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A knowledge management solution ought to support:
| • | one-to-many tree structure relationships |
| • | non-directional many-to-many affinity relationships |
| • | directional many-to-many contribution relationships |
Most knowledge management applications consist of a tree structure and a search engine, and do not support any many-to-many relationships.
The DNE, on the other hand, manages information relations with a new object called a kNowledge Element or NE. The NE has been carefully constructed not only to provide a better way to use tree structures and search engines, but also to employ many-to-many relationships as well as one-to-many relations. This allows you to take advantage of one of the big strengths of the digital environment: the ability to link anything to anything.
The DNE tree structure is presented in the cabinet structure in which NEs are stored. 
The cabinet works just like a regular tree, but has three unique advantages:
| 1. | Because the DNE also lets you use affinity and contribution relations in addition to the cabinet, you do not have to manage all of your information in a tree structure. By limiting your tree structure to include only the information that is best suited to that particular strategy, you will have a more streamlined tree than if you were forced to put everything in the tree. |
| 2. | You can display and access your tree at up to twelve completely different points by opening twelve different NEs in twelve different panels in the cabinet structure at one time (two--"DNE Tutorial" and "Sample Database"--are open here). This is like being able to look into twelve different folders in a folder-file tree structure at the same time. This allows you to see and access more information at the same time. |
| 3. | Once you have opened all the NEs that are important for any given piece of work, you can save your cabinet configuration, and open the cabinet to exactly the same combination of open NEs, any time you want. If you are working on several different programs, save several different configurations and you will always have all the information you need for any program, only a mouseclick away. |
DNE affinities and contributions are managed on the NE object itself.
 Affinity and contribution relations are managed outside the cabinet, on the NE object itself. The NE is a three dimensional graphical object that manages links to pieces of information. It has different association areas to manage affinity relations on the one hand and contribution relations on the other. The NE manages affinity relations in its affinity area. The affinity area is open on the NE displayed here. Affinity is used not only to manage genuine affinity relations such as ontologies and topic maps, but can also be used to build contribution relations. If, when building a contribution model like a process model, you know that two NEs stand in a relation, but you are not certain of the exact nature of the relation, you can create a "non-directional" (affinity) relation as a provisional stage in the construction of a "directional" (contribution) model relation, putting in affinity an NE that will be moved to a contribution wing (discussed below) when the direction of the relation becomes clear.
 Like affinity relations, contribution relations are managed on the NE itself. However, unlike non-directional affinity relations, contribution relations are directional (A contributes to B). Contribution relations are read from left to right. The contributions by wing (to the left) displays those NEs that contribute to the active or central NE and the contributions by wing (to the right) displays those NEs to which the active NE contributes. The DNE allows you to employ any NE in any number of different models and can toggle between models at a mouseclick, making for a very versatile object modeling solution.
The DNE also has its own search engine that allows you to find and sort NEs and tiles on any topic, on the fly.
Whereas many KM applications consist of a tree structure and a search engine (the first and fourth information management strategy), the DNE not only makes improves information management in these ways, but also introduces methods for the second and third strategies. All strategies are as integrated as you want. The same NE maintains ontological relations in its affinity area, model relations in its contribution wings, is itself maintained in the cabinet tree structure and can be found by the search engine.
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