From Knowledge Acquisition to Knowledge Elicitation - A Roadmap

One of the fundamental challenges indentified in Knowledge Management is the process of capturing knowledge. To successfully capture knowledge, it must first be acquired. Knowledge Acquisition is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge from knowledge sources. This can occur in one of two ways, by using non-human sources (e.g. electronic documents, organisational databases, etc.) or human sources. Knowledge Elicitation is the field concerned with the acquisition of knowledge from human sources. In the literature, the terms Knowledge Acquisition and Knowledge Elicitation are often used interchangeably; however there is a clear distinction between the two. In a new and emerging field such as Knowledge Management, it is important that this delineation is made. This paper explores the relationship between the two concepts and provides a roadmap from Knowledge Acquisition to Knowledge Elicitation. The research begins with an overview of the field of Knowledge Acquisition, focusing on three different approaches, Automated, Semi-automated and Manual Knowledge Acquisition techniques. The issues that impact the selection of each are discussed (known as the Knowledge Acquisition Bottleneck). From this, the paper proceeds with an overview of the Knowledge Elicitation, looking at the various influences that have directed research as well as the issues and requirements for successful elicitation. The paper concludes with an examination of the various classifications of techniques that exists with the field.