A knowledge management system for sharing knowledge about cultural heritage projects

Cultural Heritage Projects (CHP) are complex activities that involve multiple and heterogeneous actors attempting to harmonize their different and diverse ontological and epistemological perspectives, while simultaneously coordinating and sharing knowledge about heritage objects. Projects involve a multitude of related data, information, and knowledge, and require information technologies for coordination. In this context, the socio-technical approach to designing information systems (IS) has become widely adopted but it is contradictory in knowledge coordination scenarios in which heritage experts and coordination technologies form inseparable sociomaterial assemblages that evolve through routines and affordances, depending on the contextual dimensions of particular projects. This paper adopts a design science approach to present the sociomaterial design of a Knowledge Management System (KMS) for cultural heritage projects. The KMS aims to overcome coordination issues for sharing knowledge within and between heritage projects. Evaluation results outline that the KMS provides enhanced knowledge access and visualization, greater flexibility in sharing practices, and improved decision-making capabilities. The designed system meets the specific requirements of an international knowledge sharing network and introduces innovative design and coordination insights that can be successfully deployed in heritage projects and networks with similar coordination and collaborative features.