Recent columns discussed the precursors to implementing the physical and virtual infrastructure of a knowledge warehouse (KW).

As the content progresses for this KW, we need to put in mechanisms to store, retrieve, and deliver knowledge. We need, in today's vernacular, a portal. That is the tool that enables an organization to capture and deliver knowledge.

Once this task is complete, we are able to begin filling the KW with information. Ideally, this information will find a place in a formal classification structure.

Most knowledge fits into a hierarchical category similar in structure to a tree that forms branches. But there is one exception: The branch of one limb may appear exactly the same on another limb. This reflects the many-to-one relationship that knowledge elements enjoy.

Once we define our classification structure, we are ready to locate and capture relevant data, information, and knowledge. To accomplish this daunting task, we can launch complex knowledge tools that literally devour our entire data, information, and knowledge repository. Of course, it is much easier to write about this task than to accomplish it. Our tools need clear direction to ensure that our resulting classification, when linked to an index, will yield meaningful and pertinent search results.

This linked and indexed classification becomes the enterprise brain trust.

The construction of this structure, by its very nature, allows for infinitely greater flexibility, with scalability, in the form of additional storage and retrieval devices and new or relocated knowledge cells.

Knowledge workers now take over. Staffed with specialists in knowledge needs assessment and fulfillment, the KW becomes a model of seamless information flow.

Let's pause here and quickly assess where we are in building our KW. We have identified, classified, and stored our knowledge. We have put in place a robust portal system permitting the almost instantaneous sharing and retrieving of our content. And we've created a culture within our organization that resembles a knowledge community, where knowledge flows through our warehouse rapidly and at will.

An initial assessment might conclude that our work is complete. Our experience shows that this is not the case. Many types of knowledge cells, for example, contain information that is time sensitive; it may only be valid or accurate for a limited period. A sound knowledge management schema will have a mechanism to remove such content and notify, in advance, that such an event is going to occur. This gives our domain expert an opportunity to either refresh select knowledge cells with updated data and information or to remove the outdated knowledge altogether. Many knowledge practitioners frequently overlook or minimize this critical process.