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30 Sep 08

Library clips :: The community paradox :: September :: 2008

I’m just going to comment on the Local vs Global paradox in relation to Communities of Practice as it relates to current talks I’m having at the moment in creating communities for a Procurement practice.
Do we create multiple communities by region, by specialty, do we also have a general community (where there is overlap in interests)? What’s the downside of splintered communities? Will people identify and participate in a general community?

libraryclips.blogsome.com/...the-community-paradox - Preview

communities communitiesofinterest knowledgesharing knowledgemanagement scope

The 4 KM paradoxes are:

1. Tacit vs Explicit

2. Local vs Global

3. Open vs Closed

4. Quantity vs Quality
“It is relatively easy to establish a community for knowledge sharing within a local area. Sharing involves trust and trust is easier to establish among people who share physical and cultural proximity.”

“But for large companies, sharing knowledge locally is not the problem. Making information and problem solutions visible and available across the corporation is the issue. Consequently, these localized efforts actually create barriers to sharing knowledge between regions and organizations.”
3 more annotations...
- “It is relatively easy to establish a community for knowledge sharing within a local area. Sharing involves trust and trust is easier to establish among people who share physical and cultural proximity.”
- So do we start small to get traction and then overcome the local barrier issue by merging later on, or will it be too late as people will be against the merger?
  
  If so, this is a good thing as it means they are passionate about their community, it has an identity that is being challenged…so it will be best left alone. The only issue we will have is one of convenience of a one stop shop community, but if it’s a choice of one global unactive community compared to several thriving smaller communities then we will have to go without convenience.
- “I now have a simple test to gauge whether a community of practice might form. When someone says, “I would like to start a community of practice.” I ask, “Can you describe the potential members by completing the following sentence? I am a …..” If they can fill in the blank in a way that people can passionately identify with the descriptor then there is a chance a community might emerge. Let me give you an example. I was helping the Department of Defence design a community of practice for project managers. ‘I am a project manager’ was a strong descriptor and so we knew we had a chance. During the design process the client has another job type for which they wanted a community to support simply called ‘technical’. ‘I am a technical’ didn’t inspire so we knew it was unachievable. The ‘I am a …” test is easy and effective.”