Information visualization for knowledge repositories: Applications and impacts

Abstract

Information technology plays a supportive role in knowledge management. It captures and stores knowledge into knowledge repositories. At the same time, it also improves access to knowledge stored in knowledge repositories. The codification strategy in knowledge management (Hansen, et al., 1999) and the capturing functionality of information technology have made more and more knowledge repositories available. However, the utility of a knowledge repository may largely depend on how information is presented and requested through its interfaces. The interface requirement of a knowledge repository varies with the content of knowledge and the media type in which the repository stores the knowledge. The dissertation provides an example of selecting appropriate information visualization and analysis technology to facilitate effective knowledge retrieval from different types of knowledge repository. It identifies four types of knowledge repository, each of which has unique requirements for its interfaces. The dissertation applies various visualization technologies to fulfill such requirements. The interfaces developed facilitate the knowledge retrieval by helping in the specification of information needs or by supporting users' information browsing behavior. In addition, the dissertation also presents four empirical studies evaluating the systems developed. Since the lack of evaluation studies in the field of information visualization has become an issue, such empirical studies also provide examples of approaches to evaluating different aspects of an interface.