Knowledge Management and Interaction in Virtual Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Maria Chiara Caschera ◽  
Arianna D’Ulizia ◽  
Fernando Ferri ◽  
Patrizia Grifoni
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Knowledge Map ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice

This chapter provides a classification of virtual communities of practice according to methods and tools offered to virtual community members for the knowledge management and the interaction process. It underlines how these methods and tools support users during the exchange of knowledge, enable learning, and increase the user ability to achieve individual and collective goals. In this chapter virtual communities are classified in virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice and virtual learning communities of practice according to the collaboration strategy. A further classification defines three kinds of virtual communities according to the knowledge structure: ontology-based VCoP; digital library-based VCoP; and knowledge map-based VCoP. This chapter also describes strategies of interaction used to improve the knowledge sharing and learning in groups and organizations. It shows how agent-based method supports interaction among community members, improves the achievement of knowledge, and encourages the level of user participation. Finally, this chapter presents the system’s functionalities that support browsing and searching processes in collaborative knowledge environments.

Virtual Communities of Practice

2009 ◽  
pp. 339-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Gammelgaard
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Knowledge Transfers ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice

In geographically dispersed organizations, like multinational corporations (MNCs), contextual gaps exist between senders and receivers of knowledge. Employee socialization resulting from physical proximity facilitates contextualization of the transferred knowledge. However, in MNCs most knowledge transfers take place through virtual communication media. We investigate the phenomenon of virtual communities of practice, and propose them to be efficient for individual’s knowledge retrieval as participation in such communities reduces the contextual gaps between senders and receivers of knowledge. However, the organization must provide a knowledge-sharing friendly culture, and an institutional protectionism, in order to establish the required level of swift trust within the virtual community.

Virtual Communities of Practice

2011 ◽  
pp. 2068-2085
Author(s):  
Jens Gammelgaard
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Knowledge Transfers ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice

In geographically dispersed organizations, like multinational corporations (MNCs), contextual gaps exist between senders and receivers of knowledge. Employee socialization resulting from physical proximity facilitates contextualization of the transferred knowledge. However, in MNCs most knowledge transfers take place through virtual communication media. We investigate the phenomenon of virtual communities of practice, and propose them to be efficient for individual’s knowledge retrieval as participation in such communities reduces the contextual gaps between senders and receivers of knowledge. However, the organization must provide a knowledge-sharing friendly culture, and an institutional protectionism, in order to establish the required level of swift trust within the virtual community.

Virtual Communities of Practice

2010 ◽  
pp. 32-51
Author(s):  
Jens Gammelgaard
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Exchange Process ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Virtual Community Of Practice ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of virtual communities of practice, and proposes them to be efficient for individual’s knowledge retrieval, when they work in a geographically dispersed organization, such as a multinational corporation. The virtual community of practice is likely to reduce the contextual gaps that typically exist between senders and receivers of knowledge, as it includes the possibility of feedback loops in the information exchange process. However, the organization must provide a knowledge-sharing friendly culture, and an institutional protectionism, in order to establish the required level of trust, being the foundation for knowledge exchanges within the virtual community.

Facilitator Toolkit for Building and Sustaining Virtual Communities of Practice

2011 ◽  
pp. 202-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Kimball ◽  
Amy Ladd
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Work Training ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
Over Time

The boundaries of a Community of Practice (CoP) have changed significantly because of changes in organizations and the nature of the work they do. Organizations have become more distributed across geography and across industries. Relationships between people inside an organization and those previously considered outside (customers, suppliers, managers of collaborating organizations, other stakeholders) are becoming more important. In addition, organizations have discovered the value of collaborative work due to the new emphasis on Knowledge Management—harvesting the learning and the experience of members of the organization so that it is available to the whole organization. This chapter offers a practical toolkit of best practices, tips and examples from the authors’ work training leaders to launch and sustain a virtual CoP, including tips for chartering the community, defining roles, and creating the culture that will sustain the community over time.

Impact of Chinese Culture Values on Knowledge Sharing Through Online Communities of Practice

2009 ◽  
pp. 1101-1114
Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Alexandre Ardichvili ◽  
Martin Maurer ◽  
Tim Wentling ◽  
Reed Stuedemann
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Multinational Organization ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
Unexpected Findings ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice ◽  
High Degree

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how national (Chinese) cultural factors influence knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities of practice at a large U.S.-based multinational organization. The data in this study come from interviews with the company’s employees in China, and managers who are involved in managing knowledge-sharing initiatives. The study results suggest that overall the influence of the national culture could be less pronounced in online knowledge sharing than what the literature has suggested. Although Chinese employees’ tendency to draw sharp distinctions between in-groups and out-groups, as well as the modesty requirements were barriers to knowledge sharing online, the issue of saving face was less important than expected, and attention paid to power and hierarchy seemed to be less critical than what the literature indicated. A surprising finding was that in the initially assumed collectivistic Chinese culture, the high degree of competitiveness among employees and job security concerns seem to override the collectivistic tendencies and are the main reasons for knowledge hoarding. The reasons for unexpected findings could be associated with differences between face-to-face and online knowledge sharing environments, the influence of the company’s organizational culture, and the recent rapid changes of the overall Chinese cultural patterns.

On the Definition and Impact of Virtual Communities of Practice

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonios Andreatos
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
To Come

The evolution of the Internet has made several Communities of Practice to go online and has brought into life numerous Virtual Communities of Practice. The purpose of this article is: to define and categorize Virtual Communities of Practice; to examine their social impact in general and specifically in knowledge and technology management; also, to examine the contribution of Communities of Practice to informal learning and to relate them to Connectivism and collaborative learning. Several case studies are presented to clarify the presentation. It is expected that Virtual Communities of Practice will play an important role in both learning theory and practice as well as knowledge management during the years to come.

The 'Social Experience Factory' and the Fabrics of Collaboration in Virtual Communities of Practice

2010 ◽  
pp. 101-124
Author(s):  
Demosthenes Akoumianakis
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Social Experience ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technical Details ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
Automated Software ◽  
Product Assembly

This chapter proposes and discusses the “social” experience factory (SEF). The SEF provides a general model and architecture supporting information-based product assembly by cross-organization communities of practice using interactive toolkits and practice-specific technologies. In terms of engineering ground, the SEF builds on two prevalent research tracks, namely experience-based and reuse-oriented proposals for the management of virtual assets and automated software assembly as conceived and facilitated by recent advances on software factories. Our account of the SEF focuses on functions facilitating electronic squads (i.e., cross-organization virtual community management) and workflows (i.e., practice management) which collectively define the scope of collaboration using the SEF. Further technical details on operational aspects of the SEF as deployed in the tourism sector to facilitate vacation package assembly are presented in Chapter XXI in this volume.

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