1. Differentiating between
Information and Knowledge
Flows
M.sc.ing. Māra Pudāne
Riga Technical University

2. Challenges
• Successful organisation = well-established
knowledge circulation
• Information flow is not enough and it does
not show all important viewpoints!

3. Knowledge Flow and
Information Flow
A
B
C

4. Why is Differentiating
Important?
• there is no united terminology
• it could help in developing such fields as
information and knowledge logistics
• it would be beneficial to combine
information and knowledge flows in one
system

5. IF and KF Differences
• There is a lot of uncertainty...
• ...however KF and IF are used for etirely
different purposes
• IF: WHAT to do, WHERE to get resources
• KF: HOW to do it

6. Flow and Node
• A flow is a movement from one node to
another.
• Nodes are units which are located at both
ends of the flow.
Difference = value to the node

7. Differentiating between IF
and KF
Interface
Interface
Interface
Interface
Interface
Interface
Repository
Repository
Repository
Repository
Repository
Repository
Information Flow
Knowledge Flow

8. IF and KF Differentiating in IS
(1)
• Knowledge and information management
systems are extremely complicated
• Node can be complicated and depend on
level of abstraction

9. IF and KF Differentiating in IS
(2)
Repository: metadata and procedures
Interface: data, applications
Part of IS Incoming Flow
Information
Flow Elements
Knowledge Flow
Elements
Data Base Queries
Managem
ent
System
DELETE,
UPDATE,
INSERT, SELECT
CREATE
PROCEDURE/
TABLE, ADD

10. Conslusion (1)
• Main result is method of differentiating
between knowledge and information flows
in information systems
• It can be further applied to tools that use
knowledge and information flow analysis
for problem identification and solving
• method could improve the readability of
documents and help organisations to
document processes better

11. Conclusion (2)
• Potentially powerful idea
• Could benefit from the research of
information and knowledge channels
• The concepts presented here should be
researched further and implemented, and
tested

12. Thank You for Your Attention!
Questions, Remarks, Objections?