Understanding the role of culture in knowledge sharing: making the invisible visible

The purpose of this issue is to present some recent experiences of knowledge sharing and culture by practitioners who have been involved in planning, introducing, and mainstreaming knowledge sharing approaches and processes in development organizations. This issue is strongly linked to the KM4Dev annual meeting on the same subject which took place at the ILO Headquarters in Geneva on 20-21 June 2005.

This issue contains six articles:

‘Knowledge management and social learning: exploring the cognitive dimension of development’ by Sebastião Darlan Mendonça Ferreira and Marcos Neto

‘The culture of a knowledge fair: lessons from an international organization’ by Barbara

Collins, Rafael Diez de Medina and Anne Trebilcock

‘Building knowledge from the practice of local communities’ by Ceasar McDowell,

Andrea Nagel, Susana Williams and Claudia Canepa

‘Elective affinities? Reflections on the enduring appeal of knowledge management for the development sector’ by Giulio Quaggiotto

‘Bridging the gap between research and practice’ by Julie E. Ferguson

‘The culture of management or the management of culture: a case study of the Rural

Women’s Association, South Africa’ by Chris Burman

One case study

‘The Eastern Indonesia Knowledge Exchange – a journey of change’ by Petrarca Karetji

One story

‘Culture, learning and surviving a PhD: a journey in search of my own path’ by CamiloVilla

In addition to Katty Marmenout’s interview with Professor Clive Holtham on

‘Knowledge and culture: learning from the past’, the Community Notes by Urs Karl

Egger gives a glimpse into the workings of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Renewal Project. Finally, Sibrenne Wagenaar has provided a Review of Steve Denning’s latest book on story telling.

This edition of the Journal reflects some of the challenge of looking at culture and reconfirms the richness of this theme. The importance and vastness of the cultural dimension of sharing knowledge for development also underlines the considerable work yet ahead. Let us open the box of Pandora for a third time, to go beyond hope, and further enhance our understanding of the role of culture, as an input, output and a factor to effectively and efficiently share knowledge for quality and quantitative development.

Link to KM4dev Journal, Vol 1, No 3 (2005)