Reinventing the wheel

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Reinventing the wheel? Development and relief
interventions challenges for knowledge
management Silva Ferretti Oxford Brookes
University Aid Workers Network
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Information and information generation processes
Coordination mechanisms
Updates and news, who is doing what where
Collaborative processes of data / information
exchange across organisations
Reports, data on operations
Monitoring and evaluation
Correspondence from HQ
Organisational learning
Manuals, how to guidelines
Conceptualisation of knowledge (research studies,
production of manuals and procedures)
On line training
Discussion lists
Communities of practice
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Information for operations, information from
learning
  INFORMATION FROM LEARNING
INFORMATION FOR OPERATIONS
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Learning in organisation
Leveraging individual experience
Learning by doing, organisational memory
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Learning in the humanitarian system
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Collective learning
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The Aid Workers Network
http//www.aidworkers.net
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AWN some of the assumptions behind it

• The wheel is continuosly reinvented in the field
• Aid workers need tailored information
• There is not a ready-made answer to everything
• Knowledge is not held by experts only ( the
  challenge of quality)
• Knowledge management is essentially about people
  (not IT)
• There is a need for a generalistic community,
  able to bridge across specialised CoPs and
  organisation. Development / relief workers,
  national / expat staff can benefit from a common
  arena for knowledge exchange.
• A broad community of aidworkers can create the
  critical mass that allow for economy of scale in
  information circulation.

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Components of the network
Members (the community)
Content the library, the super-manual
QA the meeting area, the help desk
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Demand-driven information and knowledge exchange
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AWN participants
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AWN the importance of facilitation

• Create trust
• Make knowledge sharing a habit
• Provide support and guidance in using IT
• Promote the network
• Support activists
• Animation
• Networking

Results achieved
Faciliteted translfer
K-services networks
Self-directed
Resources required
O'Dell, Carla, and C. Jackson Grayson. 1998. If
only we knew what we know. New York The Free
Press
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AWN pushing and pulling information
Creation of trust User support facilitation
members
gatekeepers
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To find out more
Silva Ferretti sferretti_at_brookes.ac.uk or
silva.ferretti_at_aidworkers.net
_at_
http//www.brookes.ac.uk/refsettle/ The website
of the PhD research (to be updated
soon) http//www.aidworkers.net/ The website
of the aidworkers net
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