Existing competence systems are based on a rationalistic view of competence. While these competence systems might work in job-based organizations, we argue that in more dynamic settings, such as in knowledge-based organizations, the interest-informed actions that capture the emergent competencies of tomorrow require different types of information technology support. The main objective of this paper is to elaborate on the possibilities and implications of using interest-activated technology as a design rationale for competence systems. This paper is based on an action case study of an implemented interest-activated Intranet recommender system prototype at Volvo Information Technology AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. On the basis of how organizational members used this prototype to find information they were interested in, our research team was able to inquire into how personal interest, embodied in information-seeking activities, could be a means for identifying competence. Building on the relation between personal interest and competence, we discuss competence systems design and spell out explicit implications for managerial practice in knowledge-based organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to point at some of the aspects that make today’s large-scale information systems and infrastructures in globally dispersed corporations exceedingly challenging to implement. At the brink of the new millennium, emerging trends like globalisation and the Internet – as well as the buzzword ‘knowledge management’, have profound impacts on how business organisations design and deploy its IT solutions. Standardisation and integration seem to be the common strategy – whether it is ERP systems, middleware based IS, Intranets, or IT infrastructures. However, in practice these systems are often heterogeneous and fragmented, and constrained by various socio-technical aspects. In focusing on this phenomenon, we suggest the concept of a ‘horizontal information system’. Drawing from examples from a maritime classification company we take a closer look at the phenomenon, and some implications for design and deployment of such systems are briefly described. 1

critical for organizations that are striving to gain or maintain a competitive advantage and that are in the process of re-structuring for the new century. Decision-making is an important factor for growing organizational memory with newly created knowledge and a broader base of perspectives to use in subsequent decision-making situations. Given a particular decision context and a decision maker with a set of personal values, it may be very difficult to see all sides of the issue. Yet, being able to view the decision environment from multiple perspectives would enhance the decision maker's ability to make better-informed choices.

Information technology both facilitates and exacerbates the need for organizations to manage growing information and knowledge bases. Soon, the only successful enterprises may be the ones who have successfully evolved into learning organizations. The philosophical bases underlying traditional decision support systems (DSS) are ill equipped to handle this explosion of information, today’s rapidly changing business environment, or support a learning organization. A comprehensive knowledge management system (KMS) based on the philosophies of inquiring systems (IS) allows organizational learning to occur by providing both decision support and management of existing and created knowledge. By combining the DSS paradigm with IS, an organization will be capable of designing a comprehensive KMS that will fully support learning within the organization. Development of such a system will allow executives to rely more fully on the support system, freeing up valuable time to establish goals and guide the organization to its ultimate success.

Teaching Social Informatics poses the challenge of portraying future scenarios of technology development and use as well as criticizing them. We envision meeting this challenge by offering students an authentic, interdisciplinary educational framework, providing real-life, hands-on experiences. In this paper, we will first develop the idea of "knowledge projects" as a means to encourage such educational settings. Then we will focus on our efforts to develop a Webbased software system, named CommSy, designed to support communication and coordination in learning communities involved in knowledge projects.

SUMMARY: The 21 st century has been a growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability agenda. Moreover for construction, it has become increasingly important as clients are pushing for a more sustainable product to complement their organisations ’ own strategic plans. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable construction is therefore seen as the application of sustainable practices to the activities of the construction sector. One of the key factors in making construction projects more sustainable is overcoming the obstacles of capturing and managing the knowledge required by project teams to effect such change. Managing this knowledge is key to the construction industry because of the unique characteristics of its projects, i.e. multi-disciplinary teams, dynamic participation of team members, heavy reliance on previous experiences/heuristics, the one-off nature of the projects, tight schedules, limited budget, etc. Initiatives within the industry and academic research are developing mechanisms and tools for managing knowledge in construction firms and projects. Such work has so far addressed the issues of capturing, storing, and transferring knowledge. Despite these efforts, there is still very limited understanding of the best ways to foster

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this paper may provide a model for assessing the knowledge processes with the construction industry. A further analysis of inter-organisational knowledge management, is provided by Levy et al's paper on knowledge sharing between SMEs (Levy, Loebbecke et al. 2001). This short paper highlights the notion of "co-opetition", simultaneous cooperation and competition. Of particular interest is the concept of using game-theory as a framework for analysing inter-organisational knowledge sharing where knowledge gained by co-operation may be exploited for competition (Levy, Loebbecke et al. 2001)

This paper provides a prologue to knowledge management for the UK construction industry as it attempts to deal with issues of the sustainability of its practices. Sustainable construction is seen as a novel and contested concept within the industry, and is perceived as requiring the industry collectively to innovate new practices and deploy new knowledge. The paper explores the foundations for any technological intervention to support these aims, based on knowledge management ideas, and considers the issues of beginning such a task. The paper steps back from the detail of what any particular knowledge management intervention is trying to achieve, or how it might be undertaken, and instead asks broad questions of both knowledge management and of the formative context for any intervention in support of sustainability. Drawing on soft systems methodology, the paper explores various relevant weltanschauungen and asks whether a desirable knowledge management intervention is feasible within this context. Classes of findings are described using evidence from an empirical study.

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