Ka-band
A portion of the electromagnetic spectrum allotted for satellite transmission, with frequencies in the 20 to 30 gigahertz range.

Kb (kilobit)
Approximately one thousand bits of data (1,024, to be precise).

KB (kilobyte)
Approximately one thousand bytes of data (1,024, to be precise). Each byte contains eight bits.

KBE (knowledge-based engineering)
A system that encapsulates design knowledge that can be recalled, reused and extended to create product designs.

Kbps (kilobits per second)
A measure of data transmission speed — 1,024 bits of information per second.

Kerberos
An authentication system used for dial-up, remote or Internet connections. An Internet Engineering Task Force standard, Kerberos works by having a central server grant a "ticket" honored by all networked nodes running Kerberos.

Kermit
A packet-oriented public-domain file transfer protocol designed at Columbia University.

kernel
The heart of an operating system. The kernel is the part of the operating system that interconnects with the hardware.

key
The mechanism used to encrypt or decrypt messages in public-key infrastructure (PKI) security. See public-key cryptography and PKI.

keyword
A word specified in a query placed to an information retrieval system, such as a Web search engine.

keyword search
Searching for documents based on one or more words or phrases specified by a computer user. In many search engines, a string of keywords entered without quotation marks is treated as a Boolean "and" search (see Boolean), while enclosing the string in quotation marks restricts the search to the complete phrase. See search engine.

kHz (kilohertz)
A unit equal to 1,000 hertz (i.e., 1,000 cycles per second).

kiosk
A self-service terminal typically used for one of three functions: to support noncash transactions (such as ordering tickets or making reservations), to dispense noncash items (such as documents, tickets or coupons), or to provide access to information (such as rate quotations, product information or interactive sessions with product specialists). Kiosks typically do not dispense cash.

KM (knowledge management)
A business process that formalizes the management and use of an enterprise's intellectual assets. KM promotes a collaborative and integrative approach to the creation, capture, organization, access and use of information assets, including the tacit, uncaptured knowledge of people.

K-map (knowledge map)
A representation of concepts and their relationships (e.g., hierarchy, taxonomy and network). A K-map is a navigational aid that enables a user to hone in rapidly on the desired concept, and then follow links to relevant knowledge sources (information or people).

KM infrastructure
The people, processes and automated systems required to support knowledge management (KM). See KM.

KM strategy
A strategy addressing how the enterprise will use knowledge to compete, and how knowledge management (KM) will support the enterprise's business strategies. A KM strategy may be knowledge-focused if the enterprise's market value is predominantly composed of intellectual capital, or knowledge-enabled if the enterprise has other valuable assets in addition to intellectual capital. See KM.

knowledge architect
the individual who oversees implementation of the enterprise's knowledge architecture, who leads the "knowledge architecture team" in identifying, organizing and providing access to scattered, heterogeneous information in digital and paper form, and who leads the knowledge audit to determine and continually re-evaluate the specific knowledge needs of users and their business processes. The knowledge architect defines knowledge processes and identifies the technology requirements for creating, capturing, organizing, accessing and using knowledge assets.

knowledge audit
A formal determination and evaluation of how and where knowledge is used in business processes. The knowledge audit identifies implicit user needs, as well as explicit information stores. With the audit, enterprises can identify and evaluate all information resources and workflows, and determine enterprise user access requirements. Access requirements will vary widely, from wide access (e.g., policies and procedures) to extremely limited access (e.g., payroll processing). The knowledge audit is a rigorous process using questionnaires, interviews and resource descriptions.

knowledge base
The knowledge, which may include assertion, rules, objects and constraints, used by a knowledge-based or expert system. Its organization is based on knowledge representations. The developer or user of the system may be unaware of the underlying knowledge representations, seeing only the domain knowledge representations.

knowledge capital
Intangible assets of an enterprise that are required to achieve business goals, including employee's knowledge; data and information about processes, products, customers and competitors; and intellectual property such as patents or regulatory licenses. Also known as intellectual capital.

knowledge capture
The process of making tacit knowledge explicit — that is turning knowledge that is resident in the mind of the individual into an explicit representation available to the enterprise.

knowledge community
A group of people within an enterprise who engage in knowledge-sharing activities in support of a common work interest (such as shared responsibility for a business process, a product or service, or a project). The knowledge community may include people from multiple disciplines within the enterprise, as well as extended-enterprise participants (such as service providers, supply chain partners or customers).

knowledge representation
Structures used to store knowledge in a manner that relates items of knowledge to one another, and that permits an inference engine to manipulate the knowledge and its relationships.

knowledge sharing
A general term used to describe activities, processes or technologies that enable people to share knowledge across the boundaries of geography and time.

knowledge workplace
A work environment that focuses on knowledge as the primary source of competitive advantage. The knowledge workplace represents the intersection of three key trends: the leverage of intellectual capital, the virtualization of the workplace and the shift from hierarchical to organic models of management

KPI (key performance indicator)
A high-level measure of system output, traffic or other usage, simplified for gathering and review on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Typical examples are bandwidth availability, transactions per second and calls per user. KPIs are often combined with cost measures (such as cost per transaction or cost per user) to build key system operating metrics.

KTS (key telephone system)
A telephone system that enables a user to directly access outgoing and incoming central office (CO) facilities by simply pushing a button or "key" on a telephone — unlike a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system, in which this access can to be achieved by dialing an access code. A key telephone set is characterized by having multiple line buttons, a "hold" button and at least one button dedicated for making internal, station-to-station (intercom) calls. Hold and intercom buttons are typically used to place a call on hold so that the call can be "announced" over the intercom line before being distributed to the person for whom the call is intended. See CO and PBX.

Ku-band
A portion of the electromagnetic spectrum used increasingly for satellite communications, with frequencies in the 12- to 14-gigahertz range.

KVA (kilovolt-ampere)
A unit of electrical power, equal to 1,000 volt-amperes.

kW (kilowatt)
A unit of electrical power, equal to 1,000 watts.