Ontologies of organizational memory as basis for evaluation

This paper proposes an ontology of Organizational Memory (OM) that can guide its design, construction, evolution and evaluation. The upper level of the ontology is described using the generalized concept of Structural Memory (SM), which is a framework of types (e.g., Organizational Memory and Individual Memory) and components (contents and means) that enable the management of know-how . We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by constructing the ontology using UML (Unified Modeling Language). The resulting ontology is evaluated for its conceptual completeness. We conclude by showing how this ontological approach can serve as the basis for OM evaluation. This work should prove useful for anyone involved in knowledge management evaluation, and organizational memory in particular.