Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

growth of tax revenue generated some resources
for the public sector. This brought about many
difficulties in the relationship between the ITPF
and the political authorities due to the well-known
mistrust between the newly appointed personnel
and the already-operating staff. The first measure
taken by the new director of the ITNO was to appoint
a reliable team. The environment generated
by the new team produced a distance between the
ITPF and these authorities, who perceived the
ITPF to be a powerful as well as an amorphous
group of manage.
The new administration soon noticed that the
ITPF had a power of its own. This was owing
to the fact that it had reached a strong identity
among its members, obtained through the sharing
of common goals.
On the other hand, many of its participants
held significant positions whether in the IT arena
or in their own organizations. It is worthwhile
bearing in mind that due to the cross-agency
nature of the ITPF, many IT representatives from
different agencies attended the forum. Some of
these agencies have, even nowadays, a higher rank
than the ITNO in terms of political and economic
relevance. The ITPF continued growing and generating
projects and innovations. 19
In time, certain politicians became aware
of the ITPF’s importance as a problem-solving
resource. In this respect, the present ITNO
director and chief officer of the e-government
plan claims that in view of the weak state of the
ITNO as opposed to the powerful position that
the ITPF has achieved, it is necessary to balance
both organizations by means of human resources,
infrastructure, and suitable policies developed by
the ITNO itself. According to the director, only
a strong ITNO could standardize the innovation
taking place in the ITPF. 20
However, the ITPF is likely to be included in
further plans in charge of certain tasks.
On the other hand, as time goes by, the usual
turn of events, as far as management occurs,
mainly, the new officials get to know the old ones
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The Argentine IT Professionals Forum
and a bond of trust is established between them. 21,22
Besides, ITNO has fount it hard to consolidate
due to the following factors:
1. ICTs are not relevant in the public agenda,
despite the efforts made by certain ITNO
directors.
2. The ITNO was left in a weakened position
(such as in the state in general) as a consequence
of applying new public management.
Therefore, the expected balance between the
ITNO and the ITPF has not yet been achieved.
The authorities lack a strong support to implement
the projects they announce. As a consquence
of this, the ITPF keeps generating IT solutions
and recommendations that the government does
not apply immediately. Nevertheless, they are
stored and may become available for the political
authorities to be used when they encounter difficulties
in carrying out plans that need sound results.
The suitability of many of these solutions could
bring forth closer bonds between the government
and the ITPF as long as a technical rationality is
enforced as regards political decisions. 23
A second issue is the political authorities’
indifference toward the networks.
Actually, regarding underlying networks,
CoPs, and political authorities, there are different
logical ways of thinking as well as different
foci of interest.
As far as networks and CoPs are concerned,
their goal is to solve daily issues associated
with their needs or professional practices. In the
case of networks, they solve these by means of
complementary actions. In the case of CoPs, issues
are solved by means of KM and innovation
(Cohendet et al., 2001).
The networks and CoPs within the state are
driven by a technical rationality aimed at solving
difficulties in management. In contrast, for most
political authorities, their main interest lies in their
party relationships, political commitments, and