Knowledge Sharing Systems support the process through which explicit or tacit knowledge is communicated to other individuals. These systems are also referred to as knowledge repositories.

The two types of explicit knowledge sharing systems most widely discussed in the KM literature are:

• lessons learned and
• expertise locator systems.

Systems that support tacit knowledge sharing are those typically utilized by communities of practice.

Corporate Memory (also known as an organizational memory) is made up of the aggregate intellectual assets of an organization.
It is the combination of both explicit and tacit knowledge. The loss of Corporate Memory often results from a lack of appropriate technologies for the organization and exchange of documents. Another contributing factor to the loss of corporate memory is the departure of employees because of either turnover or retirement. KM is concerned with developing applications that will prevent the loss of corporate memory.

Knowledge sharing systems are classified according to their attributes

• Incident report databases
• Alert systems
• Best practices databases
• Lessons-learned systems
• Expertise locator systems