A Special Issue of Journal of Organizational End-User Computing (http://www.idea-group.com/journals/details.asp?id=130) on Interacting with Knowledge Management Systems has been approved. The Journal of Organisational End-User Computing is one of KnowledgeBoard's recommended journals (http://www.knowledgeboard.com/knowledgebank/journals.html).  

Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) are becoming a mainstay in most organizations. While there has been an abundance of literature on how to develop, implement, and introduce such systems in organizational settings, the literature on how users interact with these systems is still scant, yet emerging and growing. The focus of this special issue will be to advance the state-of-the-art on how users interact with KMSs.   KMSs are complex systems that have the potential to contribute to the strategic and competitive abilities of an organization. Yet, their complexities, if not properly managed, can be a source of great frustration for the end-users in an organization. As an example, consider the issue of a KMS repository that is laden with obsolete and incomplete nuggets of insights. A system like this will not only deter users from interacting with it, but can also cost an organization substantially if the incomplete and obsolete insights are utilized for decision-making. Similarly, KMSs that are rigid and cannot be tailored (e.g. personalized or customized) by end-users will be more likely to be under-utilized. A similar apathy will occur if the KMSs of an organization are not embedded into work processes and other routines. Moreover, the practitioner community lacks good metrics to evaluate KMSs and their contribution to business value of an organization.  

For this special issue, we invite contributions from the academic and practitioner communities. We would like to especially encourage papers stemming from collaborative engagements between the scholarly and practitioner community. We invite contributions that are both empirical and conceptual, and are open to all methodological stances from case-studies, to surveys, action research, and simulations.

Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Design and Development of KMSs (especially end-user involvement in KMS development) • End-User Adoption of KMSs • Barriers to Adoption of KMSs • Barriers to Usage of KMSs • Tailoring of KMSs • Evaluation of KMSs • Usage of Knowledge in KMSs • Training and KMSs Usage • KMSs and Decision-Making • KMSs and Organizational Performance • Modification of knowledge artifacts by end users • KMSs and Organizational Innovation • Maintaining KMSs • KMSs Usage and Ethics • KMSs User interfaces • Knowledge visualization tools • Mobile knowledge acquisition, manipulation, sharing and storing devices.  

Important Dates
August 31, 2006: Submissions Due
November 15, 2006: First Round Review Decisions Announced
January 15, 2007: Revised Submissions Due
February 28, 2007: Final Acceptance  

Submission Instructions Please send your submissions and queries to Peter Baloh at peter.baloh@ef.uni-lj.si with the subject line – "JOEUC Special Issue".  

Guest Editors Yukika Awazu, Institute for Engaged Business Research, The Engaged Enterprise, USA Peter Baloh, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Vincent Ribière, Management School, New York Institute of Technology, New York, USA