Communities of Practice

We are all knowledgeable, and perceived as experts in at least one aspect of our life, whether it is the ins and outs of building a world class backyard deck, to setting up policy and procedures around large IT projects; we all have our knowledgeable subject areas where no one can touch us. Capturing that knowledge and disseminating it to all the masses so that all benefit, well that is the challenge of any true knowledge management initiative.

In the past, if someone wanted to gleam knowledge, expertise, experience from a SME (Subject Matter Expert), they simply asked them how they came to that conclusion or result. Since many of those individuals worked and stayed with the same organization for years and years, tapping that knowledge was a fairly easy task. But as more and more knowledge is quickly disappearing either through retirements, rotations, lay offs, career moves, etc., it is ever more important to capture that information in a reliable and readily easy knowledge management content management repository enviornment.

Tools such as Microsoft's SharePoint and Tomoye provide an easy, reliable experience via an online web portal were subject matter experts can provide true value by taking a proactive role in managing their knowledge.

These online collaborative tools allow users to input, manage, disseminate, and collaborate their expertise on a wide range of topics and subjects. Subject matter experts have the capability to create forums, discussions and content within one central repository. Key documents can be uploaded, discussed, and shared among a wide variety of key stakeholders all providing additional key content value.

These communities of practice create a venue where these experts become their own knowledge management repository providing present and future generations access to information that would have normally been lost had these tools not been available.

As we move forward in our knowledge management initiatives, these tools will help us keep information and knowledge central and easily accessible and retrievable.