Personal knowledge management based on social software

The emergence of information technology has provided a powerful hand for personal knowledge management, thus the personal knowledge management goes on more convenient and feasible. This paper gave the summary of personal knowledge management as well as social software, and then analyzed the characteristic of applying social software in personal knowledge management from the explicit and tacit knowledge perspective, finally gave a model of applying social software in personal knowledge management. 1 Personal Knowledge Management 1.1 The outline of personal knowledge management The 21st century was a knowledge economy time, the knowledge capital already becomes an important resources and the core capital in the social life, along with the development of computer network, the importance of knowledge management highlighted day by day. The knowledge management is a process to create value using knowledge and intelligence of enterprise and individual. It divides into organization knowledge management and personal knowledge management, Professor Paul A.Dorsey, an expert on personal knowledge management research, said that personal knowledge management is the basis and origin of knowledge management. And we also hold the same opinion. Personal knowledge management based on social software 1027 Personal knowledge management is a conceptual framework to organize and integrate information that we, as individuals, feel is important so that it becomes part of our personal knowledge base. It provides a strategy for transforming what might be random pieces of information into something that can be systematically applied and that expands our personal knowledge . Professor Eric tsui, the chief researcher in CSC Corporation and holds part-time jobs in Imperial Melbourne University of Science and Technology, pointed out that, “personal knowledge management is a continual process; individuals must do various works, such as gather, classification, collection, to ascend their personal knowledge in daily life. These activities not merely limit in the commercial and work, but also include individual interest, hobby, and leisure activity.” [2] Based on these, we may interpret personal knowledge management like this: under the information technology condition, individuals gain and process the information that they need, no matter where they are, and gradually establish their personal knowledge library, which is useful for the storage, use, communication, share and innovation of personal knowledge, at present and in future. In this process we should pay great attention to the share and innovation ability, which is the most important in personal knowledge management, so to explore individuals’ maximum potential. 1.2 Necessary of personal knowledge management “We live in the sea of network data material, but endured the thirsty and hunger of knowledge” this speech described the awkward situation vividly when the cyberspace main body faced the massive information on the Internet. The information overload in modern society causes us to exclaim at information’s huge as well as leaved us in the situation of not knowing how to pick and choose the useful. We often slide into another subject homepage in carelessly that the material is irrelevant with which we search, which wasted time of normal study and work; When we need some material urgently, we couldn't think clearly where we place it before; we want to search some useful thing, but in fact, the “rubbish information” the Internet provides is much more than the useful, we have to take time and energy to identify, in the end we ourselves forgot what we want to find at first. Therefore it appears to be especially important how to pick the useful knowledge from the abundant information and how to transfer them into ourselves’ personal knowledge. Moreover, the request of information literacy in e-learning times also demands us to grasp certain method on personal knowledge management. A person who has information literacy should be a knowledge manager first. Only if we learned to manage our personal knowledge effectively, absorb the beneficial knowledge, carry on the critical thinking, use professional technology proficiently, withdraw the knowledge form ourselves’ knowledge library, share them with everybody, and share others’ knowledge simultaneously, then can we learn to study, possess information literacy and become an independent lifelong learner. Bill Gates had said: “the way of collecting, managing and using information, decided your victory”, this speech gave a rather good annotation to the importance of personal knowledge management. Personal knowledge management can help 1028 ChenglingZhao1, Jianxia Cao1, Xinhua Guo2 individuals absorb the necessary knowledge pertinently, foster their habit and consciousness of lifelong learning, build the foundation for individuals’ knowledge study and ability promotion, thus enhance individuals’ specialized skill and competitive power.