OpenKM for Small Businesses

Knowledge management is a very important part of any business. Without knowledge management, businesses will be in chaos since there is no standard documentation to be followed.

Years ago, knowledge management is based on paper works wherein business have to dig papers before they could find what they are looking for.

Today, the task of knowledge management is now given on developers wherein they build applications so that users should be able to access the information they need in no time.

This has even extended to customers and clients wherein some topics are added in knowledge database to help users be more familiar with the application.

Seeing the need for knowledge management application, OpenKM was built by a team led by Paco Avila. This simple application uses Ajax through GWT (Google Web Toolkit) in their interface so that the output of the knowledge base will be similar to an RIA.

This type of application could be launched online as a resource page for users or could be launched in an intranet wherein employees and select clients could access the knowledge base.

Secured remote access is also possible so that employees on the road will have the latest information about the company and will not be left out with the processes.

Aside from GWT, OpenKM also effectively use J2EE and JBoss. The former is being used to effectively control the documents in any form while the latter is used to control the server.

J2EE and JBoss were effectively molded in this application development tool since they are able to use the server as their source of information.

GWT just steps in to implement the results. J2EE and JBoss just forces the information to the client side (GWT) so that it could effectively rendered.

Development of Knowledge Management application through OpenKM is also easy as it promotes GroupWare.

Instead of a single person working on a single function and completes it through combination, developers could work with the application at the same time and eventually build an application in no time at all.

They can work with the same application in real time and changes could be easily implemented.

This feature could also be used by developers also when they need to troubleshoot and fix the application. It’s a simple application but it needs utmost support by the developers since this will determine the success and support by the company to its users.

As the name suggests, OpenKM is an open source application. Any users and developers could easily download the application and eventually work on it so that they could build knowledge management applications in no time.

The only challenge for developers is that they need to be familiar with the languages and frameworks involved in the application or else they will not be able to effectively build an application.

The developers of OpenKM understand the challenge of the development process which is why they opted to build the application as a GroupWare. Through careful collaboration, a knowledge base could be built that features GWT in the client-side could be built.