Somewhere I read: "Communities make a difference". No further explanation, no argumentation or example. It is easy to agree with such a statement, but I prefer to base my opinion on the reasons behind the statement. Since they were missing, I thought, what would be my arguments? As a sort of exercise, how do communities differ (from what?) and why? Here are my arguments in favour of the statement "Communities make a difference", compared to other knowledge management initiatives:
- communities are close to what people already tend to do: share their knowledge with people with similar interests;
- communities help to spread (tacit) knowledge through the organisation, fast problem solving;
- communities prevent reinvention of the wheel;
- succes of communities is proven in many companies: communies contribute to cost reduction (study APQC);
- companies who are succesful in knowledge management have communities (ah, now I'm turning cause and result);
- communities allow people to be involved who may fall out in other cases, because of distance, time difference, handicap, etc.;
- communities put no high demand on infrastructure, no expensive technology is needed, also without technology a community can exist.
This is what first comes into my mind. There are probably more arguments (suggestions?). And it would be good to think of contra-arguments as well, another exercise.
Now I have more important things to do: running!
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