Intranets and Knowldge Sharing

A ‘community of practice’ is the term used to describe an informal network that participates in knowledge sharing. This network is often formed between peers, colleagues, and within groups who can share resources, tools, and practices and experience.

One of the key elements of a community of practice is to create and take responsibility for populating a knowledge base. There are currently a variety of tools that will support a community of practice, such as content management systems, social networking environments, wikis, and other specialised tools. Communities of practice should not replace face-to-face interactions within organisations but should be used to further enhance these interactions and add to the communication sharing.

An Intranet, which is similar to the Internet only access is confined to within a group or organisation, can support the activities of a community of practice by becoming a dynamic and collaborative environment for knowledge sharing. The Intranet can in fact become the knowledge base. It can be the ‘one stop shop’ for organisations, providing easy access to such tools as best practice work methods, master documentation and templates, organisational information and planning tools, as well as collaborative spaces.

Prior to development of an Intranet, knowledge gaps or needs should first be identified, and knowledge management strategies developed to address these needs. These strategies should include an information management policy that outlines the role of an Intranet within the organization or community of practice.

The structure of an Intranet site is critical to its usage. Intranets need to be developed based on best practice architectural techniques and using suitable technology platforms. Interfaces and structure are critical to its success, and ideally prior to implementation some form of usability testing should be undertaken to ensure effective and efficient use of the tool. The quality of the information contained in the Intranet will help determine its success; information needs to be kept relevant, accurate, and current.

The marketing and promotion of an Intranet within an organization can ensure a community of practice continues to flourish and grow. Effective marketing and promotion can ensure individuals are aware of the existence and purpose of the Intranet and can contribute to and expand on its content. This will further enhance the knowledge and sharing of communication within the community of practice.

Library 2.0 theory: Web 2.0 and its implications

Library 2.0 has been described as the new model for library services. Library 2.0 is about communal innovation, interaction, participation, and social networking. It is essentially user-centred and user-driven. Maness (2006) defines Library 2.0 as “the application of interactive, collaborative, and multi-media web-based technologies to web-based library services and collections”

So how does this differ from the more traditional library service? It removes what was sometimes deemed as the inflexibility of libraries and provides more interaction and ownership to users. Library 2.0 allows users to participate in updating and evaluating library services as well as tailoring services to meet their own needs. It provides the ability for users to personalise OPACS, add tags to catalogue records, review resources, instant message librarians or other library users, create and add to blogs and wikis, subscribe to RSS feeds and provides access and sharing of resources in a variety of formats.

Being user centred is one of the key elements of Library 2.0. Users have an active participation in the creation of content and also the design, implementation and evaluation of services offered by libraries. Tools and trends in Web 2.0 have evolved in Library 2.0. and libraries have adopted these practices in line with user demand. As a result Library 2.0 is a much more dynamic and interactive space for users.

Library 2.0 is both communally innovative and socially rich. No longer can libraries afford to live by the philosophy “if we build it they will come’. Library 2.0 focuses on updating and re-evaluated services to best meet the needs of library users and communities. Ideally these users and communities will drive change simply by the use of evolving technologies and their interaction with each other and libraries.
Users will have a real Web presence in Library 2.0. Social networking tools can create an interactive environment for library communities. These tools allow resources, comments, feedback and thoughts to be captured and shared within the library web-presence.

Library 2.0 should never remain stagnate. The philosophy is that it will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of library users. The roles of librarians and users will become less obvious and with that comes the thought that the wider community may finally see libraries as not keepers of information but as enablers of information.

Reference

Maness, J.M. (2006). Library 2.0 theory: Web 2.0 and its
implications for libraries. Webology, 3(2). Retrieved
August 4, 2007 from http://www.webology.ir/2006
/v3n2/a25.html