Social Software in Knowledge Management of Organizations

Lehrstuhl Informatik 5(Informationssysteme)

Prof. Dr. M. JarkeI5-Kl-1108-1

Ralf KlammaRWTH Aachen University

Tallinn, November 21, 2008

Social Software in Knowledge Management of

Organizations

http://beamtenherrschaft.blogspot.com



Agenda Motivation Social Software for Knowledge

Management Communities of Practice aware

Knowledge Management Innovative Networking Tools Conclusions and Outlook



Turning your organizational data into competitive advantage

Community-Data

Social Network Analysisbased

KnowledgeManagement

Competititive Advantage



Social Software

Second LifeSecond Life

Social Software

Users(in Millions,

by the end of 2006)

Second Life 3

Wikipedia 4

WOW 7

LiveJournal 11

MySpace 70

MSN Space 120

Skype 171

Data is the Next Intel Inside-> Unique data Users Add Value-> no restrictions, Inclusive Network Effects by Default-> Collective Intelligence Some Rights Reserved -> Standards, Remix The Perpetual Beta-> Smaller modular Components Cooperate, Don't Control-> Light Web Services, Loose Syndication of data and systems (RSS, Mash-ups) Software Above the Level of a Single Device -> Software mobile and ubiquitous The Long Tail-> Small Communities

O‘Reilly: What is Web 2.0?, 2005



Web 2.0 Knowledge ManagementCultural and

Technological Shift by Social Software

Impact on Knowledge Work

Impact on Professional Communities

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

personal website and content management

blogging and wikisUser generated contentParticipation

MicrocontentProviding

commentaryPersonal knowledge

publishingEstablishing personal

networksTesting Ideas

Social learningIdentifying competencesEmergent CollaborationTrust & Social capital

directories (taxonomy) and stickiness

Tagging ("folksonomy") and syndication

RankingSense-making

RemixingAggregationEmbedding

Emergent Metadata Collective intelligenceWisdom of the CrowdCollaborative Filtering Visualizing Knowledge

Networks



Communities of practice

Community of practice (CoP) as the basic concept for human collaboration and learning

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better Wenger: Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, 1998



Components of social theory of learning

Learning

Learning as doing

Learning as experience

Learning as belonging

Learning as becoming

Community

Practice

Meaning

Identity

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity.



Features of CoP Situated Learning

– Learning is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it occurs (i.e. it is situated)

Informal and Co-located– The gradual acquisition of knowledge and skills learned

from experts in the context of their everyday activities Group Knowledge

– Knowledge is mediated through social interaction and collaboration in the group

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP)– Novices move from peripheral to full participation as they

gain legitimacy in the group



CoPs and the world of workWenger (1998) studied a CoP in a large insurance company and identified two key processes in CoPs: participation and reification.

Participation – “... the social experience of living in the world in terms of

membership in social communities and active involvement in social enterprises” (p 55 )

Reification– “... the process of giving form to our experience by

producing objects that congeal this experience into thingness” (p 58)



CoPs and WorkA CoP is now defined in terms of:

What it is about– The activity/body of knowledge that the community has

organized itself around - a joint enterprise How it functions

– How people are linked through their involvement in common activities - mutual engagement

What it produces– The set of resources the members of a CoP build up over

time - their shared repertoire



Interaction in Cooperative Knowledge Processes

Community of Practice (CoP)– Participation– Reification

Knowledge Management (KM) in form of CoP– Turning utterances and data into needs and knowledge– Finding out what is really happening in your organization

Community-Awareness – A key way to cultivate CoP– Should be maintained and kept up to data

Question: How can we foster community-aware knowledge management?



Community-Awareness Community-Awareness:

Knowing what is going on in community of practice The Community-Awareness Framework (adapted from [GuGr02])

SNA views social network in terms of nodes and ties [WaFa94]– Nodes: the individual actors within the networks– Ties: the relationships between the actors

Practice Environment of

CoP

Exploration Action

Interpret perceptual information and modifies CA knowledge

Determine what to look for next· Selective attention· Expectations of future activity· Explicit requests for CA information

Affect

Uses in practice· Uses in collaboration· Uses in workshop· Uses in discussion· Etc.

Gather perceptual information· Consequential communication· Feedthrough· Verbal&non-verbal communication

Community-Awareness (CA) knowledge· Who· Where· What· When· How

The merging of CA knowledge and existing knowledge creates new knowledge

Knowledge



Bubble Annotation Tool BAT: Knowledge Management with FunDoctorial

Seminar



PALADIN: Pattern Based Dynamic Social AnalysisDoctorial

Seminar



Competences in Social Networks

a) Technical Star b) Organizational Star

Figure: MIT Sloan School Review



Diving in the organizational data pool Doctorial Seminar

CommunityMining

MediaMining

ProcessMining



DABA: Driving the Organizational Knowledge Management Bus

Research different dashboard engines

Determine content of DABA– Investigate elements

of community-awareness

– Select SNA methods

Design widgets and dynamic activities between them

Dashboard prototype



Conclusions and Outlook Communities of practice as source for community-

aware Knowledge Management Innovative Tools for turning data into knowledge

– Bubble Annotation Tool– PALADIN– BaDa: A Dashboard for

Organizational Knowledge Management Case Studies with the tools in the near future

Technology

Social Software in Knowledge Management of Organizations