue from handling more support incidents more cost-effectively can help offset the higher cost of personal support, which plays a valuable role in any support program. Online knowledge management systems allow for expansive growth and support expansive demand—at very little incremental cost.

What will come later

Phase two will be to create a larger community development project that is a suite of online systems based on the principle of leverage—for example, online software distribution, IT systems status notifications, and hardware configurations. They leverage existing information, skills, and resources. Their potential for growth, whatever the fiscal climate, is virtually without boundaries. They are almost infinitely extensible. By proactively designing other such electronic resources that leverage core assets, the IT support unit is guaranteed reach, efficiency, and cost savings while it conserves its costlier and more scarce human resources for situations that require a human presence.

For more information about Indiana University’s ongoing efforts, see this page: Kuali Knowledge Management System (KMS).