A Brief History of Knowledge Management

This article is part one in a series entitled Knowledge Flow: A commentary on the changing landscape of knowledge management in the enterprise.

The need to manage knowledge goes back just about as far as we look. Paleoanthropologist Adam Benton explains in his article Why did prehistoric people make cave art?

…cave art was an attempt to keep a record of species seen before, preserving the knowledge of them for when they returned.

In his 1997 paper titled Knowledge Management: Where Did it Come From and Where Will It Go?, author Karl M. Wiig, explains the evolution of Knowledge Management.

Early on, the [Knowledge Management] focus was on concerns with how to make the most with limited resources. Later, the focus shifted to making clever products. Presently, advanced organizations focus on creating ingenious solutions and developing broad relationships to make customers succeed in their business.

He goes on to explain how Agrarian, Natural Resource, Industrial Revolution Product Revolution…