Closing the Gap: From Nescience to Knowledge Management

Knowledge management (KM) systems aim at supporting knowledge workers in general and software engineers in particular. These tools help to elicit, structure, and retrieve knowledge. However, while KM systems are functional, they are not used in practice as effectively as possible as there is not much incentive for experts to share their expertise: the concrete need for knowledge is unclear as is the value/reward for knowledge entered into the system. This paper proposes to enhance the KM process by accentuating the importance of nescience in information and knowledge-centric processes. A concrete concept is suggested proposing a question related system in the KM environment, which establishes need for answers and allows to establish a market for knowledge. Such a market guides the experts to donate knowledge that is currently most valuable in the user community. The effectiveness and efficiency of the new processes can be empirically evaluated by monitoring the activities of information seekers and experts in the KM system: the frequency of access and feedback of user satisfaction with the system.