JIDV - IJOV

INSTITUTION 

Introduction

y applying the theories and techniques of Adaptive Knowledge Management to the free, Internet-based communication and information services Victim Assistance Online provides, we are able to maintain an extremely flexible, responsive and user-focused service.   Use of these techniques allow our organization to: access the collective knowledge of our members; quickly alter our services depending on the changing needs of our users; and provide interactive forums for professionals which can aid in the leveraging of shared information into new knowledge.

Organization Background

Victim Assistance Online is a Canadian-based non-profit organization, which works strictly though the Internet to act as an information, research and networking resource for victim assistance service providers, professionals in related fields and those interested in the field of victimology.  Victim Assistance Online started as a grass-roots organization in 1996, and incorporated as a Canadian non-profit service in 1998.  For the past seven years, we have used several Internet-based technologies to provide professionals with access to:

·                        communication forums for the exchange of news, information, learned experiences and peer support

·                        opportunities for networking with other professionals or organizations

·                        opportunities for cooperative research and sharing of resources

·                        online reference materials, including contact directories

Our operating philosophy is simple:  A fully informed community of service providers can better aid victims of crime and tragedy. The Internet provides the perfect tool by which to help keep this community informed as suggested by Seymour (1995) 

The growth in technological applications to manage the expansion and development of victim service organizations, enhance case management and tracking information for both victims and offenders, and simplify and expand communications through the worldwide ‘Information Superhighway’, holds great promise for the discipline of victims' rights and services. Knowledge about and use of existing and emerging technologies can save greatly needed time, money, and human resources for victim advocates and crime victims.

By providing service providers and their organizations with a variety of free online information resources and communication mediums, which include Internet technologies such as e-mail, e-mail listservs (software systems which allow e-mail messages sent by registered users to be automatically resent all other registered users, creating the effect of an ongoing conversation or conference) and World Wide Web hypertext web sites – we help them remain current with the latest research, news and initiatives, plus providing the opportunity to share learned experiences. 

By helping to keep service providers fully informed, we not only aid the providers and their organizations, but indirectly all the clients they serve. 

Our Service Population

What do we mean by victim assistance service providers and related professionals?  According to United Nations resolution 40/34, the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, victims of crime and abuse of power are defined as:  "…persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within Member States, including those laws proscribing criminal abuse of power.” (1985)

Thus the staff and volunteers of any service or agency dedicated to working with the above-mentioned populations, whether serving a specific class of victim or the entire spectrum, could be considered as victim assistance service providers. 

The broad definition supplied by the UN Declaration also encompasses a number of academic and professional fields, including – but is not limited to – academic research, criminology, law, law enforcement, international aid, psychiatry, psychology, sociology and social work, traumatology and victimology.  While the professionals in these fields may not always focus directly on victims of crime, their projects and research often yield results that, directly or indirectly, can affect victims of crime and the specialists who serve them.  For this reason, members of these fields are considered related professionals.

Using the Internet

Victim Assistance Online selected Internet communications as a speedy, cost effective way of presenting both communications services and easily accessible information resources.  Specific online mediums were selected for use as primary communication channels, these being: an indexed web site; e-mail; and e-mail based systems e-mail discussion lists. There were many reasons for these selections, but the most important were:

·                        Access: The use of a web site provides our users with 24 hour a day access to information, referrals and online documentation.  E-mail messages can be sent 24 hours a day and will wait in the recipient’s mailbox until downloaded. E-mail is also a common office tool, often constantly in use, allowing messages reach a user almost instantly.

·                        Commonality: The vast majority Internet service providers provide E-mail and web access as basic services for all accounts.

·                        Cost:  E-mail and web access are included in access packages at no extra charge to our users, unlike many collaboration tools.  Additionally, it is very cost effective for Victim Assistance Online to use e-mail for it’s business services, as it saves the cost of surface mail, long-distance telephone or fax messages and, at times, traveling costs for conferences.

·                        Ease: As both web browsers and e-mail software are basic tools, most victim service providers are already familiar with their use

·                        Flexibility: Both e-mail and web browsers have multiple features available, should new collaboration tools be introduced in the future. “Each browser now has incorporated e-mail, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), chat facilities, video viewers, audio players, and video conference/white board software.” (NVAA, Chapter 20, 1999).  Listserv software allows Victim Assistance Online is able to provide specific professional groups with as many listserv “e-mail discussion forums” as needed, on whatever topics might be needed.

