1. Iceberg project summary
Personal productivity in a knowledge intensive environment: A weblog case
January 2004
Lilia Efimova, Telematica Instituut
Lilia.Efimova@telin.nl
Iceberg[1] is short name for “Personal productivity in a knowledge intensive environment: A weblog
case", a doctoral research project of the Telematica Instituut started in 2003.
This project attempts to address one of the key knowledge management challenges: improving
knowledge worker productivity. It deals with this problem by developing a knowledge work model by
exploring uses of weblogs for knowledge management purposes.
Weblogs are personal "diary-like-format" web sites enabled by easy to use tools and open for everyone
to read. There is a growing cluster of knowledge weblogs used by professionals as personal knowledge
repositories, learning journals or networking instruments. Used in this context, weblogs address
personal needs of a knowledge worker, but they also create an opportunity for others to benefit from
having emergent ideas and personal notes captured in public spaces instead of private collections. From
a research perspective weblogs provide a fertile ground for exploring what knowledge work is and
what helps employees to be productive in knowledge intensive environments.
The goal of this PhD research project is
• to achieve better theoretical understanding of knowledge work, resulting in a knowledge
work model,
• to explore weblogs as a knowledge worker instrument, resulting in a set of practical
guidelines for weblog use in a knowledge management context,
• by studying uses and effects of weblogs for knowledge work.
The main results of this PhD will be (1) a model of knowledge work, and (2) a set of practical
guidelines for weblog use in a knowledge management context. We also expect to contribute to
research methods by exploring weblogs as a research instrument.
[1] Iceberg is the metaphor best describing the invisible nature of knowledge work.