Has anyone out there thought about using Drupal as a knowledge Management Tool?

I am currently doing writing an academic paper on the above and need some starting point, so any research that has been done in this area will be of tremendous help.

Thank you

Tosin

Comments

ambientdrup’s picture

Can you provide more details about your research? Your post is a bit vague. How do you define a "knowledge management tool" for/in your research?

Drupal is a Web site and application content management system/application.

Tosin’s picture

The research is focused on managing healthcare content; A KM tool will be one that supports the creation, transfer, retention and avilability of content that is specific to a particular subject

What benefits do a CMS like Drupal hold for Medical practitioners? and how can medical practioners use a CMS like Drupal to improve the way they share knowledge?

ambientdrup’s picture

If they are interested in using Drupal as the Web based content management tool that it is, then I can think of the following benefits for medical practioners: a) Easy to use Drupal interface for posting blog, wiki-style and page content, b) easy to use Drupal forum system for online forum discussions, c) "book" module interface for physicians to write collaborative content and share this content, d) Drupal's site search functionality - for searching content on the site(s) by keyword, e) Drupal's extensive and powerful taxonomy system.

mrbert’s picture

I guess the real question should be centered around the exact type of information you want to manage. Is it patient information, medical information & collaborative research, findings or medical journals?Please be specific so we can all help.thanks

Ghana Real Estate | Voacanga Africana Seeds | http://www.voacanga-africana.com.gh/sheabutter/">Shea Butter

Tosin’s picture

The type of information will have to be reserach and findings or general best practice;

mrbert’s picture

Tosin,

Drupal would be your best bet for a site like that. I'm working on a similar project, awaiting client approval.
Drupal would allow you to make the information public or private among many other choices.

I would email you the link as soon as it goes live.you can contact me anytime you need help.
Drupal is your best bet.

Ghana Real Estate | Voacanga Africana Seeds | http://www.voacanga-africana.com.gh/sheabutter/">Shea Butter

aireworth’s picture

One problem you may encounter is the handling of legacy data. I set up an intranet for work, and have had large problems because most of the documents I want to store and be accessible through Drupal are word, or pdf or excel documents. I have not found an easy way to convert these to a format which is easily displayed in Drupal. Converting them is a multi step process with uncertain results - certainly not something I would feel happy with my users doing - indeed when I have tried to get them to do it they have complained about the complexity. As yet I have no answer, but sadly, eventually it may be something other than Drupal.

Tosin’s picture

Really interested to see what you got, I'm keen on including it as a case study when do you think you can go live with it?