·                        Preference: Input from our users indicates a preference for these two protocols over specialized collaboration tools.  A 2000 survey of VAI users (278 surveys sent out, 68 returned) showed that 91% of VAI respondents regularly use the Victim Assistance Online website as an information, reference and referral source and that 86% had a preference for e-mail and e-mail discussion lists over any other form of interactive communications.

The importance of e-mail as a communications tool cannot be overstressed.  E-mail as a tool – whether used in basic e-mail messaging or complex listserv systems – helps encourage synergistic discussion between victim service providers, organizations and professionals.  “One of the consistent messages that emerge from most information mapping projects is the importance of electronic mail. Thinking in terms of email is a critical lesson. Web centered thinking leads to static systems that are based upon the technology or upon the content, but hardly ever on the relationships. Email, on the other hand, is inherently about the dynamics of communication.” (Gilbert, 2002).

Our Major Services

At present, we have three major projects or services underway.  These services work interactively, providing access to both information and network resources.  They are:

a)                      The Victim Assistance Online reference web site

b)                     The Victim Assistance International E-mail Network

c)                      The Victim Assistance Canada E-mail Network

a) The Victim Assistance Online Web Site: http://www.vaonline.org/   

Our publicly available reference web site contains a directory of more than 2000 reviewed hypertext markup links (known generically as “links”), indexed by category into over 45 topical areas. These “links” lead to web sites for services, organizations, data collections, national victim service directories and much more.  Included on our site is a “Virtual Library” presently containing more than 400 links to online documents, articles and reports.  A special “search engine” function allows users to search the entire site by keyword or author.  . 

We are continually searching the web for new organizations, information and resources to add to our web site; our users are encouraged to suggest useful sites or information.  As new links are added and old information updated or removed, the site is continually changing, altering to make use of the latest sources, technology, and the needs of our users.

As of November 2002, more than 10,000 users per month viewed our site.  During this period it was used for a total of 426.17 man-hours, for an average of 14.2 man-hours of viewing use per day.  Viewers from the following countries were registered during November (in descending order of percentage of total viewers): 

United States 76.71%, Canada 13.34%; Australia 2.98%; United Kingdom 2.92%; Netherlands .60%; Germany .45%; Japan .40%; France .36%; New Zealand .28%; Hong Kong .25%; Ireland .24%; Poland .22%; Belgium .19%; Switzerland .19%; Taiwan .17%; South Africa .16%; Saudi Arabia .14%; Italy .13%; Sweden .12%, Russian Federation .12%.

b) Victim Assistance International (VAI) Listserv:

This seven-year old listserv provides a forum through which victim service providers and related professionals can freely share news and information, request advice or peer support, and discuss issues of importance to the world community.  Presently it has more than 280 registered users, including individuals, services and organizations in 19 countries: Albania, Australia, Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Rwanda, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, USA, and Yugoslavia. Membership on the forum is reserved for victim assistance specialists and related professionals. Information on VAI is available at: http://www.vaonline.org/vaform.html  

A directory of users who wished to have their organizations officially listed as participating in this e-mail network is available at: http://www.vaonline.org/thanks.html 

c) Victim Assistance Canada (VACAN) Listserv:

VACAN provides Canadian victim service providers and related professionals with a listserv service similar to VAI, but focused in Canadian news, legislation and issues. Presently, VACAN has 50 registered users.  Membership on the forum is reserved for victim assistance specialists and related professionals. Information on VACAN is available at: http://www.vaonline.org/vaform.html . 

A directory of users who wished to have their organizations officially listed as participating in this e-mail network is available at: http://www.vaonline.org/vacan.html

Providing Information and Networking Resources

It’s obvious from a description of our services how we provide professionals with access to information via our web site or on the listservs, but what precisely do we mean by networking resources?

What is Networking? 

There are a variety of definitions.

In the Miriam-Webster dictionary (2002), two strict definitions of the term networking are found:

1.                      The exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions

2.                      The establishment or use of a computer network

Strictly speaking, both definitions apply to Victim Assistance Online’s projects, as these projects provide for both the exchange of information between individuals, groups and institutions, as well as literally allowing users to use the Internet as a computer-linking device.

In another frame of reference, Chris Huxham (1996), provides the following levels of cooperation between groups (collaboration):

1)                     Networking is exchanging information for mutual benefit.

