The future of knowledge management

Volume 17, Number 3 • March 2000

The future of knowledge management — Two information professionals weigh in with their companies' perspectives
by Paul Blake

ONLINE INSIGHTS column interviews Jeremy Gittins, group marketing manager at Microsoft, and Scott Copper, general manager of Lotus' KM Products Group. Explains that the crux of an ongoing debate hangs on whether information professionals could mutate into knowledge managers, or if it is a bad bet since knowledge management (KM) could merely be the latest fad. Discusses how Microsoft and Lotus view its potential. Says that Gittens handles Microsoft's KM strategy in the U.K., but sees nothing new in KM, although he says that the jury is out on whether KM has staying power. However, he feels that it is not going to disappear tomorrow. Cooper, on the other hand, has no doubt that KM is here to stay. Observes that KM is what the information professional has always done for a living, and the role of technology in their job is dramatically increasing.