Support systems for knowledge sharing within a social learning context: a research proposal

Many organizations have developed digital libraries resources, containing the collected wisdom of the organization, that may be used by its members when they find themselves in unknown or problematic situations. However, most of the knowledge sharing and learning processes, within organizations, are social processes, anchored in the daily work practice with its specific problems and are motivated by the engagement and participation of the individuals in the practice. Previous efforts to build knowledge base systems have here neglected such issues as that interpretations of knowledge derived from experiences generated through previous problem solving are socially constructed and directly related to the problem situations at hand. The proposed research aims to explore how support systems for knowledge base may be designed, in terms of functionality and structures, in order to support a social learning model to better reflect the processes of learning and knowledge sharing within organizations