Communities of practice for inter-organizational knowledge management: An empirical study

Facilitating communities of practice for knowledge sharing and application is a goal pursued by knowledge managers, intra- organizational or inter-organizational. One major short-coming in the CoP literature is the lack of attention paid to power relations.The term communities of practice (CoPs) invoke the notion of peers sharing knowledge as equals.In actual practice, power relations within a community or between a community and its external actors can determine the nature and the efficacy of a CoP. In this study, we apply social network analysis to illuminate the nature of power relations in communities of practice in a particular inter-organizational context. The organizations concerned are the 217 local authorities in six selected provinces in Sri Lanka and the actors are the solid waste managers in each.Social network analysis is combined with a multi-level multi-theoretical analysis to understand the factors driving the apparent self-organization of this community of practitioners as hubs and nodes

Linking knowledge to innovation in government services: the case of solid waste services in local government in Sri Lanka (K2I Project)

The objective of the action research project was to identify cost-effective and sustainable means of developing a Web of knowledge–based interactions that link any given local authority to (a) peer community (b) a knowledge community, or (c) civil society, and explore if and how such connectedness may lead to improved performance in solid waste management. We also wished to apply the concept of an innovation system to the Web of interactions so formed in order to illuminate the concept further. Using an action research methodology we have been able to elucidate that competency standards, and training and certification processes can sustain practitioner networks for cooperation in knowledge sharing in local government, and that, such practitioner networks need to be coupled with tools such as ranking surveys that create a competitive environment in the sector. Facilitating linkages between local authorities and universities or civil society groups proved to be difficult. Some possible reasons are explored

Tracer study of the communication policy research south (CPRsouth) community of participants from 2013 to 2018

The study surveyed 261 individuals who participated in the past conferences of Communication Policy Research south (CPRsouth) from 2013 to 2018. The aim was to follow young scholars and conference presenters to see if they were able to influence communication policy in their countries. Responses of young scholars from the 2017 and 2018 conferences were examined in detail towards introducing improvements to the young scholars (YS) program. The report provides details of the survey

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV2023): From basic to advanced approaches

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), through their complex cargo, can reflect the state of their cell of origin and change the functions and phenotypes of other cells. These features indicate strong biomarker and therapeutic potential and have generated broad interest, as evidenced by the steady year-on-year increase in the numbers of scientific publications about EVs. Important advances have been made in EV metrology and in understanding and applying EV biology. However, hurdles remain to realising the potential of EVs in domains ranging from basic biology to clinical applications due to challenges in EV nomenclature, separation from non-vesicular extracellular particles, characterisation and functional studies. To address the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) updates its 'Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles', which was first published in 2014 and then in 2018 as MISEV2014 and MISEV2018, respectively. The goal of the current document, MISEV2023, is to provide researchers with an updated snapshot of available approaches and their advantages and limitations for production, separation and characterisation of EVs from multiple sources, including cell culture, body fluids and solid tissues. In addition to presenting the latest state of the art in basic principles of EV research, this document also covers advanced techniques and approaches that are currently expanding the boundaries of the field. MISEV2023 also includes new sections on EV release and uptake and a brief discussion of in vivo approaches to study EVs. Compiling feedback from ISEV expert task forces and more than 1000 researchers, this document conveys the current state of EV research to facilitate robust scientific discoveries and move the field forward even more rapidly