Exploring U.S. Air Force On-line Communities of Practice: An Examination of Content Management Practices

摘要

The management of knowledge assets has become increasingly important as organizations recognize the strategic value of knowledge. In an attempt to capitalize on its potential, many organizations have turned to Internet technologies for capturing, managing and disseminating their vast amounts of explicit knowledge. One application of such technology can be found in the use of on-line collaborative workspaces. These virtual workspaces facilitate and promote an environment for capturing and sharing knowledge among members of a particular field, task, or common practice. Despite the implied efficiency of such an approach, an ever-increasing volume of information/knowledge may impede the ability of users to navigate successfully through the workspace thus undermining the user participation and illustrating the importance of effective content management (CM). This exploratory study uses case studies to examine the CM practices of eight U.S. Air Force online communities of practice. The findings suggest that the development of formal CM processes, and procedures may help solve future CM problems as well as increase the benefits associated with on-line CoP usage.