2)                     Coordination is exchanging information and altering activities for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose.

3)                     Cooperation is exchanging information, altering activities, and sharing resources for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose.

4)                     Collaboration is the exchange of information, the altering of activities, the sharing of resources, and the enhancement of the capacity of another for the mutual benefit of all and to achieve a common purpose.

Given this definition, why is the term networking -- the least cooperative term of the four – the most applicable to the users of our listserv systems? 

The vast majority of professionals participating on our listservs join as private individuals, becoming members without the official sanction of their parent organizations.   As such, while they can choose to work independently or in occasional voluntary cooperation with other individuals, they cannot guarantee to commit their organization to alter activities, share resources, or enhance the capacity of another service, to meet the higher-level definitions provided by Huxham.

An Exercise in Adaptive Knowledge Management

Before explaining how Victim Assistance Online uses the features of the Internet and Adaptive Knowledge Management to quickly adapt to new technology, techniques, information or the needs of our users, we must first define Knowledge Management.

Knowledge Management

A term more frequently found in business organizations and management than victimology, the available definitions vary.  One of the more general definitions supplies by Malhotra (1998, p. 59) is: 

“Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change.  Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings.”

Rowley (2000) provides a more detailed definition:

Knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organisation with a view to furthering the organisation’s objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge. Management entails all of those processes associated with the identification, sharing, and creation of knowledge. This requires systems for the creation and maintenance of knowledge repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and organisational learning.

Victim Assistance Online and Knowledge Management

Using Rowley’s more strict definition of knowledge management, it can be shown that Victim Assistance Online is using a knowledge management system:

Victim Assistance Online has the set objectives of helping to inform the victim assistance community, and promoting the exchange of news, information and learned experiences between professionals so as to exploit existing knowledge and aid in developing new knowledge.

Information managed within the organization includes both explicit, documented knowledge (hard information exchanged via listservs, or presented on our web site) and tacit, objective knowledge (shared learned experiences, best practices and analysis by discussion on our listservs).  The concept of “tacit knowledge”, while vague, can be powerful in helping to develop new concepts and idea, particularly when an individual has access to information and networking resources to generate synergy.  Kuscu (2001) defines tacit knowledge thusly; “An organization may easily identify which explicit knowledge it has and which it does not have.  However, in the case of tacit knowledge (i.e. ideas, values, intuition, best practices, etc.) organizations may not be fully aware if they possess certain tacit information or not.”  Individuals using the services of Victim Assistance Online may possess and share tacit knowledge in the guise of learned or practical experiences, new or developing concepts or ideas, best practices or analysis by discussion on our listservs.

Our organization manages knowledge by: identifying and posting resources useful to the professional victim assistance community; sharing the resources /information by posting information to it’s web site; and providing forums for the sharing of information between members.  This creates the opportunity for members to accumulate information from other users, perform their own research and generate new knowledge.

Victim Assistance Online creates and maintains it’s own knowledge repositories, which it provides the public free access to, so as to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and organizational/professional learning.

To help structure our knowledge gathering activities, we have used the Institutional Knowledge Evolution Cycle.  According to Wiig (1999) the knowledge and information of an institution, organization or business passes through five distinct stages in the cycle of developing new knowledge.

Institutional Knowledge Evolution Cycle

i)            Knowledge Development: through learning, innovation, creativity or importing from outside

ii)          Knowledge Acquisition: captured and retained

iii)         Knowledge Refinement: organized, classified, evaluated, transformed

iv)        Knowledge Distribution and Deployment: e-mail. listservs, web site

v)          Knowledge Leveraging: knowledge is used and becomes basis for further learning and innovation.

Using this model as a base, we have developed our own version of the knowledge cycle:

Victim Assistance Online Knowledge Evolution Cycle   (Figure 1)

i)            Development: web research to locate new resources, or information imported (received) from e-mail or listservs

ii)          Acquisition: relevant information is retained, saved to file, bookmarked

iii)         Refinement: information is evaluated, classified, format altered depending on target medium used for transmission (html coding, .pdf file, transported to e-mail client)

iv)        Distribution: posted to e-mail, broadcast to listservs or published to web site.

v)          Leveraging: users viewing web site suggest new material, or posted materials suggest new line of web research, listserv members or non-members respond through e-mail mediums, suggesting new ideas, proposing new concepts

Figure 1: Victim Assistance Online’s Institutional Knowledge Evolution Cycle

In managing this knowledge cycle, it is obvious there must be an actual mechanism for managing the handling, researching, importing, evaluating, classifying, transcribing and transmitting, as well as leveraging the “organizational” knowledge.  In many of the references used for this report, highly advanced computer systems, programmed “intelligent” agents (advanced software) and other complex technological systems are the preferred methods of data handling, with only minimal interaction with human system managers.

