Inquiry in Support of the Knowledge Sharing Life Cycle Within a Higher Education Database Practicum: a Case Study at Regis University

The Regis University database practicum provides an opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with Database Administrator (DBA) tasks as they support the virtual lab environment used by students enrolled in database courses at the university. The student DBA team is new each semester and has a short time to become familiar with the environment they are supporting and the tools they will be using. Inefficient communication and organization delay the resolution of production issues. This study analyzed the current knowledge sharing culture, technologies, and processes of the database practicum. The goal of the study was to determine accessibility of core knowledge needed by DBA teams to improve collaboration and reduce time for teams to begin actively supporting the online environment. This paper can be used by any higher education administrator wishing to implement a collaborative information technology

Community sharing platform for mobile devices

Communities arise from the need to communicate and share information. The present study intends to facilitate the creation of open communities where users are concerned or passionate about a subject and are willing to share their knowledge with other members. Based on the theoretical concept of community of practice and using a technological hybrid approach, this work proposes a Community Sharing Platform for Mobile Devices. Initially describes a conceptual model using three different approaches: Operational, Technological and Economic. Later, validates this model by developing a functional prototype, which is available for a set of users. Finally, based on usage statistics, the prototype is validated.As comunidades surgem da necessidade que o ser humano tem em comunicar e partilhar informação. O presente estudo pretende encontrar solução que facilite a criação de comunidades abertas, onde os utilizadores conscientes e informados sobre determinadas áreas, estão dispostos a aprender e a partilhar o seu conhecimento. Baseado no conceito teórico de comunidade de prática e utilizando uma abordagem tecnológica híbrida, este trabalho propõe uma plataforma de partilha de informação comunitária para dispositivos móveis. Começa por descrever um modelo conceptual, dividindo-o em três domínios diferentes: Operacional, Tecnológico e Económico. Posteriormente, valida este modelo através da construção de um protótipo funcional, que fica disponível para um conjunto de utilizadores. Por último, com base nas estatísticas de utilização, é realizada a validação desse protótipo

The Role of the Urban Matters Community of Practice within the National Park Service

There is a growing movement in the U.S., and throughout the world, involving top down government bureaucracies or government agencies within the natural resources field, to develop new and innovative processes and structures for integrating societal viewpoints into agency decision-­making. This study examines Urban Matters, a community of practice within the National Park Service (NPS) that fits within the larger trend of collaborative processes. This community of practice receives broad support, has a large number of professionals consistently involved, and aligns with the National Park Service’s attempt to strengthen connections with stakeholders outside of the Park Service who are important in the implementation of many NPS policies. The Urban Matters community of practice was analyzed in an effort to better understand why communities of practice emerge, how they are maintained, and what impact they have on the National Park Service. The data informing this study came from interviews with 12 community of practice leaders, 17 community of practice meeting transcripts, and from planning documents used by the Urban Matters community leaders. The results from this analysis are intended to inform and guide the NPS as it continues to initiate and facilitate collaborative practices like Urban Matters

Um framework baseado em ontologia de apoio à gestão estratégica da inovação em organizações de P&D+i

