JURNAL SIMETRIK VOL 1, NO.

4, JUNI 2014, ISSN : 2302-9579

THE INTERPRETATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN STATE

POLYTECHNIC AMBON

Reynold Pieter Jordan VIGELEYN NIKIJULUW

Teknik Elektro Politeknik Negeri Ambon

Email : rvnikijuluw@yahoo.com.au

SUMMARY

Denning (2002) described knowledge management “…broad collection of organizational

practices and approaches related to generating, capturing, disseminating know-how and other content
relevant to the organization’s business, and the use of electronic as tools in managing the knowledge in
terms of knowledge sharing.
There are great differences in managing knowledge in developing country compare to developed
country has a wide differences. As a tools in managing knowledge was ICT, then there have to be a
planned to developed the management of knowledge towards knowledge sharing and other purposes. The
questions are; to what extend does knowledge sharing in state polytechnic Ambon? How knowledge should
be managed?
This study is a library research for finding the comparison not just between developing and
developed country in how knowledge suppose to be manage, but also within this country as well.
The conclusion, however, not just some expert citation, the only thing that can make this all
happen is not the money or assistance, nor the issue arise during the economic and social development
within the country, but the courage, and especially honest in developing the people and what was the
institution attached to it. Yes, the economic crisis was disrupting the development of education in Indonesia
but yet we all know that the only problem was the corrupted officials, even in POLNAM themselves they
practicing collusion, nepotism, and all the bad things that related only for themselves. But I believe that
through time and hard work and a lot of criticism the humble effort may be accomplished.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, generating, capturing, disseminating know-how

Introduction Ambon, there were 2 private and 1 state

Denning (2002) described knowledge
management (KM) as “…broad collection of
organisational practices and approaches
related to generating, capturing, disseminating
know-how and other content relevant to the
organisation’s business.” (Denning, 2002, p.
58). He also mentioned that the usage of
electronic devices has been used as tools in
managing the knowledge in terms of
knowledge sharing.
Denning (2002) stated also that not many
countries which were all developing countries
usage such a devices in managing their
knowledge, however they are widely spread
significantly. Compare to many developing
country, before the economic crisis in 1998,
Indonesia was one of the Asian Tiger which
has developed a strong and well in economy.
And many universities even in west Papuan
University have developed their ICT since
before 1994, ICT was more related in
knowledge sharing and definitely KM. In
universities and one State Polytechnic. All of
these universities have no connection
whatsoever in the internet. Only University of
Pattimura has a web site, but the site was just
an information sites, it did not have anything
else. Since State Polytechnic Ambon (SPA)
opened until today have no ICT at all.
As a tools in managing knowledge was ICT,
then there have to be a planned to developed
the management of knowledge towards
knowledge sharing and other purposes. The
questions are; to what extend does knowledge
sharing in state polytechnic Ambon? How
knowledge should be managed?
State Polytechnic Ambon
Politeknik Negeri Ambon (POLNAM) was a
diploma engineering based college located in
Ambon. This college was first established at
the late 1980s under the State University flag
and became a state institution in mid 1990s. It
started with the based engineering. The