However, the Knowledge Management process, while aided by the speed and power of complex computer systems, does not require them.  Humans can perform these functions, by hand if necessary. The same processes work whether calculated at millions of functions per second, or if typed in at 40 words per minute.  Instead of an automated knowledge computer system, human “knowledge administrators” or “knowledge managers” can be appointed.  Instead of advanced programming, these knowledge administrators are given well-defined criteria for conducting research, evaluating and classifying knowledge. These administrators use the selected communication tools of the organization to import, transcribe, transmit and retain the knowledge, so it can leveraged later.

In our case, Victim Assistance Online has appointed a knowledge administrator with the title of “Forum Manager”, who is responsible for overseeing all Internet-based projects and e-mail communications.  Thus, this staff member acts as the central “intelligence” or processor for our Knowledge Management system.  The Board of Directors gives the Forum Manager direction and definition as to what communication systems are to be used (the Internet: e-mail, listservs and web site), information evaluation and classification criteria, as well as directing what tools (software packages) are available for transcribing, transmitting, retaining and leveraging information gained.

In those cases where information is received which is beyond the knowledge or experience of the knowledge administrator, the opportunity arises for the administrators to take advantage of the tacit knowledge and experience of the system’s users.  At Victim Assistance Online, our Forum Manager does this though our e-mail listservs of professional service providers and academics (VAI, VACAN or others).  These highly trained and experience professionals, in their turn, have access to the collected knowledge of their parent organizations; providing our Forum Manager with both direct and indirect access to a truly vast amount of information and experience to aid in the selection of useful information for inclusion in our knowledge system. 

Adaptive Knowledge Management

Kuscu (2001) suggests, “…organizational knowledge shows properties of an organic living entity, which continuously exploits facts and information and reflects an adaptive understanding and experience of conducting business.”.  In other words, a knowledge system can be considered a living thing, changing to best fit into its altering business environment.  In his model, a healthy organization’s knowledge system grows, “consuming” new information, altering and adapting the use of information according to interior causes (changes in information, need for new categories) or exterior causes (needs/demands of clients), then produces new knowledge based on a combination of the explicit and tacit knowledge the system contained.

This model, which presents the production information and knowledge as an active, organic, living process, also views the mechanisms of the system that produces that knowledge as a part of that process. “The system producing organizational knowledge (and this knowledge itself), continually changes depending on knowledge requirements originating within and outside the organization. Resources get updated with new data or information; users stop asking for certain resources and processes do not always serve the same purposes.  In this situation organizational knowledge adapts to internal and external pressures through the system’s ability to self-organize.” (Kuscu, 2001) 

This theory, then, suggests that a successful knowledge system – one which flourishes in its business environment, “surviving” by best serving clients – will continually collect information, create the opportunity for new knowledge, and be quickly responsive to the way it is being used, “adapting” to “environmental pressures” in an organic fashion.  The more responsive a system is to these pressures, the better it will serve its users and clients and the more successful it will be.

Victim Assistance Online has adopted these principles and strives to provide the highest levels of responsiveness to changes in information, technology and the needs of our users. These “pressures” reach our knowledge administrator through our lines of communication: e-mail, our listservs and web site.  The following table and flowchart (Figure 2) will describe the possible lines of information flow which our users exploit, and through which the pressures for change reach our knowledge administrator.  “One of the keys to successful knowledge management is to understand the existing relationships and mechanisms of sharing and then develop ways to empower people to scale up what they are already trying to do.” (Gilbert, 2002)

Victim Assistance Online Adaptive Knowledge System: Lines of Communication E-mail

a)                      Information, news, announcements and requests can be sent directly to Victim Assistance Online, either from VAI or VACAN members, or from victim assistance service providers and related professionals.  Relevant information or requests can be posted to the VAI or VACAN listservs, or to the Victim Assistance Online web site.

b)                     If answers/responses to private questions are generated within the VAI or VACAN listservs, the responses may be forwarded to the original requestor as private e-mail.

