Centralized versus Peer-to-peer Knowledge Management Systems

The term knowledge management system (KMS) has been used widely to denote information and communication technologies in support of knowledge management. However, so far investigations about the notion of KMS, their functions and architecture as well as the differences to more traditional information systems remain on an abstract level. This paper reviews the literature on KMS and distills a number of characteristics concerning the specifics of knowledge to be managed, the platform metaphor, advanced knowledge services, KM instruments, supported processes and goals of their application. The paper then presents two ideal architectures for KMS, a centralized and a peer-topeer architecture, discusses their differences with the help of two example systems and suggests that each of these architectures fits a different type of KM initiative.