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establishment of the institution was to fulfil
the needs of skilled working force in
engineering and developed later by developing
commerce study program.
The funding of the institution was all provided
by the central government in the amount of
$1.13 m per annum (2003). Each program;
civil, electrical mechanical, business
administration, and accounting have each at
least two laboratories. Each year the academic
staff can produce a total of 200 researches,
total staff of 255. A single staff can produce 2
to three research per 6 month. However, are
these research have no accountability,
reliability, and evaluation nor second opinion
in terms of having other similar institution to
evaluate the researches. The most important
parts are whether the researches were free
from plagiarism.
The important part was also the reference
system. The library looks like a book store,
without any catalogue. The problems occur
after the destruction of the main campus. The
position of Ambon as a very small island and
populated at approximately 300,000 people,
conclude that the institute need a program to
eliminate the isolation problem.
Knowledge Management
At the early status of KM, the discussion
explains free sharing of knowledge (Barth,
2001, p. 45). In addition, exchanging ideas and
information was important as the way to
know. In the world of business knowledge
sharing was very important in terms of
customer’s interaction. On the other hand, KM
experts and security society put on hard
criticism on free information (Barth, 2001, p.
45). They said that knowledge need a
controlled action to share knowledge without
giving away advantages (Barth, 2001, p. 45).
“Whether they are being stolen or shared if
your intellectual assets are benefiting your
competitors, you aren’t managing your
knowledge effectively” (Barth, 2001, p. 45).
In the academic world, universities and
college is all about knowledge. It produces
knowledge in a very different and strictly
manners. “Traditionally, universities have
been the sites of knowledge production,
storage, dissemination, and authorisation.
When information technologies are introduced
in the context of the economic imperatives
brought upon them, universities find
themselves in a cultural dissonance between
historical assumptions and practices and those
of the emerging information society.
Universities have embraced information
technologies very rapidly, however
commentators doubt whether this is always
being done completely rationally.” (Reid,
2000).
The position of KM within those two worlds
have factors of knowledge sharing where
business put them as the benefit for the
customer and their own advantages. In the
universities and colleges or academic
institution has put KM in the manners of
sharing it worldwide, but in a very strict way
or who made who/what to prevent intellectual
stealing. Both have similarity which KM was
managed in controlled action of awareness.
"Enabling organizations to capture, share, and
apply the collective experience and know-how
of their people is seen as fundamental to
competing in the knowledge economy. As a
result, there has been a wave of enthusiasm
and activity centred on knowledge
management. To make progress in this area,
issues of technology, process, people, and
content must be addressed." (Reid &
Farquhar, 2000). This means that KM is very
important in an educational institution.
Therefore, the management of knowledge in
this institution need to be developed towards
more advanced , yet simple strategic action to
answer the recent problems. The thing in KM
is the supporting tools or upgrades the existing
tools of namely computers. A solution to KM
problems, or the usage of the KM techniques
was more related to KM technology or
software which means ICT.
KM Development in POLNAM
In this particular institution, several problems
occur which have become very crucial to fulfil
the goals and objectives of the organisation.
One of the goals of an educational institution
of POLNAM was to produce skilled output of
human resources with the specialised
knowledge attached within the forces. To
fulfil the effort will not be accomplished in
such traditional path of answering what was to
be accomplished with problems such as:
 geographically isolated
 lack of references
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 pressure on staff development
 lack of individual quality on research
 lack of resources
I will argue that the only way for development
of the institution is by managing the
knowledge, where KM is the creation and
subsequent management of an environment
which encourages knowledge to be created,
shared, learnt, enhanced, organised and
utilised for the benefit of the organisation and
its stakeholders. Of all the business trend of
the past in quality scorecard maybe did not use
a computer but “Technology will likely play
an enabling part in these activities but not to
the extent occasioned by knowledge
management. In fact, KPMG LLP's Chief
Knowledge Officer Michael J. Turillo says
that "knowledge management cannot be done
without technology.” (Hildebrand, 1999).
The condition of this institution in a very
isolated and far away from the capital city, can
cause the information flow may be 1 to 3 week
late to reach there. The most unbelievable
experienced that was encountered, was that
the library was not put as the heart of
knowledge development. It was also true that
not all resources through the search engine can
give the appropriate answer but at least it will
influenced the behaviour of the stakeholders
(teachers & students) that the world was so
large and need to be explored and can not rely
on the handbook or manuals 1990s last
updated. For an example, in electrical
