Developing a domain ontology for knowledge management technologies

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a new ontology for knowledge management (KM) technologies, determining the relationships between these technologies and classification of them. Design/methodology/approach: The study applies NOY methodology – named after Natalya F. Noy who initiated this methodology. Protégé software and ontology web language are used for building the ontology. The presented ontology is evaluated with abbreviation and consistency criteria and knowledge retrieval of KM technologies by experts. Findings: All the main concepts in the scope of KM technologies are extracted from existing literature. There are 241 words, 49 out of them are domain concepts, eight terms are about taxonomic and non-taxonomic relations, one term relates to data property and 183 terms are instances. These terms are used to develop KM technologies’ ontology based on three factors: facilitating KM processes, supporting KM strategies and the position of technology in the KM technology stage model. The presented ontology is created a common understanding in the field of KM technologies. Research limitations/implications: Lack of specific documentary about logic behind decision making and prioritizing criteria in choosing KM technologies. Practical implications: Uploading the presented ontology in the web environment provides a platform for knowledge sharing between experts from around the world. In addition, it helps to decide on the choice of KM technologies based on KM processes and KM strategy. Originality/value: Among the many categories of KM technologies in literature, there is no classifying according to several criteria simultaneously. This paper contributes to filling this gap and considers KM processes, KM strategy and stages of growth for KM technologies simultaneously to choice the KM technologies and also there exists no formal ontology regarding KM technologies. This study has tried to propose a formal KM technologies’ ontology.