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learning and professional development among knowledge workers. These online
community portals provide multiformat platforms and create various forms of learning
environments for organizations and their members. Such knowledge communities
provide a range of content, services, and tools for successful implementation of
organizational initiatives or industry best practices. They also provide several
strategic advantages such as enhancing staff competency by replacing traditional
training and development and exposing organizations and their members to new
thinking through peer-to-peer learning. In addition to facilitating intraorganiza-
tional knowledge networks, Web 2.0 technologies and applications have created
new intermediaries that connect organizations with practitioners, experts, and re-
searchers around the world.
One notable example of a knowledge management network is the Knowledge and
Innovation Network (KIN) ( http://www.ki-network.org ), which is a membership-
based community linking business practitioners from leading industry organiza-
tions, world-class researchers, and some of the world's leading experts in knowledge
management and innovation. Its objectives include promoting, fostering, and sup-
porting collaboration between practitioners, researchers, and experts to create new
knowledge and practice. One unique aspect of the KIN is that it involves only one
member from each industry to promote open knowledge sharing and collaboration
free from competitors and vendors. Collaboration and knowledge sharing in KIN
takes place through special interest groups (SIGs) which include communities of
practice, enabling technologies, and innovation.
Another interesting example is HR.com ( http://www.hr.com ), which is the
largest social network and online community of corporate human resource execu-
tives. This network provides member executives with easy access to shared
knowledge on best practices, trends, and industry news in order to help them
develop and effectively manage their workforce and organization. The network
supports several communities whose specific interests include employee benefits,
compensations, staffing and recruitment, HR outsourcing, training and develop-
ment, performance management, leadership, and many other areas within the
human resources domain. Within each community, members connect, learn, and
share with their peers. Some of the shared knowledge on best practices includes
latest relevant articles related to the community, live and archived webcasts with
leaders and innovators, HR blogs and free spaces for executive members to create
their own blogs, and an online bulletin board or forum for members to share their
ideas, experiences, questions, and answers. A unique and important feature of this
network is its HR Market Intelligence tool which provides real-time and compre-
hensive market data from industry peers. The HR Market Intelligence is a metric-
based program that offers extensive data on multiple supplier categories (e.g., job
boards, consultants, and services) within the HR industry. This tool also allows
executives to build customizable reports based on survey data collected from the
largest pool of HR professionals. Members can create reports by mapping their
needs against the best practices, trends, and benchmarks reported by other HR
executives.
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