One result of our research in Knowledge Management is a software tool - MailTack - that makes e-mail conversation as easy and powerful as face-to-face conversations eliminating the need for same-time and same-place meetings and adding the advantages of concentration on one medium, real-time overview and traceability. Conversation is essential to individual learning, teamwork, collaborative learning and asynchronous tutoring, as it is through conversation that we create, develop, validate and share knowledge. But when conversation takes place as computer-mediated conversation (CMC) it becomes cumbersome, particularly among more participants, lacks transparency, looses coherence tending towards drift and dissolution after few interactions. With MailTack we address these problems with the goal of improving asynchronous communication by applying knowledge management principles. The functionality provided by MailTack is based on the new concept of an E-Mail knowledge base called MailKB that is stored in a relational DBMS, structured by association networks and visualised graphically by means of mind-mapping network graphs.

Keywords: Individual knowledge management, collaborative learning, asynchronous communication, computer-mediated conversations, persistent conversations

Figures:  Fig.1: MailTack desktop A; Fig.2: MailTack desktop B; Fig.3: MailTack desktop C

References:

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- Todesco, R. - MailTack: Individuelles Wissensmanagement - prowitec 2000