Editorial

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Article citation: Niall Sinclair, (2010) "Editorial", VINE, Vol. 40 Iss: 1, pp. -

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Article Type: Editorial From: VINE: The journal of information and knowledge management systems, Volume 40, Issue 1

When Marshall Mcluhan coined the term “The Global Village” in the early 1960s he might have had in mind this special issue! What you will find in this publication is a true global perspective of the impact that the evolution of Web 2.0 is having on the field of knowledge management. In this Issue we have perspectives from countries all around the globe, including: Thailand, New Zealand, Mexico, India, USA, and Nigeria. As you read these papers you will sense that the challenges and solutions being described here could be from any country, anywhere in the world.

Indeed, it is obvious that we are all inter-connected now in a way that wasn’t evident even ten years ago. Events such as the recent global recession now tend to impact all countries, even when the events themselves may have started as purely localized issues. Similarly, changes in technology present all individuals, and all countries, with an equal opportunity. The growth of net-centric business, and net-centric communities, are proof that it’s a level playing field as far as opportunities go. It will be those who understand the changes and possibilities that Web 2.0 will bring who will emerge as the new generation of business leaders. Accordingly, this issue looks at a variety of approaches by individuals and teams from around the world who have seen a new horizon developing due to Web 2.0’s availability.

The breadth of subject matter included here is quite broad, and while all the topics may not be familiar to everyone, each paper provides insights into current thinking, and future evolution, in a variety of business domains.

Here are the contributions that comprise this issue:

• Fa Niemi and Richard Greatbanks from New Zealand, share their insights into the way that conversation is enabled within blog communities, and discuss what factors need to be in place to facilitate community growth. These factors form the context, or ba, within which knowledge is converted and optimized by communities.
• Javeed Ahmad Rah, Sumeer Gul and Zahid Ashraf Wani from India, investigate how web-based KM systems have opened up a whole new world of opportunity for libraries, and how these opportunities are helping to shape the way that the library of the twenty-first century will look.
• Blanca Garcia from Mexico, presents us with a view as to how Web 2.0 technology has not only helped the facilitation of knowledge-based sharing environments such as knowledge-clusters and social knowledge networks, it has shaped the emergence of a new evolution of the sharing environment: networks of practice.
• Kathryn Kane, Janine Robinson-Combre, and Zane Berge from the United States, report on the way that tapping into social networking fosters the collaboration habit, which in turn enhances opportunities for both managing knowledge as well as eLearning.
• Diana Burley, Sydney Savion, Mathew Peterson, Gaetano Lotrecchiano, and Navid Keshnavarz-Nia also from the United States, describe how synthetic (or virtual) worlds are intersecting with knowledge management systems to produce a whole new technology landscape in which there are boundless opportunities for knowledge integration to occur.
• Charles Robert and Maduka Attamah from Nigeria, investigate how users access multimedia information sources, and propose a way to enable those users to both access and share multimedia information in real-time virtual environments.
• And finally, Vincent Ribiere in Thailand, and Francis Tuggle in the USA, look at how Web 2.0 is fostering innovation, and in particular how new technology tools could help in managing the innovation process in a more participatory and inter-active way.

Finally, I believe that as with the domain of KM itself, the Web 2.0 environment allows for its users to discover an almost limitless sense of the possibilities involved, and that for those willing to see those possibilities there is an almost unlimited horizon of opportunity waiting. In 20 years time much of what we do and think now may seem out-dated to those who will follow us, but right now with the intersection of Web 2.0 technology and KM, the business world is an exciting and invigorating place to be.

Niall Sinclair
Director KM, the Institute for Knowledge and Innovation, Bangkok University, Thailand

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