Building the Knowledge Management Network: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Putting Conversation to Work

Part 2. Matching Culture with Technology

Among organizations, no two cultures are identical and neither are the technologies that best support their knowledge networks. There's a large and growing selection of platforms and interfaces claiming to meet the special needs of knowledge management, and existing software applications continue to be refined to better fit the way people actually work and interact with each other. The four chapters in Part Two aim to help executives, managers, and IT professionals understand the important and evolving relationship between technical infrastructure and workplace culture and, more specifically, how nurturing that relationship leads to efficient, well-utilized, and productive online knowledge networking.

chapter 4, "The Role of IT in the Effective Knowledge Network," describes the role of the information technology (IT) manager and the IT department in supporting dynamic, self-guided knowledge networks. Chapter 5, "Fostering a Knowledge-Sharing Culture," is a survey of both the standard tools and the cutting-edge software products that enable the coordination of online conversation and relevant content publishing. Chapter 6, "Taking Culture Online," describes the vital characteristics of a knowledge-sharing culture and how relationships formed and maintained online can color the overall cultural values and strategic choices of the organization. In Chapter 7, "Choosing and Using Technology," we bring the technology and culture together and, using ...