At the eBeW 2002 in Prague Patricia and Frithjof held 15 interviews for theme 1. The questions they asked to the interviewees were:

1. Do you have a KM System in your company? How does it look like?
2. What benefits did you get out of it and what do you expect for the future?

The answers showed that KM is mostly associated with virtual or face-to-face communities. From these KM solutions the interviewees expected cultural changes like motivating the employees to share their knowledge and creating a social network and a spirit of belonging. CoPs are also expected to create trust in changing confidential information and give a fast access to knowledge and experts.

Also mentioned where reference databases, chat calendars and knowledge maps. From this IT-solutions the interviewees expect fast access to knowledge and experts and cost savings.

Below you will find a list of quotes that were taken out of the interviews:

Stefan Wolters, noventum:
"We have got a KM system based on a simple Notes Database that we use to retain our knowledge that comes out of acquisition and distribution processes with our clients. Within this you can find all project relevant dates and you can search for keywords. The benefit that comes out of that is that you can search for specific information. Unfortunately the benefits are not that big because of the quality of the performance of the system. Often you find information that is not up-to-date."

Olivier Rerolle, ADEPA:
"We don’t have a real KM System, but we have internal organisations which address some KM functionalities. A KM system should be for internal and external use. My organization is a network, we have 20 different regional locations in France. We have an intranet system and forums, it's a first stage of a KM system. I would like to open a KM system to all our partners and customers.
The benefits of KM are higher efficiency and quicker information sharing, enhancing trust in confidential information sharing because you are enhancing a kind of CoP-spirit and a wider and larger spectrum of information which could be shared."

Allan Davison, CANON:
"KM combines several things:
1. understanding what expertise you have,
2. access to documents within your organization,
3. classifying information and being able to look at that within your organization.

The benefits could be sharing the information, finding it more quickly and retaining knowledge. That are the major three things."

Anton Zamolotskikh, IIMC:
"We are developing a system that integrates elements of Content Management, Document Management, Knowledge Management and Digital Rights Management. Organisations can capture knowledge through the addition of semantic meta information to content and documents. This allows users to categorise and express relationships between pieces of content. The major benefit is that it allows users to find existing information and thereby reduce duplication of effort and unnecessary costs associated with content generation within large enterprises."

José Ramón Otegui, mainstrat:
"In my company KM is organized around open exchange of information. This exchange takes place in meetings and in access to all documents. And in addition all members of my organization have to participate in the process of knowledge acquisition (studies, doctoral thesis, events).
The benefit is that this creates a sense of belonging, of common spirit and motivation. There is of course also the benefit of having access to all documents, but the major benefit is on the culture."

Roberto Santoro, cec consulting:
"I don't care about knowledge management. The only benefit you can expect from KM is creating knowledge. So a KM system should support the interaction of people: Professional communities should evolve into business organizations acting as partner in the development of solutions."

Dr. Kulwant S. Pawar, School of Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing Engineering and Management:
"I think what KM could do in a research area is promoting synergies and helping us to learn from the past. This should take place in CoPs."

Fiona Lettice, Cranfield University:
"We have Round Tables with the researchers, so you can find out what they are doing and where there are synergies and opportunities to work together. We also use chat calendars where you can get access to each others calendar and know where each others are."

Chris White, GDS:
"We don’t have a KM initiative at the moment. We just try to survive. Integrating KM is nothing we have the resources to. We're offering databases and reporting about events, so we are a kind of knowledge provider."

Gui Doumeingts, Grainsoft:
"We develop since 10 years a cooperation with China. And now we have to do a strong marketing action: We have to define what we are able to sell, who our customers are and what they are ready to buy. Our idea is to maybe use a knowledge map for structuring all that and to present it. We expect as a benefit better access and navigation to our knowledge."

Prof. Dr. Bernhard R. Katzy, CeTIM gGmbH:
"We have a KM system to give a structured backbone to our research institute. It's a simple Outlook System. The benefits are a better coordination, collaboration and quality of our work. The basic is that we have everywhere access to our databases and our knowledge, and that's how we are getting really fast.
We also use RTC, that means Real Time Communication including instant messanging, video and telefon conferences. The benefit is the social network, you can see your colleagues. And you can fast set up a virtual meeting, that takes you three seconds."