knowledge_networks

//Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice// (Hildreth and Kimble, 2004), provides one way of contextualising CoPs, knowledge management (KM) and online netwoks. They point out that while KM in the nineties had been perceived as an innovative solution to many of these problems of increasingly dynamic and rapid change, due in part to the growing pressure of 'globalisation', and perception of an "increased need for knowledge sharing", Hildreth and Kimble suggest that KM was > often little more than Information Management re-badged and simply dealt with structured data using a capture, codify and store approach (Hildreth & Kimble, 2004, [|Introduction]; c.f. [|Wilson, 2002]).

Hildreth and Kimble go on to suggest there has been a change > More recently, there has been recognition of the importance of more subtle, softer types of knowledge that needs to be shared. This raises the question as to how this sort of knowledge might be 'managed'. A certain type of community, the Community of Practice (CoP) has been identified as being a group where such types of knowledge are nurtured, shared and sustained (Hildreth & Kimble, 2004, [|Introduction]; c.f. [|Hildreth & Kimble, 2002]).