From Seb Pacquet’s Open Research,
re: a seminar in Ottawa, Canada’s capital
Did you know the US army has embraced collaborative weblogs on a private network? Greg Searle, who’s the founder and chief scientist at Tomoye, explained how that came about. It’s a very interesting story: two company commanders -tony & russell – who lived next to one another in Hawaii discovered the incredible value of informal conversation among peers for learning.
They ended up wroting a book titled “Taking the Guidon” which became wildly popular within the army and led to a guerilla knowledge management effort among people in that position. A community of practice enabled by PHP-Nuke sprang up below the radar and interest bubbled up over about two years.
Despite obvious resistance among people in the upper ranks, it was eventually recognized that you need a network to fight networks, and this internal blogging activity is now officially endorsed, which is quite an about-face for the military culture.
Greg said the passion of the participants was a key factor in the success of the CoP. Also, when the survival of your men depends on learning, it provides a powerful incentive to find effective ways to learn.
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