Virtual knowledge communities

Knowledge work is mainly based on task- or topic-related communication among employees. Much of their time is allocated for searching and maintaining helpful contacts for specific business questions. By that, large yet invisible relationship networks develop. Understanding and utilizing such communities benefits the efficiency of knowledge transfer and collaboration in a company. Based on detailed foundations of Knowledge Management and Communities of Practice, this book shows that organizations are essentially knowledge networks of communication. Taking this perspective, a detailed procedure for IT-supported network analysis of knowledge communities based on their communication is introduced together with the required Social Network Intelligence Software. Using a transparent visual network model and a comprehensive network measurement system, the approach integrates methods from Dynamic Social Network Analysis, Information Visualization, and Text Mining to identify, monitor and analyze networks. Four practical cases demonstrate how this helps to identify important information bottle necks, important people, clusters, emerging topics, or lifecycles in knowledge communities. The book targets community moderators, corporate managers with a focus on groups and knowledge work, and researchers or students of network analysis.