Technological platform enabling the community development within a virtual collaboration environment. Normally variable and versatile platform systems that enable communities or work groups to chose what tools to use according to their needs. In a more technical way, this type of computer environment allow the possibility of developing an important part of the main strategies involved in Knowledge Management. So, for example, while they permit us to develop a series of actions for managing explicit knowledge (using systems of presentation and protocol). On the other hand, they also offer the possibility to manage tacit knowledge (suing synchronous and asynchronous socialisation strategies). To offer this range of possibilities, this kind of platform normally incorporates a series of tools that can be activated or not according to the interest of the community: a photo album, blog, calendar, a file container, forum, mailing list, participation process management system, and a wikipedia page.
Published in Chapter:
Communities of Practice in Public Administration: The Case of Catalonia’s Government
Mario Pérez-Montoro (University of Barcelona, Spain) and Jesús Martínez (Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain)
Copyright: © 2011
|Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-802-4.ch023
Abstract
Currently, Knowledge Management (KM) is being received very positively by organisations. Nevertheless, there is a particular type of organisation in which there has been less of a general demand for KM: the public organisations. However, in the last three years, a Knowledge Management project, based in communities of practice (CoPs), has been put into practice in the area of the Justice Department in the Catalan government, the Generalitat of Catalunya. The aim of this work is to present a detailed analysis of this project. To achieve this aim, first of all, we are going to introduce the implementation methodology and the results obtained, as well as the success variables involved in this project. This will allow us to offer a guide for implementing CoPs in public administration. Lastly, by way of conclusion, we will provide a series of conclusions and lessons that can easily be applied to the majority of community of practice projects that are implemented in the Public Administration context.