In this commercial context, a “knowledge base” is a key component of “knowledge management”, described by KM World ( www.kmworld.com ) as “not a specific application, rather an attitude, an approach to delivering solutions to an organization, its workers and its customers.”

The breadth of this definition reflects the number and variety of available knowledge management products, but does little to explain what any of them offers, or to explain how a knowledge base might differ from a more conventional database.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lucy Kellaway of the FT has described knowledge management as a subject “attracting more needless obfuscation and woolly thinking by academics and consultants than any other.”

But woolly thinking aside, the term “Knowledge Base” has come to describe a certain kind of online resource with the common aim of helping a community of users to find information relevant to a specific purpose.

A knowledge base may contain articles, white papers, user manuals, FAQ's, HOWTO’s, media assets, contact information and transaction records.

In order to help users find what they are looking for, a knowledge base is likely to have a classification structure, well-defined content formats and a search interface. It may also offer some means for users to contribute new information or to request information that they cannot find.

Because the information collected together in a knowledge base will have often been created elsewhere, mechanisms for simplifying the transfer of that information into (and out of) the knowledge base are likely to be necessary.

In some contexts, access to a knowledge base will need to be restricted to certain communities of users, so access control may also be required.

Examples of knowledge bases include help desks and support sites (e.g. support.microsoft.com, www.apple.com/support/ ); academic and clinical sites (e.g. kb.indiana.edu, hivinsite.ucsf.edu, www.emedicine.com ); co-operatively edited sites (www.faqts.com, www.wikipedia.org and wiki variants); and Intranets of various sorts, including sales support sites (such as the one Kitsite has built for Mercury Interactive).