engineering department has developed in
workshop of how to make home electrical
installation maintenance without turn off the
electricity. In Australia, maintenance the
entire road installation was done without
turning of the entire line. Did they know that?
Have they read any books related to that new
style of maintenance without harming the
staff? The fastest way was only through the
internet.
In staff development, to increase their quality
every academic staff need to conduct research
at least four. The rank divide into three
categories: low, middle, and high officer.
Most of the problems that I have encountered
was that the low and middle rank’s research
was conducted by collecting students who has
writing their final paper, then change a little
then submit to the institutional staff evaluation
committee. The committee did not even bother
to track down the research, because there was
no data base whatsoever regarding the whole
list of conducted research within at least in the
institution. It was so terrible, sad and
disappointed for an educational institution.
These institution have a web site, which was
designed because of the demand of Asian
Development Bank project on accountability.
The central office (Directorate General of
Higher Education) demand the whole public
and private universities, college, higher
education institution to submit their database,
financial report through the internet. It only
last for about a year. Then they stopped the
web payment. The answer is that there was no
posted fund to cover the maintenance of the
project. This was an absolutely ridiculous.
Why did they stop they terminate the funding
for such an effective and efficient tools for
development?
To deal with this problem is through
management using Digital Library Network
(DLN). The next chapter will discuss why
does it important, and what is the benefit using
such a technology.
Digital Library Network
DLN in Indonesia has been developed by
Bogor Institute of Agriculture (Institut
Pertanian Bogor, IPB) using the platform of
software called SIPISIS. There was also other
system called CDS/ISIS which was the most
common database software in Indonesian
libraries. “It is used for bibliographic
cataloguing and requires a very low machine
specification. It is developed and maintained
by UNESCO especially for libraries in the
developing world.” (Fahmi, 2001). Other
system was called the Eastern Indonesia
Universities Digital Library Network
(EIUDLN) which was financially assisted by
the EIUDP Project Simon Fraser University
Canada (Fahmi, 2001).
Fahmi (2001) has also stated that the IDLN
have goals towards the development of
knowledge management in Indonesia. The
goals are:
 To improve graduate education by allowing
students to produce electronic documents,
use digital libraries, and understand issues
in publishing.
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 To increase the availability of student
research for scholars and to preserve it
electronically.
 To lower the cost of submitting and
handling final project, theses, dissertations,
and research reports.
 To empower students to convey a richer
message through the use of multimedia and
hypermedia technologies.
 To increase the management of our
Intellectual Capital by developing the
national directory of expertise within
research and education institutions.
 To empower universities to unlock their
information resources.
 To avoid plagiarism by providing an easy
and useful access for every body
(especially for supervisors) to the database
of final project, theses, and dissertations.
 To advanced digital library technology.
However, the system was just lists of the type
of recorded database which can not be
accessed through web based security. And non
of them have online catalogue, the electronic
resources was only the journals and articles
that was produced by local staff.
What should State Polytechnic Reform the
Institution Management
The reformation in management is the only
way to be more effective and efficient as it can
and will answer the questions within the
vision and the mission as well as the
institutional objectives.
Retrain the whole staff and librarian related to
the production and the management in
intellectual capital or knowledge management.
To follow the goal of the Indonesian Digital
Library Network and build their own network
by cooperation with other universities.
Request for assistance from many
international organization who are willing to
assist. Up to the end of 20th century, the
Indonesian university libraries have also
received library materials donations and
technical assistance as well as experts and
consultants in library services. These
donations came from international
organizations, such as the British Council, the
Netherlands Organization for International
Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC),
the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JIPA), the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), the U.S.
Agency for International Development
(USAID) and IDP Education (Australia).
There are continuing opportunities, as well.
For, instance, the Asia Fellow Program and
the Special Libraries Association both offer
help. (Widharto, 2002).
As a starting points, the Polnam need to make
an arrangement towards the cooperation with
the ITB IDLN as a starting points, at least
fulfil the requirements of the IDSL goal.
Conclusion
Other challenges as Widartho had said in his
article (2002) in providing access to scientific
and technical materials can also be
encountered in Indonesia as institutions try to
develop comprehensive access. These include
the following.
1. Concern about the accessibility of
domestic or local information to the
international arena, that is, the issue of
