The simultaneous process of segmentation and integration described earlier occurs, creating new rounds of knowledge development and diffusion. The process is akin to biological evolution. There is continual birth, growth, decline and mutation. New organisms grow and multiply. New variants are formed, their success and direction of development depending on their in-built mechanisms and external environment.
Some habitats are species rich, while others are species poor.
Knowledge Gaps and Discontinuities. One of the things that has struck me over the last year is how many organizations seem to have forgotten what they once knew about knowledge management. If you go into to some of the organizations that featured as 'leading exemplar' case studies in 1996-1997, you wonder what has happened since. There are a number of discontinuities and gaps that prevent organizations maintain a healthy state of ongoing knowledge evolution and development. The novelty gap - KM is no more a novelty.