Epistheme: scientific knowledge management environment in the SpeCS collaborative framework

Researchers create and change information faster than in the past. Although a large part of this exchange is in document form, there is also much informal or tacit knowledge exchange in peoples' interactions. The Epistheme environment was designed for scientific knowledge management. This environment is an instance of the SpeCS collaborative framework and aims at knowledge creation, according to Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) theory. Researchers can be provided with all necessary knowledge to execute their tasks, to make decisions, collaborate with one another and disseminate an individual's knowledge to transform it into organizational knowledge. This article shows the Epistheme framework with the modules of identification, creation, validation, integration, acquisition and knowledge distribution.