Knowledge creating communities in the context of work processes

Abstract

This article deals with the support potential of knowledge communities for a co-operative knowledge generation and problem solving before the background of the increasing economic importance of knowledge-intensive processes. Therefore, requirements for an IT-support of a co-operative knowledge generation and problem solving via knowledge communities are being developed that are of significance in the induction and dissemination of knowledge within communities. Special emphasis is put on the integration of the knowledge of the community into relevant work processes aiming at an initiation of synergies with this combination. According to the above- mentioned requirements, we will present the realisation of a knowledge community with the help of the Wiki-approach. Thereupon, a concept for integrating knowledge communities in process-oriented knowledge structures will be developed by creating an adequate interface. This concept could be realised in a prototype way in an implementation. The developed prototype will be described in a brief case study.

Is wiki an effective platform for group course work?

“…The process of generating knowledge always has a social component (Fuchs-Kittowski & Kohler, 2002). It is now widely recognised that the majority of innovations in organisations come about as a result of collaboration between groups.…”

“…Hargadon (2003) makes the point that successful inventors are technology brokers who innovate by finding connections between people, ideas and objects. Because of this social component a tool such as wiki which provides the opportunity for constant feedback can significantly increase mutual understanding (Fuchs-Kittowski & Kohler, 2002).…”

“…For example, a wiki has no predefined structure; wiki pages are easy to create and edit without any prior experience in writing web pages; formatting opportunities in wiki pages are very limited, resulting in wiki pages, as a rule, being very "plain" (Bold, 2006;Bryant, 2006;Engstrom & Jewett, 2005;Fuchs-Kittowski & Kohler, 2002;Lamb, 2004;Raman, Ryan & Olfman, 2005).…”

Co-development of a Wiki for Tracking the Environmental Footprint of Small Business Activities

“…Technically, a wiki is a collection of web pages with cross links between internal pages where each page can be edited, keeping a complete record of such changes. It is basically an open author system for a conjoined construction and maintenance of websites (Fuchs-Kittowsk & Köhler, 2002). A wiki thus becomes an evolving knowledge repository where users are encouraged to make additions to this repository by adding new documents or working on existing ones (Hasan & Pfaff, 2006).…”

The Use of Wiki in an Academic Course: A Qualitative Investigation

“…Grant (2006) and Forte and Brukman (2007) who used wikis to support learning, claim that secondary school students did not use the social and cultural practices of collaborative working and that using wikis present barriers to collaboration. Examining wiki use in higher education reveals that wiki technology can help some knowledge-management goals for collaborative work and organizational learning (Fuchs-Kittowski & Köhler, 2002;Kille, 2006;Wagner, 2004;Wagner, Cheung, & Rachael, 2006). Raman, Rayn, and Olfman (2005) have conducted a research which examined the use of wiki in facilitating a knowledge-management class in an academic setting.…”