Dynamic Knowledge Mapping: A Visualization Approach for Knowledge Management Systems

Heide Tobias, Lis Lukasz

Abstract
Visualizing the contents of knowledgemanagement systems allows for bettercomprehensibility of the knowledge base, gives acondensed overview, and provides entry points toparticular knowledge items. In this context, twodifferent visualization approaches have been proposedin the literature. On the one hand, algorithm-basedapproaches have been introduced, which are capableof automated generation of reproduciblevisualizations. On the other hand, visualizations suchas knowledge maps have to be created individually bydomain experts. In this paper, we propose a combinedapproach of dynamic knowledge mapping, which isbased on a manual creation of the underlying context(e.g., the metaphor) of the visualization. The particularknowledge items, however, are mapped onto thisbackground automatically in response to changes inthe knowledge base. Thus, our approach benefits fromthe use of a challenging graphical context whileallowing for an automated generation of visualizations.