Hands-On Knowledge Co-Creation and Sharing, Abdul Samad Kazi, Liza Wohlfart, Patricia Wolf, editors.
From the preface:
The content management team of KnowledgeBoard launched its first book entitled “Real-Life Knowledge Management: Lessons from the Field” in April, 2006. This book was a collection of eighteen industrial case studies from twelve different countries. What differentiated this book from others lay in the fact that most of the case studies were a recording of the vast experiences of knowledge workers: the real people on the field. The book was and continues to remain a success and is used in numerous large and small organisations to solve real-life problems today based on learnings from and adaptation of the case studies to the operational norms of these organisations. It is furthermore used as valuable teaching, training and reference material, at different universities and training centres.
During a Contactivity event in 2006, participants of the event mentioned the need for a set of practical methods and techniques for effective knowledge co-creation and sharing. The initial idea was to prepare a list of existing methods and techniques in the form of a short article. During this process, we noted that while existing methods were reasonably well-documented, there existed several undocumented methods and techniques that were developed and used for
specific organisational contexts by knowledge workers. Through further requests from different KnowledgeBoard community members for a new book on practical methods and techniques for knowledge creation and sharing, the content management team of KnowledgeBoard launched a call for KnowledgeBoard’s second book. “Hands-On Knowledge Co-Creation and Sharing: Practical Methods and Techniques”, the book you now hold in your hands, or browse on your screen is the result.This book presents thirty different hands-on methods and techniques for knowledge co-creation and sharing within collaborative settings. It showcases a wide range of moderation, facilitation, collaboration, and interaction mechanisms through the use of different face-to-face and online methods and techniques. Each presented method/technique is augmented with real-life cases on its use; provides directions on what needs to be done before, during, and after the use of each method/technique to achieve tangible and measurable results; provides a set of tips and tricks on the use and adaptation of the method/technique for different contexts and settings; and provides a list of potholes to avoid when using the method/technique.
The prime audience of this book is industry practitioners, event moderators, facilitators, consultants, researchers, and academia with an interest in the use and development of effective techniques and mechanisms to foster knowledge co-creation and sharing. This book is expected to equip them with a set of usable practical methods and techniques for knowledge co-creation and sharing.
You will have to select, adapt and modify these techniques to suit your particular situation but it does offer a wide range of approaches.
I am not as confident of the people sharing knowledge as the editors and their authors.
My experience with non-profit organizations could be called a cult of orality. There is little or no written documentation, be it requirements for projects, procedures for backups, installation details on applications, database schemas, etc.
Questions both large and small are answered only with oral and incomplete answers.
If answers to questions were in writing, it would be possible to hold people accountable for their answers.
Not to mention the job security that comes from being the only person who knows how applications are configured.
One reason for a lack of knowledge sharing is the lack of benefit for the person sharing the knowledge.
I would think continued employment would be benefit enough but that is a management choice.