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While informal techniques of knowledge sharing faciliate participation, it should be noted
that unlike formal knowledge sharing, the presentation of informal knowledge sharing is not
based in any kind of a schema. This kind of presentation poses a serious challenge in
managing the resulting knowledge in a logical way which may enable future reuse. This does
suggest that any semantic search for informal knowledge is not possible and urges the need to
combine both informal and formal approaches to allow capturing and the future reuse of the
captured knowledge. The valuable informal knowledge may be captured in a formal structure
to allow its wider use. This will only be possible if knowledge holders are willing to facilitate
its codification in a kind of structure. In a library for instance, a member may have captured
some kind of knowledge from wikis and document it for others to use. Many computer
application problems are well solved in forums, and if libraries motivate people to import
these kinds of knowledge to their knowledge base, then more value will be added to library
routines.
Another drawback of informal processes is the fact that they are not owned by the
organisation, informal knowledge processes are owned by the knowledge workers who create
and use them. This suggests that if there is no mechanism to encourage owners to share and
to allow capture of the resulting knowledge then chances are high that they may soon be
forgotten, even by their creators. As a consequence more time is spent in a continuous
reinvention of the same knowledge which would not be the case if it was captured in some
way. This is a challenge for organisations to embark on understanding how knowledge
workers can be encouraged to share knowledge. It will need a lot of research and resources
but the outcome may result in increased productivity. Tanzania public university libraries
alternatively may encourage more effective use of technological infrastructure and encourage
the uses of online forums and wikis. The outcome of the findings suggested that online
facilities are barely used for sharing. It may be due to the fact that many library staff are not
aware of existence of such facilities or that their use is discouraged by the authorities because
of the perception that library staff spends more time in these facilities for their personal
benefits than attending to their duties.
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