Dinesh Tantri wades into the discussion of Enterprise 2.0 and social software with Is Social Software Necessary & Sufficient For KM? He's got some great thoughts overall, but I keyed in on the following
I believe there are two classes of problems to be addressed to improve knowledge sharing:
- Unduly complex systems to share knowledge need to be phased out
- Employee engagement at work needs more attention.
Social software addresses problem 1 very well. It dramatically reduces the barriers to contribution and sharing IF employees choose to share. And to attack the "if employees choose to share" challenge we need to work on improving employee motivation and commitment at work. If employees are engaged in what they are doing and there is value alignment - knowledge sharing will work.
I like his examples and the focus on the culture that has to exist to ensure the knowledge exchange (employee engagement). With the right culture, almost any (useful) tool can meet the needs of engaged and willing employees.