Knowledge Management & Open Access: Two Sides of Knowledge Sharing
At first glance, Knowledge Management and Open Access may appear to be quite different from each other. But in many ways, they represent two different sides of knowledge sharing.
Knowledge Management: Internal Knowledge Sharing
At its core, Knowledge Management is about maximizing the application and re-use of knowledge—usually within a particular organization or even a subset of an organization.
- Focuses on internal knowledge
- Captures, organizes, describes, shares, and promotes the re-use and application of knowledge generated within the organization
Open Access: External Knowledge Sharing
In many regards, Open Access is the inverse of this process.
- Focuses on external usage of knowledge
- Aggregates, describes, and disseminates knowledge for audiences outside the organization
- Ensures materials are discoverable via search engines and standards-compliant repositories
- Originally centered on research-related outputs (e.g., peer-reviewed articles), now includes datasets, grey literature, white papers, case studies, databases, and more
KM is about pulling together internal knowledge for organizational re-use. Open Access is the external push—maximizing discovery and re-use beyond the organization.
Push/Pull Model in Knowledge Sharing
- Open Access represents the push side (disseminating knowledge to a global audience)
- Knowledge Management represents the pull side (capturing and collecting knowledge for internal re-use)
Whether through Knowledge Management or Open Access, the key is ensuring that knowledge is discoverable to maximize its reuse.
