Services Supporting Knowledge Maturing in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Abstract. The hype around Web 2.0 has again sparked tremendous interest in IT-supported knowledge management and technology-enhanced learning in organizations. Although there has been abundant evidence of how to benefit from Web 2.0 technologies, information on how to go about deploying these in small and medium-sized enterprises in a coordinated manner are scarce. Based on the findings of an empirical study and an ethnographically informed study on knowledge maturing, this paper suggests a set of knowledge services to support a series of knowledge actions chained with the help of the knowledge maturing model. This set of services can be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for analyzing IT tools and systems which currently support their employees' knowledge maturing activities, to foster knowledge cooperation with customers, suppliers and partners in their business environment and to find gaps which can be filled particularly by consuming services over the Web.