Feature Requirements for KM in Public Administration

The information society develops a novel and comprehensive vision of governance with knowledge as core part. For building KMS a mere transferring of concepts from the private sector to the public area will not suffice; approaches of their own are necessary. For this purpose, Public Administration in general as well as in typical applications is juxtaposed with main features of KMS. Focal question is how features of KMS technology can meet requests derived from administrative work. The outcome is a remarkable picture; it shows bright options and possibilities as well as shortfalls and indications for further development. 1. Knowledge as Prime Force in Public Administration With the emergence of the information society, establishing an integrative approach to governance is of paramount importance. So it surpasses is olated solutions such as internet portals for citizen; moreover the proclamation is an unreserved claim for a profound rethinking of administrative work. In such a novel concept of governance the role of knowledge becomes dominant and is expressed in metaphors: defining administrative action as “knowledge work” is one statement, regarding public authorities as ”knowledge networks” is another. Especially the idea of a network is demanding: it is more than claiming demand for information; moreover the idea of a network suggests a qualitative increase and intensification of relevant knowledge. So building a modern administration with novel patterns of co-operation is tantamount to changing the distribution of knowledge. Redistribution of knowledge must be designed and orchestrated carefully, and so managing knowledge becomes a major responsibility for officials. Boiling this down to leads to the concept “knowledge enhanced Government”. Without a doubt, prospects for KM in Public Administration are remarkable from the point of demand: nearly all administrative tasks are informational in nature, decision making is an officials daily bread, and for any agency its particular domain knowledge is an asset of key importance. In this contribution we treat a main question of introducing KM to Public Administration: how can main features of KMS meet the typical requests of administrative work. 2 Roland Traunmüller and Maria Wimmer