Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

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A Proposed Framework for Designing Sustainable Communities for Knowledge Management Systems
knowledge objects with keywords pertaining to
the context and relevance of the topic (Daconta et
al., 2003). Using descriptive tags enables searching
and archiving information in a way that is most
applicable to the topic. Semantic Web technologies
make a static hierarchical representation extraneous.
However, to make searches efficient, there
needs to be standardization in the tags used to
describe the same types of objects. The standards,
while imposing a common structure, should also
allow flexibility to reflect unique contextual information
in the knowledge object (Geroimenko
& Chen, 2003). Site maps can be used to provide
community-specific keywords that can be used to
tag and search for community related topics. The
importance of site maps in knowledge management
systems has been suggested in prior research
(e.g., Jennex & Olfman, 2000, 2005). This leads
to the following design recommendations:
Each community in a KMS should have a site
map showing how knowledge is arranged and
accessible in the community.
All posts in the community should be categorizable
according to the site map.
Here is a description of the importance of a
well-designed site map (or an equivalent).
We’ve got to put tags on that content in a way
that it’s retrievable, in a way that makes sense
as to how we do business. When you’ve done a
particular type of project, creating [a] particular
set of deliverables to a particular type of client,
then you want to be able to hand this next person
a path or a navigational metaphor or structure so
that they can find what they are looking for and [if
it ]..is meaningful to them they can reuse it with a
slight change. (Sherif & Xing 2006, p. 536)
You cannot just willy-nilly grab content and throw
it into a big pot and then hope that it can be reused.
Obviously, you’ve got to put tags on that
content in a way that it is retrievable. You have
to be able to provide the knowledge contributor
with the analog on the front end, so that they can
categorize and catalog their knowledge in a way
that makes it meaningful for the person who is
now coming and going to repeat it all. (Sherif &
Xing 2006, p. 536)
Costs in terms of effort and time can also
be reduced by maintaining a community home
page which provides a quick overview of things
such as the latest news related to the community
topic, latest posts and replies. An effective and
efficient search function is important in order for
members to be able to locate relevant information
quickly, which also could reduce the amount of
effort made (Markus, 2001). Hence:
The home page for the community should be
fresh and dynamic, presenting all new relevant
information for the community in a concise and
easy-to-read manner.
The KMS should support an efficient and effective
search function.
The following statements elaborate on these
guidelines.
You go to this site that has the method and you
click on the phases and read about the phases,
you read about stages, and it shows what work
products and what deliverables come out of
those activities and stages. You can click on that
and it will bring up the best examples of those
deliverables and work products. (Sherif & Xing
2006, p. 537).
Say you have someone on the ExxonMobil team,
and they need to keep up with what’s going on
with ExxonMobil, so we set up a search term for
them and we tie it into our Dow Jones service that
we use and everyday, Dow Jones uses that search
term that we put in there and dumps these articles