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2013.A inovação amplia a produtividade e a competitividade de organizações, requisitos essenciais para tornar próspera e sustentável a economia de um país. Organizações de P&D+i cumprem um papel fundamental nesse contexto que teve sua complexidade ampliada com a globalização e o surgimento da inovação aberta. Este trabalho propõe um framework de apoio à gestão estratégica com vistas a dar indicativos das condições ambientais em organizações de P&D+i para a inovação. A proposta é sustentada por uma abordagem quali-quantitativa da pesquisa, baseada em múltiplos estágios de coletas de dados. Entrevistas semiestruturadas foram conduzidas em sete organizações de P&D+i da Espanha para complementar os conceitos de inovação levantados a partir das revisões de literatura e de documentos. Com a modelagem dos dados obtidos das fontes de coleta, foi possível identificar os componentes, estruturas ou conceitos para o framework. O framework tem como tripé estrutural um instrumento de coleta de dados e duas ontologias. Uma ontologia de domínio para representar os conceitos de inovação e uma ontologia de questionário, na qual são instanciadas as questões do instrumento de coleta de dados. O framework foi aplicado em cinco organizações de P&D+i, duas organizações da Espanha e três do Brasil, para verificar sua viabilidade. O principal resultado da pesquisa é a integração dos conceitos fundamentais de inovação em um framework com aplicação em organizações de P&D+i. Os resultados obtidos com a aplicação do instrumento de coleta de dados e informações para o framework mostraram a aplicabilidade em distintas organizações de P&D+i, e o potencial para agregar dispersos conceitos de inovação. A ontologia genérica de questionário, com potencial de disponibilização pública para reuso em distintas áreas de conhecimento, é um dos resultados da pesquisa que trará benefícios às comunidades científica e não científica. Abstract : Innovation increases productivity and competitiveness of organizations, the essential aspects for a prosperous and sustainable economy. R&D+i organizations play a key role in this context that had its complexity expanded with globalization and the emergence of open innovation. This paper proposes a framework to pinpoint organizational environmental conditions for innovation in R&D+i organizations to support strategic management. The research is based on quali-quantitative approach with multiple stages of data collection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in seven R&D+i organizations of Spain to complement the concepts of innovation collected from literature reviews and documents. After modeling the data collected from different sources, it was possible to identify the components, structures and concepts for the framework. The framework is sustained on a tripod structure of one survey instrument and two ontologies. One domain ontology to represent the concepts of innovation, and another ontology named questionnaire which instances are questions of the survey. The framework was applied in five R&D+i organizations to verify the framework feasibility: two organizations from Spain and three from Brazil. The main result of the research is the integration of the fundamental concepts of innovation in a framework with practical application in organizations of R&D+i. The information from the survey, as a mechanism for gathering information for the framework, showed its applicability in different R&D+i organizations, and the potential of the framework to aggregate dispersed innovation concepts. A generic ontology questionnaire, with potential for public availability to be reused in different areas of knowledge, is one of the results of the research that will bring benefits to the scientific and nonscientific communities

Exploring knowledge sharing through social media among members of the African Community of Practice.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.This study sought to examine the extent of social media use for knowledge sharing among members of the African Community of Practice (AfCoP), a distributed community of practice of development practitioners. It also sought to find the factors affecting knowledge sharing through social media among AfCoP members. The study followed a pragmatic approach using mixed methods to collect data through a survey, semi-structured interviews and content analysis on the AfCoP knowledge sharing platform. The study revealed that social media is providing new ways through which tacit and codified knowledge is shared in distributed communities. Several types of social media were found to support various knowledge sharing activities including learning, networking, collaboration and expert location. Social Capital and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) factors were found to play an important role in knowledge sharing behaviours among AfCoP members. Social interaction ties, trust, norms of reciprocity, identification, shared language and shared vision significantly correlated with the knowledge sharing intentions of AfCoP members and the quality of knowledge shared on the AfCoP platform. Perceived usefulness also correlated with both knowledge sharing intentions of members and the quality of knowledge shared on the platform, while perceived ease of use correlated with the quality of knowledge shared on the AfCoP platform. Members were also motivated to participate on the AfCoP knowledge sharing platform by a desire to improve their career practices and to encounter professional opportunities on the platform. The challenges members encountered in their pursuit of sharing knowledge on the AfCoP platform included: lack of time and an unwillingness to exert the necessary effort to meaningfully participate on the platform, lack of participation, insufficient incentives for participation and lack of financial guarantee for the sustainability of AfCoP. The study demonstrates that social media can bridge challenges of distance and physical location through facilitating the sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge despite one’s location. To encourage knowledge sharing through social media, social capital and TAM factors must be addressed. The study also adds to empirical evidence on the role of social media in facilitating knowledge sharing among development sector practitioners from an African context