Knowledge Communities - Establishing Initial Content Core - One of the Success Tools
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Nov 1, 2001
- 3 min read
Knowledge communities, also known as expert communities or Communities of Practice, are groups of people who share a common interest in a particular subject or field. Typically, this refers to a cross-functional group of people within an organization that does not sit under the same organizational structure, but is scattered across different locations and sometimes in different roles.
The need for community management stems from the desire to share knowledge and expertise. These people share a common subject, but knowledge is dispersed among them. Sharing enables Reuse (across the time axis) and facilitates multi-use (across the people axis). Still, more importantly, it creates smart use—a platform for exchanging opinions, mutual learning, and shared judgment. This leads to the creation of new knowledge, new uses, and growth.
According to the experience of many companies that have operated knowledge communities, a community's long-term success depends on several factors, some of which are technological and others cultural. We will focus here on one of the problems concerning encouraging community members to share and contribute content. This is a common problem and a source of frustration for many community leaders. A community was established, active physical meetings began, and a beautiful intranet site was set up, which was characterized by its users; however, the site remains empty, and meetings don't take place. One of the methods that helps create initial action on the site is establishing a core of initial content. Below are several tips for establishing a successful content core that will help the community's long-term success:
Establishing Content Core
When establishing the community, efforts should be made to create an initial core of content materials (critical mass). The essence of the content core will be shared documents, but it's also recommended to build a list of 10-20 questions for the FAQ and post at least two topics for discussion in the Discussion Group.
When establishing the content structure, it's recommended that the division be based on subject topics, rather than format (articles, conferences). The derived meaning is uniformity in division - it's recommended that the division be identical in discussion groups, FAQ, and information repositories.
The collection of content core will be initiated by activating the first community members who are expected to join upon its establishment. It's recommended to contact them by email and ask which shared documents they would like to see in the repository, as well as which documents they would like to contribute to this repository. They can also help in designing the site's content and suggest topics and subtopics for community activity.
It's recommended to build a permanent list of sources from which information is drawn about external and internal conferences and events. This list should also be documented on the site. Based on this list, community events ("news") will be built.
In many cases, the aspiration that every community member will enter their content themselves is unrealistic. The reasons: lack of time, lack of writing skills, lack of awareness of content that could benefit others, and more. One realistic solution: the content manager visits the community member and, together with them, locates appropriate content:
Locating useful documents on the shelf, on the hard drive, in the internet favorites list.
Interviewing the community member and documenting the information (for example, tips, answers to questions, etc.).
Sometimes it's enough to do this at the community establishment stage to create critical mass, and sometimes it's worthwhile to do this periodically (for example, once a quarter).
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