About the Book
Knowledge and Communities is the first book dedicated to a major new knowledge management topic. "Communities of Practice" are cross-organizational groups of people sharing knowledge, solving common problems, and exchanging insights and frustrations. Knowledge and Communities, a collection of authoritative articles, describes the dynamics of these groups and explains how they enable organizational knowledge to be creating, shared, and applied.
The book teaches how organizations can empower both traditional and on-line communities and make them a cornerstone of a general knowledge management strategy. Readers will learn how communities can help unify an organization and its external stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers, and how they can critically support an e-commerce strategy. Knowledge and Communities will help readers understand a primary vehicle for building an organization's social capital and competitive advantage.
Table of Contents:
PART 1- Practical Applications; 1: Wenger, Etienne, "Communties of Practice: The Key to Knowledge Strategy,"; 2: McDermott, Richard, "How Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management,"; 3: Judge, Fryxell and R. Dooley, "The New Task of R&D Management,"; 4: Stamps, David, "Communities of Practice,"; 5: Storck, John and P. Hill, "Knowledge Diffusion through Strategic Communities,"; 6: Armstrong, A, and J. Hagel, "The Real Value of On-line Communities,"; PART 2- Theory Development; 7: Brown, John and Paul Duguid, "Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice," 8: Prusak, L. and E. Lesser, "Communities of Practice, Social Capital and Organizational Knowledge,"; 9: Liedtka, Jeanne, "Linkingf Competitive Advantage with Communities of Practice,"; 10: Teigland, Robin, "Communities of Practice at an Internet Firm,"; 11: Wellman, Salaff, et al., "Computer Networks as Social Networks,"; 12: Franco, Piirto, et al., "Conflict and Community Building on the Internet,"; 13: Marshall, Catherine, F. Shipman III and R.J. McCall, "Making Large Scale Information Resources Serve Communities of Practice."
Review :
It is mostly elegantly written, persuasive, contradictory, sometimes very funny ... You'll get controversy, breathless enthusiasm, ideas that are novel and occasionally guaranteed to send the faint of heart headed for the Mendips. Buy the book. Generally aimed at managers, but also of use to researchers and students in the field, the book covers many aspects of the phenomenon of communities within organisations, if your current view of knowledge focuses on the technology of intranets, or search engines, or document management, this book will prove something of an eye-opener which is likely to dramatically change your view of priorities. Managing Information - Feb 2001 The Essential lynchpin of KM is people and the communities that they form. This is stressed in a recent collection of journal articles published by Butterworth Heinemann as Knowledge & Communities. Information Management Report - Feb 2001 A common Information Age myth is that technology alone will create collaboration. Instead, making it work as a business process requires getting people to share what they know across psychological, departmental and geographical boundaries. 'Knowledge and Communities', a series of essays selected and prefaced by three veterans of the IBM Institute of Knowledge Management, provides real-world advice and theorectical insight about developing communities. The essayists not only show concrete results for theory and action but also look at the hazards of poor communication. One argues, for example, that Xerox scientists had invented the modern PC but failed to capitalize on it because of the disconnect between engineers and management. The writers examine ways to form communities of knowledge sharing in essays that combine hard statistical analysis with observations like this from one Silicon Valley denizen: "No one has yet invented a technolgoy that replaces a pitcher of beer." - Marc Rapport, Knowledge Management Magazine - July 2001
