Knowledge mobilisation in communities through socio-technical systems

Abstract

Enterprises in both the public and private sector undertake knowledge management (KM) initiatives through which they hope to engender a new, more adaptive and flexible culture of learning and innovation in their organisations. Creative activities involving social learning and innovation are, however, more common in less formal entities such as communities of practice at work and community service organisations in civil society. This paper presents the results and implications of collaborative research into the understanding, development and evaluation of socio-technical systems (STS) designed to mobilise collective knowledge in diverse community settings. The research concerns information and communication technologies (ICT)-mediated activities of communities in the broader civil society and also those in formal organisations. The paper describes and critically evaluates a set of three STS that have the potential to support the collective knowledge of innovative groups, teams and networks, which can all be considered forms of community. The findings could be of strategic value to business, government and community service organisations initiating KM programmes aimed at using collective learning to support innovation.

Keywords:

• knowledge management
• knowledge mobilisation
• socio-technical systems
• communities of practice
• activity theory

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Discovery Grant, DP0211336, from the Australian Research Council.

Notes

1 Now called Eviva. See: www.eviva.com.au

2 Zing Technologies Pty Ltd.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Hasan

About the authors

Helen Hasan is an associate professor in Information Systems in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Wollongong. She has a Masters in Physics followed by a Ph.D. in Information Systems, is a member of the Australian Standards Committees on Knowledge Management and Small to Medium Enterprises. She has published extensively in the areas of Human Computer Interaction, Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Knowledge Management (KM) and more recently Network-Centric Organisation. Currently, she is working with the Defence Scientific and Technology Organisation on a simulation game to research and train for team-building in the network-centric paradigm.

Kathryn Crawford

Kathryn Crawford has extensive experience as a researcher, developer and facilitator who works with clients to build self-governing, creative, agile and adaptive communities and organisations. She is the owner/director of a consultancy agency, Eviva Pty Ltd, with a focus on knowledge mobilisation through social technologies and is an Honorary Fellow with the University of Wollongong, Australia.