Using Web 2.0 in an Organisation to support KMS

Introduction

It seems there is no universally agreed explanation of Web 2.0, a termed coined by Tim O’Reilly (2005). He however, defined it simply as a 2^nd generation of the World Wide Web (www). Web 2.0 focuses on web-based communities, collaboration and information sharing and is said to be more dynamic than the static html platform. Technologies such as social networking sites, blogs, wikis and web services are regarded as components of the Web 2.0 platform (Web 2.0., 2008)

In 2005, a year after the coinage of the term Web 2.0 and also following its continuous misuse and some referrals to it as nothing but a buzzword, Tim O’Reilly (2005), gave the following as the core competencies of a web 2.0 technology. These competences were outlined to serve as Show Alla guide in determining a Web 2.0 technology:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

The more of these competencies a certain Technology has, the more it can be described as a Web 2.0 technology.

Web 2.0 for Knowledge Management in Organisation

A wiki is a link or collection of WebPages that is created by collective effort and that is designed to enable contribution and sharing of knowledge by its participants. The Wiki is referred to as a Web 2.0 technology (with the ability to possessing all of the above mentioned competencies) and its use is becoming increasingly popular by Organisations to build their corporate memory. This is due to the fast (Wiki means fast in Hawaiian) and dynamic nature of the Wiki, and its collective feature which is ideal for large groups i.e. in Organisations. Cerny J, (2008) referred to a prediction by a technology analyst firm which stated that by the end of 2009, half the Organisation in the United states will have one form or the other of a wiki.

An organisation will use a wiki to leverage on the expertise and knowledge of its staff. A wiki will harness the collective knowledge of the people and make it easily available. This process will reduce its time to competency levels. It will maximize the utilization of new staff faster. Ordinarily, a new staff may take up to six months before they can start to actually add value to an Organisation and a Wiki will make such staff productive faster. A wiki provides a means to create open, easy and ongoing collaborative discussions between staff and this creates a more trusting business environment, which in turn creates a more productive organisation.

Another web 2.0 technology used in an Organisation to support Knowledge management is the blog. A blog is a personal diary that is maintained by an individual and to which readers can comment. A CEO of a company who maintains a blog which can be viewed and commented on by staff in the Organisation will be using it to transfer, as well as store knowledge within their organisation. A blog is an informal way of communication and its use creates the feeling of equality or flat hierarchy and thus encourages an easier contribution of knowledge especially from junior staff. A good example is given by Schopen, F. (2009) of GE, an American technology and services company, where its chief marketing officer writes and constantly updates a blog which is accessed by GE’s 300,00 staff spread across 100 counties.

Enterprise 2.0, according to Levy, M., (2009) symbolizes the implementation of any WEB 2.0 technology and/or tools by an organization.

Theory to practice

My organisation, Albion Fabrics Ltd (Eagles Blog, 2009) due its unique peculiarities, needs a web 2.0 technology that is cheap to acquire and maintain, and that can create a friendlier working environment, which would make the Organisation generally more productive, help build its corporate memory and also help acquire new knowledge.

After a close study of the current situation in Albion fabric, my team and I noticed a problem which was that teams within AFL were not collaborating efficiently thus dealings between a team and factories abroad were not being passed on to other teams. We therefore opted for a wiki, (as one of the Web 2.0 technologies) which would be easy to set up and at the same time take Albion to the envisioned situation.

The wiki will be made available to all staff of Albion and would be accessed via the staff intranet. For the wiki to be effective, we found the need to encourage users. We put in place a process of evaluation that would have a chief knowledge management officer monitoring the use of the wiki. Some form of remuneration or recommendation would be put in place for staff with the most useful posts, best post for the week and best comment for the week.

References:

Cerny, J. (2008). Use wiki-based runbook automation to promote a collaborative capture of best practices. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=455

Cronin, J. (2009) Upgrading to Web 2.0: An Experiential Project to Build a Marketing Wiki

Journal of Marketing Education, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury OnlineFirst, published on January 6, 2009 Sage Publications.

Eagles Blog, (2009) The Eagles, Knowledge Management from a new perspective. Available online at: http://thekmeagles.blogspot.com/. [Accessed on 02 April 2009]

Levy, M. (2009) WEB 2.0 implications on knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 13 No. 1 pp. 120-134, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270

O'Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0? O'Reilly Network. Retrieved on March 10, 2009 from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.

Schopen, F. (2009). How businesses can get the most out of Web 2.0. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article5798111.ece

Web 2.0. (2008) In Webopedia Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_2_point_0.html

Wiki. (2008). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki