Knowledge Management Infostation
Update on Knowledge Management (KM) Development in the Force

1 Photo

This article serves to provide Force members with an update on the progress of:

* the new 'KM portal' project,

* other KM related initiatives, and

* user expectations.

New 'KM Portal' Project

Police Working Experience Repository (POWER)

With the development of information technology, the Force has accumulated a wealth of knowledge, which is available to all Force members through electronic means. In order to efficiently and effectively manage the information stored in these databases/WebPages, the ESB of SQW, with help from EPOL Division of Information Systems Wing (ISW), has developed a new KM Portal, namely, POlice Working Experience Repository (POWER). The 'POWER' has four main components namely, Content Management, Navigation, Search Engine and MyBriefcase.

Content Management

The Content Management System (CMS) has been set up to ensure that the contents stored at databases and WebPages are properly categorised and updated.

Under the Database Content Management System (DCMS), a database content management template has been developed to enable Force members to categorise, upload, update and store material via PEN easily, quickly and systematically. With regard to WebPages, EPOL Division has developed a Web Content Management System (WCMS) with a view to enhancing corporate image and categorising, storing and updating information.

Navigation

The design of the Navigation mechanism is to help users retrieve information via browsing with the help of a user-friendly interface. A new portal interface using the mind-mapping approach has been adopted to group and display information in the form of hexagons. Two navigation flows, Formation and Topic, have been provided for retrieving information via browsing.

Search Engine

All documents stored in the Force Intranet are properly categorised, keywords and related topics are also identified. These, together with a refined search engine, will facilitate the retrieval of relevant and up-to-date information, which are grouped into different topics and formations.

MyBriefcase

The 'MyBriefcase' component will be delivered at the second half of 2006. The concept that underpins MyBriefcase is to prevent the loss of knowledge and experience when an officer transfers from a post or leaves the Force.

Other KM related initiatives

ESB has implemented other KM initiatives, which can be accessed from the new KM Portal. These initiatives are:

* Practices and Experience Acquisition Kiosk (PEAK),

* Legal Advice Bulletin (LAB),

* Peer Advisor Scheme (PAS),

* Collaboration Forum, and

* KM eLearning Package.

KM Champion Scheme

To ensure the sustainability of the various KM initiatives namely Peer Advisor Scheme, Collaboration Forum and PEAK, voluntary KM Champions, as listed below, are to be appointed by DMS to maintain and further develop the initiatives within their respective KM domains.

KM Champion	Post	KM Domain
Cheng Tak-ming	DDC RAILDIST	Peer Advisor Scheme
Chan Kwok-hung	SSP HR (TEMP)	Collaboration Forum
Cheung Tak-keung	SSP OPS HKI	PEAK (Lesson Learnt)
Wong Sui-fat	SSP IB 2 SQ	PEAK(Benchmarking of Practices)

User Expectation

No system is perfect when it is being built. Force members may find some minor deficiencies about the portal when they start using it. In such a case, they should report the problems or suggestions to the KM Team by sending email to the PEN account of km-admin.

As the data migration process has not yet been completed, in particular the restricted databases, and the formations are not using the WCMS to create or update WebPages, Force members may find the search results not as relevant as they would expect when they are searching. Nevertheless, this could be improved upon the completion of data migration in July 2006 and be further improved after all Formations are using the WCMS by the end of 2007.

Information stored at restricted databases, though searchable, cannot be retrieved directly via the new portal interface and the new search engine. Officers need to logon the icon of Database (Restricted) displayed at the top of Force Welcome Page in PEN, using their respective passwords. Confidential or sensitive information will not be stored at KM databases or formation WebPages.

To make the new portal more sustainable and successful, ongoing maintenance and continuous improvements will be made. Most importantly, the contribution and suggestions from Force members are crucial. The better that information is labelled, the more relevant results can be retrieved, and your suggestions or contribution will enrich the portal and make it more mature.

For easy reference, see the diagram below.