Although the phrase “knowledge management” entered popular usage in the
late 1980s (e.g., conferences in KM began appearing, books on KM were published,
and the term began to be seen in business-oriented journals), KM has
been around for many decades. Librarians, philosophers, teachers, and writers
have long been making use of many of the same techniques. However, it could
also be argued that knowledge management has been around far longer than
the actual term has been in use. Denning (2000) relates how from “time immemorial,
the elder, the traditional healer and the midwife in the village have
been the living repositories of distilled experience in the life of the community”
(available from his website at: http://www.stevedenning.com/history_
knowledge_management.html).