Will I search a database?

PEOPLE (Community of Practice)

Quick, Referrals, Re-frame to your context, Peripheral information

MACHINE (database)

Not quick, Assumes shared context,May not exist, May be outdatedInto procedures, ascommon practice, or complementary wikipages (workarounds,informal practices)

Will I ask people (CoPs)?

F o r m a l a n s w e r i n d a t a b a s e

Answer is new information

Subscribers learnas it happensFacilitator tofeedbackintegral newinformation

Answer existsin CoP

First ask people in the Community of Practice (CoP)Person may point: to an existing answer or a useful bit in the database,or within the CoPitself where the raw contextual information livesAn answer to the question may create new informationIf worth capturing as a new common practice, then put thatinformation into the database (with links back to the raw CoPcontentegforum post, and vice versa)If it’s new insight into existing information, forum thread isresurrected, and then update common practiceNew information can even be fed back into proceduresPerhaps procedures need a complementary wiki to list workaroundsfor different contexts

Sense-making KM and CoPs…

Just-in-case vs Just-in-time

John Tropea

twitter.com/johnt