Communicating Generically Creating Linkages Technology for Mass Customizing Different people use the same information in different ways. Consider the use of a word processing program. Administrative staff uses word processing to prepare individual and form letters and memos.
Engineers use word processing to prepare reports with mathematical equations.
Technical communication departments use word processing to prepare online help, user's guides, and reference material. Although the instructions for using the word processor are the same, the different users perform different tasks with the word processor and, therefore, need different types of guidance in using it. In an ideal situation, the organization would provide appropriately targeted instructions to these different groups of users. But given realistic constraints of staff and time, preparing these separate instructions could consume many hours of labor. Top About Mass-Customizing One promise of knowledge management is that information in a knowledge base can be tailored for different audiences and purposes at the time the computer presents that material to users.