Fuzzy information technology and knowledge management

Fuzzy information technology (fuzzy IT) is a useful extension of traditional IT in that it can manipulate qualitative or non-crisp data. This ability of fuzzy methodologies may fill an important role in the growing concern firms have for identifying, measuring, and managing the knowledge in the firm. This corporate knowledge is now considered to be intellectual capital which firms can leverage for competitive advantage. Fuzzy IT researchers need to relate their methods to the concepts and models used in knowledge (intellectual capital) management so that they can more easily demonstrate how much fuzzy IT can contribute to the effort. In some cases, both fuzzy and crisp versions of IT exist that can be used to gather, formalize, and leverage knowledge, but they may need to be fine-tuned for this specific application. In other cases, no fuzzy extension has been developed for an information technology tool that supports knowledge management. These cases represent research opportunities for fuzzy IT researchers