This article talks about the balance between knowledge management and the information technologies that support KM.
Information management will only provide competitve advantage when a company can "balance between clear understanding of the nature of information, well-defined information architecture, management processes and the judicious use of appropriate technological support." Technology must enable people in the company to find and analyze information and make business decisions.
Rather than describing "the" knowledge management system, the authors describe important factors of any KM system. The technology should fit the needs of the company for KM, rather than the KM needs fitting to what is available from the technology. The technology needs to deliver up-to-date information of the appropriate type to those who need it, when and where they need it. This acknowledges the need for accuracy and integrity. And, finally, any technology needs to play well with the people who use it -- the usability issue.
The authors divide technologies to support KM into three primary buckets: collaboration, content management, and business intelligence. Note that these aren't KM tools, rather these are tools that can be used in support of a KM strategy.
While the article doesn't emphasize the cultural aspects of KM, they wrap up by saying
Current literature suggests that organisations must embrace and marry two complimentary avenues for Knowledge Management success, namely, cultural aspects of the organisation and technological developments employed within the organisation. To achieve successful organisation-wide connectivity it is crucial to develop culturally shared values that facilitate the adoption of technologies and electronic communications. It is also important to combine technology mediated interactions with face-to-face interactions, thus marrying social behaviour and work practices.
"Contributing and enabling technologies for knowledge management," by Sandra Moffett and Rodney McAdam, in International Journal of Information Technology and Management, Vol 2, Nos 1/2, 2003 (print only).
[Thanks to my friendly librarian who has done regular print searches for KM-related articles.]