ICT for Knowledge Management in Construction

GUEST EDITOR(S):

Abdul Samad (Sami) Kazi, Senior Research Scientist
VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland
http://www.vtt.fi Sami.Kazi@vtt.fi

Matti Hannus, Chief Research Scientist
VTT -Technical Research Centre of Finland
http://www.vtt.fi Matti.Hannus@vtt.

SUMMARY:Welcome to this special issue of ITcon on “ICT support for knowledge management in construction”. The terms knowledge and knowledge management have been “the hype” for quite some time now. The simple (and much used) argument that knowledge management is “the step after” information management leads to certain delusions. If we expect otherwise, then it may not be long before someone coins the term “wisdom management” and this becomes the focal point of future research and development. On the contrary, one needs to see knowledge management not only as “the step after” information management, but on its own as well. This in itself is a major task considering the number of definitions one comes across in both literature and public debate. Though it is not our intention here to define knowledge or knowledge management, we do present a well appreciated quote from Dr. Jari Puttonen, Senior Advisor, Fortum Engineering Ltd., who on the objectives of knowledge management said the following, “sort the wheat from the chaff and then sieve out the real drops of