the relationship between open information
flow and information restricted to
concerns of national interest. Examples
are cultural sovereignty issues, including
values related to indigenous heritage,
customs, language and national security.
This concern reminds us that, although
information production and information
industries are global, information policies
are local.
2. Access to public information is still
limited mainly due to a bureaucratic
culture where officials remain reluctant to
disseminate information. Many people
still find it difficult to obtain data or
information from government institutions
because the government still perceives
information as its personal domain. For
example, satellite data on forest fire hot
spots should be shared with the
Environmental Impact Control Agency
(Bapedal), which then should pass it on to
the Ministry of Forestry. Data about the
weather should be shared with the
Meteorological and Geophysics Agency.
3. Of course, there is also information whose
disclosure would have serious prejudicial
consequences, such as violating a person’s
right to the presumption of innocence,
disrupting or threatening the survival of a
business, undermining the nation’s
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defense and security or threatening the
lives of others.
4. Lack of technological sophistication,
including incompatibility of systems,
unreliability of telecommunications,
interrupted electrical supply, insufficient
maintenance of equipment and even
shortages of supplies. These problems
plague efforts in many locations. In some
areas, particularly outside Java, there are
not enough telephone lines for institutions
to develop basic online networks. Lacking
in some instances is an infrastructure to
ensure continuity of access. Traditional
methods of information collection,
processing, storage and dissemination are
prevalent.
5. In addition, the library automation
programs in Indonesia are heterogeneous.
They always depend on the need and
capability of each library. Some libraries
implement standards that are
internationally accepted, while others
have been creating their databases using a
very simple format. It is understandable
that the libraries do not opt for future
cooperation. The argument against
implementing a uniform standard is that
the time spent for document processing
becomes longer.
6. Lack of adequate bibliographic control or
collection development. There is a lack of
depth in many collections. It is very
important to keep in mind that library
development is not a priority of the
national budget. Thus, very little money is
available for acquisition of books,
periodicals and other library materials. For
university libraries the shortage has even
caused a halt to the purchase of library
materials for the past several years.
7. Moreover, the depository act that is
imposed by the National Library for the
national bibliographic control of all
publications in Indonesia is not well
implemented. As a result, needed
information may be present but not
available, since there is no place to look
for it.
8. As for electronic journal collections, it is
good news that many biomedical journals
are available via the Internet. Developing
country researchers and students will
benefit since they may access the
information at no cost to themselves or
their institutions. But how many of them
have access to the Internet and at high
bandwidth? It is essential to bring pressure
to bear upon governments and other
interested international funding agencies
to help spread high bandwidth Internet
access in countries such as Indonesia.
Only then can researchers take advantage
of this offer by journal publishers.
9. Severe shortage in Indonesia of educated
information professionals who can
develop the services to store, process,
analyze, package and deliver scientific
and technical information. UNESCO
mentions that
10. Effective management of information
requires professionals who understand
information, how it is created, organized,
sought, and used by people in both their
work lives and their professional lives.
One of the most important activities in an
information society is to maintain a cadre
of qualified information professionals.
[UNESCO. Principal Regional Office for
Asia and Pacific. (1998). Curriculum for
an Information Society: Educating and
Training Information Professionals in the
Asia-Pacific Region, p. 3.]
11. In order to assist librarians in Indonesia to
cope with the numerous pressures of
current innovations, as well as to adapt to
the challenges of the new millennium,
appropriate training courses should be
provided for them.
12. Inconsistency and lack of control of the
publishing regulation, which have caused
publishers of some serials to change their
titles very often ? particularly in recent
times with the flush of enthusiasm for
reformation. Pursuing missing issues of
serial titles is one of the most difficult and
time-consuming tasks in Indonesia.
13. Difficulty in obtaining Indonesian
material. Newspapers, serials and books
published in the provinces are very
difficult to get, if not impossible to obtain,
in the other provinces. This situation
necessitates that librarians or other
interested users travel around to collect
these.
(as cited from Widharto, 2002)
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A very beautiful conclusion, however, the [Internet] Available:

only thing that can make this all happen is not http://www.cio.com/archive/enterprise/
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we all know that the only problem was the Online Instruction’ Journal of
corrupted officials, even in POLNAM Asynchronous Learning Networks Volume
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