READER : Knowledge Management and Knowledge Systems for Rural Development 1 Knowledge Management and Knowledge Systems for Rural Development

Introduction Knowledge Management Knowledge Management (KM) is a relatively novel management concept. It has been pushed by the rapid developments of Information and Communication Technology. ICT facilitates a speedy exchange of data, information and documents. There is groupware for communication; content management systems to organise and retrieve documents; expert systems, data mining and text mining systems, tracing services and search engines, e.g. Google. Communication via email, fax, and phone and video-conferences is ordinary business. It is good guessing that technological advances will continue to revolutionize the way we communicate and interact with each other. While the speed and ease to exchange data and information will increase, a new challenge for users emerges: to select relevant data, information and documents. To better understand potential and limitations it is important to recognise the differences between data, information and knowledge.