2)          Listservs

a)                      Information can be posted by members to one of our listservs -- either the Victim Assistance International (VAI) or the Victim Assistance Canada (VACAN) listservs -- for use of other members, who can also post their responses and comments to the original information, thereby synergistically accessing the knowledge of all participants.  Offers of cooperation, sharing knowledge and resources, are common.

b)                     Relevant postings in one listserv may be posted to the other, for mutual benefit, response and comment.

c)                      Relevant news or information exchanged within the listservs may be posted to the Victim Assistance Online web site, becoming a reference for the global victim assistance community.

3)          Web Site

a)                      News, information and reference materials culled from private online research by Victim Assistance Online staff is published on our reference website, for access by the public.  Announcements of new research are posted to the VAI and VACAN listservs.

b)                     News, information or announcements from either the VAI or VACAN listserv may be published on the Victim Assistance Online reference website, for access by the public.

c)                      Feedback tools on the web site allows users to request information or make announcements, which arrive at our offices via e-mail, beginning the information cycle again.

Figure 2 Victime Assistance Online:s Adaptive Knowledge Management System

(Note: Arrow size suggests amount of infromation transfer via indicated path) 

Conclusion

Through the theory and practice of adaptive knowledge management, organizations can increase synergy in new knowledge development and delivery.  By maintaining a organic, adaptive knowledge system, an organization can easily alter information and knowledge acquisition, provision, classification and leveraging criteria and to best fit the immediate needs of their users, clients and staff, within the framework of the organization’s mandate, level of technological competence and budget.

Victim Assistance Online has used this system to help promote knowledge exchange and leveraging between victim assistance service providers and related professionals through the application of adaptive knowledge management principles to victim assistance related materials: maintaining open channels of information flow and inter-communication, changing or updating materials as information changes; providing new topical areas or listservs and removing outdated/outmoded sections as need changes.  Maintaining open lines of communication through the Internet allows free exchange of news, information, learned experiences and peer support, creating synergism between users and organizations in research, program creation and management, practical crisis intervention, peer support and more. 

Victim Assistance Online remains a free, flexible and adaptive information and education resource.  As new research, methodologies, techniques and communication mediums develop, we maintain the ability to adapt quickly to all changes, thus ensuring we will -continue to offer cutting-edge free information and networking services to the world victim assistance community.

References

Coleman, G.;  Gaboury, M.; Murray, M.; Seymour, A. (Ed.) (1999) National Victim Assistance Academy: Innovative Technologies and the Information Age. Chapter 20. Available Online: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/assist/nvaa99/chap20.htm

Gilbert, M. (2002). Nonprofit Knowledge Management. Nonprofit Online News; Available Online: http://news.gilbert.org/NonprofitKM

Huxham, C, ed. (1996). Creating Collaborative Advantage. Newbury, CA: Sage Publications

Kuscu, I. (2001). An Adaptive Approach to Organizational Knowledge Management. Knowledge and Innovation: Journal of the KMCI 1(2), p.109,. pp. 114 - 117.  Available Online: http://www.iuj.ac.jp/faculty/ik/pubs/KuscuKIv1n2.pdf

Malhotra, Y. (1997) Knowledge Management in Inquiring Organizations, in the Proceedings of 3rd Americas Conference on Information Systems (Philosophy of Information Systems Mini-track), Indianapolis, IN, August 15-17, 1997, pp. 293-295.

Available Online: http://www.kmnetwork.com/km.htm

Malhotra, Y. Tools@work: Deciphering the Knowledge Management Hype. Journal for Quality and Participation; Jul/Aug 1998, 21(4), p. 59 Available Online: http://www.brint.org/JQP.pdf

Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary: Available Online: http://www.m-w.com/

Rowley, J. (2000). Is Higher Education Ready for Knowledge Management? The International Journal of Education Management, 14(7). pp. 325 - 333

Seymour, A. (1995, June). Promising strategies and practices in using technology to benefit crime victims grant proposal to the Office for Victims of Crime. Arlington, VA: National Victim Center

United Nations. (1985). Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. General Assembly resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985.  Available Online: http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/h_comp49.htm

Wiig, K. (1999). Comprehensive Knowledge Management. Knowledge Research Institute, Arlington, TX. Available Online: http://www.krii.com/downloads/comprehensive_km.pdf