Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

community of practice members. Facilitation of
the CoPs is shared with other government agencies.
29
As mentioned before, 30 the Australian CIO
Forum is an alternative version of the ITPF. 31
On the Web page of the AGIMO, it is possible
to find the following excerpt:
The CIO Forum has been established to provide
a mechanism for CIOs across the Australian
Government to share information and enhance
linkages to the Chief Information Officer Committee
(CIOC) and the Information Management
Strategy Committee (IMSC). The objectives of the
CIO Forum are to:
1. Share information about better practice
approaches and key strategic issues being
faced by agencies in their use of ICT to
facilitate better government.
2. Provide a mechanism for CIOs across government
to hear about Chief Information
Officer Committee (CIOC) and Information
Management Strategy Committee (IMSC)
activities.
3. Explore opportunities to contribute to CIOC
activities and provide CIOC with non CIOC
perspectives.
4. Explore and pursue collaborative and cooperative
opportunities.
CONCLUSION
Some Thoughts about International
Experiences
Since the creation of the ITPF, I have been researching
the process of building the back office.
I always thought I was witnessing a new practice
and my belief was confirmed by all the practitioners
who attended the events where I put forward
this experience.
298
The Argentine IT Professionals Forum
At the same time, I was devoted to relaying
a bibliography on the following subjects: CoPs,
epistemic communities, and networks, and their
relationship with KM. In this respect, I found
mainly theoretical approaches with some practical
references to private environments.
At first, the subjects bore no relationship in
my mind. But little by little, they began to fit a
certain pattern. I could integrate CoPs and egovernment.
Therefore, I changed my theoretical
outlook toward the ITPF experience.
I considered this approach a very innovative
one. On finishing my first draft of this chapter,
some workmates 32 discovered that in several
countries, this model of relationships was put into
practice as a political strategy for e-government
programs. CoPs were becoming an essential tool.
This realization became a shared joy for the ITPF
and the ITNO authorities since they felt less lonely
in their initiative.
However, I found no detailed descriptions of
how these relationships (formal-informal) operated
within the framework of the back office.
Therefore, I consider it useful to state the specific
experience of the ITPF, giving more accurate
information and detailed reflections.
Final Thoughts
Historically, the traditional structures of government
have failed to provide integral answers to
e-government plans, above all in third-world
countries such as Argentina (Kaufman, 2005).
This seems also to be the case in first-world
countries, as seen from the examples of Canada,
the United States, and Australia, even though they
have support policies regarding CoPs. Traditional
structures have very sharp internal boundaries
marking isolated compartments. Therefore, it is
hard for them to incorporate functions and actors
to interact within different contexts, even when
a strong political environment encourages this.
Informal institutions, such as CoPs, should support
such goals as the production of information