Opening Address by Mr. Howard C Dickson, Government Chief Information Officer, at Knowledge Management Symposium 2005
20 - 5 - 2005

Mr. Fung, Mr. Bien, Mr. LaPorte, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to address today the Knowledge Management Symposium with the theme "Extending the Frontier of Knowledge Management". I would like to congratulate the Knowledge Management Development Centre and the Institute of Management Consultants Hong Kong for organising the Symposium with such a rich programme. Indeed, this is a good example of partnership among professional bodies and the Government, as the Symposium is funded by the Professional Services Development Assistance Scheme administered by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau of the Government. The Symposium underlies what knowledge management is about, that is, leveraging on the collective wisdom to increase responsiveness and innovation.

What is knowledge? The compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary, Samuel Johnson, said in the 18th Century, "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." This definition still holds true to a certain extent even to this day. To a modern organisation, business enterprise and indeed government, knowledge tends to connote possession of experienced "know-how" and factual information or where to get it. From the economic perspective, "knowledge", as Peter Drucker described in his book <<Managing in a Time of Great Change>>, "has become the key economic resource and the dominant - and perhaps even the only - source of competitive advantage." Knowledge is increasingly vital to the transition of any economy to one that is innovation driven and knowledge based. The phrase "knowledge management", or KM, entered the lexicon in the early 90's. Knowledge management is an action. The key is application. In the words of Drucker, "knowledge for the most part exists only in application." Without application, a piece of knowledge is of no use.

Under our Digital 21 Strategy for information technology (IT) development, we have recognised the need to promote a vibrant, competitive and innovation driven IT industry in Hong Kong. To maintain Hong Kong's competitiveness, we must also have adequate and quality human resources in IT to meet the demand of a knowledge economy and specifically that of commerce and industry. With these strategic objectives, the Government is putting our thinking into action. We are extending the frontier of our efforts by collaborating with the professional bodies and local IT industry. We are leveraging on the collective wisdom within the Government as well as of the IT industry for the benefit of Hong Kong. I would like to introduce below the KM initiatives being implemented by the Government.

The Government has been actively promoting KM among various bureaux and departments. Some of them have already implemented their KM initiatives. The Civil Service Bureau is forming a KM Network of Government bureaux and departments. So far we have over 20 bureaux and departments joining the Network. We also have an IT User-Managers Group that, comprising IT managers from over 70 bureaux and departments, provides a forum for them to share experiences in planning and implementing IT initiatives.

As the leading organisation within the Government to promote the sharing of and collaboration on IT-related knowledge, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, or the OGCIO in short, has put heavy emphasis on KM and implemented a KM framework. The objectives of our KM framework are:

• To facilitate the creation, aggregation, sharing and utilisation of IT knowledge in the Government to foster the development of a stronger "Government IT community" for further development of E-government; and
• To facilitate IT practitioners' access to necessary knowledge across various business domains, or so called silos of knowledge, to support various bureaux and departments in planning and implementing IT initiatives.

Our KM framework consists of five elements, i.e., governance, technology, contents, culture and behaviour, and measurement. Through applications, these elements create experiences for IT practitioners to carry out their jobs more effectively. Here I would like to share with you what they are.

First, governance. A two-tier management framework for KM has been put in place, i.e. a Steering Committee and a Working Group. The Steering Committee steers and drives the adoption of KM, while the Working Group oversees the overall implementation of the KM framework and recommends new KM initiatives for continuous improvement.

Second, technology. On the technology side, we have an OGCIO Portal to provide a single entry point for accessing the knowledgebase, online discussion forums, various IT applications, commonly accessed websites, etc. Currently, there are around 1,700 IT managers and practitioners in the Government having access to the Portal.

Third, contents. For explicit knowledge that is well structured, a taxonomy has been built under the OGCIO Portal. Owners of knowledge contents can deploy their contents according to the taxonomy.

For implicit or tacit knowledge, we have now around ten Communities of Practice, or COPs in short, covering various strategic focuses of our Office, ranging from 'IT and E-government Strategies' to 'IT Cooperation with the Mainland', and from 'Wireless Technologies' to 'Project, Service and Quality Management'. More COps will be formed as and when required. Through the operation of the COPs including face-to-face gatherings, visits and online discussions, knowledge and experiences are shared among the COP members as well as with other organisations and the academia. This also helps transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, and above all helps create knowledge through the various projects initiated by the COPs themselves.

Fourth, culture and behaviour. We have implemented a number of measures to help develop a knowledge sharing culture and encourage sharing behaviour in our Office. For example, we award knowledge sharing behaviour through electing the best contributors among COP members and presenting them prizes as a token of appreciation in major staff gatherings.

Fifth, measurement. We make reference to the level of participation in the various COP activities and in the online forums with a view to further promoting the KM framework. We also use client satisfaction data to gauge our clients' views on the importance of KM and measure the overall effectiveness of the KM framework.

Sharing of knowledge is the sharing of experience. In addition to the above, we understand that sharing of knowledge with IT industry players outside the Government is equally important. Being both a major purchaser of IT services and products and a facilitator of the IT industry, we wish to foster a synergistic relationship between IT suppliers and the Government. In Cyberport, we are creating an opportunity to gain experiences cheaply. The Digital Media Centre and the Wireless Development Centre provide facilities for the IT industry to gain experience and develop their products at low cost.

Sharing of knowledge with the industry players also calls for a support structure to enhance mutual understanding and information exchange, and to enhance the market potential of the suppliers as a result of their work for the Government. We have already set up the IT Solution Centre in the Cyberport for IT suppliers to introduce their products and services to the Government. In addition, IT suppliers can register with our IT Promotion Database and supply relevant information about the IT products and solutions of interest to the Government.

As a further step, under the Quality Professional Services framework, and the associated standing offer agreements to be finalised by the end of this year, we will set up a Suppliers Community Portal for the purposes of, among other things, providing a more interactive channel through which suppliers can introduce themselves to potential clients in the Government, and facilitating access by the Government to information about what technological and professional capabilities are readily available.

To ensure adequate and quality IT human resources to meet the demand of the knowledge economy, the Education and Manpower Bureau and our Office are collaborating with the IT industry in the setting up of an Industry Training Advisory Committee and the development of a Qualification Framework to define competency standards and aggregate them into qualifications for different levels of jobs. An industry consultation session was held earlier this month and we look forward to more progress for this initiative in the coming few months.

As seen from the above, we are promoting a collaborative environment between the IT industry and the Government, not least within the Government. And this, together with your own efforts in KM, will make our industry one that is vibrant, competitive and innovation driven.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are committed to making Hong Kong a leading digital city in the 21st century and a knowledge-based society. The Symposium today will surely provide a valuable and effective forum for us to exchange views, to share experiences and to create opportunities for co-operation, and give us useful pointers to how we should move forward in leveraging on our collective wisdom.

Thank you.

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