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Department of Information Systems
Faculty of Commerce
University of Cape Town

 

NOTICE OF RESEARCH SEMINAR
No: 2004.4

Date: Wednesday, 2 June 2004
Time: 12h30-14h00
Venue: Leslie Commerce, Upper Campus, Room 6.14
Speaker: Dr George Ditsa
Topic: Knowledge Management about Knowledge Management Systems: A Conceptual Cleansing
 

SPEAKER

Dr. George Ditsa is a lecturer in Information Systems in the School of Economics and Information Systems, Faculty of Commerce, University of Wollongong, Australia. Dr. Ditsa holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science, an MBA (IS) degree from the University of Wollongong and has recently earned his PhD degree in Information Systems from the University of Wollongong, on the topic: Executive Information Systems Use in Organisational Contexts: An Explanatory User Behaviour Testing. Dr. Ditsa has worked for many years in the IS area as a programmer/analyst and project team leader in various organizations before taking up lectureship position. His current research interests include: Behavioral issues in the adoption and use of enterprise (executive) information systems; Strategic IT/IS Management in Organizations; Issues on IT/IS Adoption and Use in Developing Countries; Project Management; E-Commerce and Supply Chain Management; and Knowledge management and Knowledge management systems. Dr. Ditsa has authored a book and has published numerous articles in conference proceedings, academic journals and books.

TOPIC

Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems are slowly but surely capturing the attention of many organizations in a quest for competitive advantage. Like many other computing fads before them, there is no shortage of recipes by its proponents. This seminar will discuss the emerging discipline of Knowledge Management in computing and explain the concepts underlying Knowledge Management Systems that will lead to a better development and implementation of these systems. In particular, it will tackle the conceptual confusion about data, information, and knowledge, which appears to be finding its way into the Knowledge Management literature. The terms, 'capta' (Checkland & Howell, 1998) and 'constructed data' (Flood, 1999), are used in analyzing these concepts to clear some of the confusion surrounding them. The use of these terms also highlights our (the IT community) taking for granted assumptions about the hierarchical relationship and the more insightful emergent relationships.

 


A finger lunch and refreshments will be provided. To RSVP and for further information on the seminar please call Ms Aayesha Patel on 650-4028 or e-mail: Aayesha.Patel@uct.ac.za