Most people who are approaching knowledge management -for the first time- from the standpoint of building a community end up focusing on technology.
Technology just enhances communities. It expands the opportunities that communities bring but it doesn’t create communities, and it can also worsen communities if the technology is not user-friendly or if the community faciltator(s) does not know how to use it properly.
A bit of history on community and technology (Credits: Nancy White)
So why this focus on technology?
Because it’s hard to build a system, to have a functional tool, to provide ‘office-approved’ technology. A rutilating toy coming out of the shelves.
The technology feels to most of these people building KM community systems like the 80% of the work. And yet the 20% that remains – community building and development – is what really takes 80% of the time.
Technology creating platforms for communities to flourish (Credits: OCLC.org)
This is why it is very important to invest in cultivating healthy human systems before anything else…
That’s why soft skills are more important than hard systems; that’s why facilitation matters more than engineering (for these communities); that’s why listening is more important than programming; that’s why patience beats quick development…
Technology is and may always be only a proxy, an enabler, not the actual deal.
Funny, I drafted this 2 weeks ago, and this topic is what Bevery Trayner just wrote about on her blog. Go check it, it’s quality! Funny serendipity at work… technology enabling a community of ideas…
Related blog posts:
- The tool obsession, a serious(ly) childish posture
- Global information systems, between the info monster ‘Charybdis’ and ghost town ‘Scylla’
- Don’t want to understand KM? Don’t bother, business as usual is the best thing ever 🙂
- Go organic, go civic! #KMalreadyHappensAnyways
