Knowledge Management Systems Discussion Forum

Knowledge Management Systems
–

Discussion Forum

The following are some comments / suggestions / thoughts that
have come out of my
observations of the discussion forums so far.

In light of the chance you have had to use the KMS discussion, h
ow
might
we star
t to think
about a discussion forum? What are some of the criteria that might be important

when setting
out to create or run one
?

Discussion forums are no different (at least at the start) to any
human activity
system
(HAS)
we examine i.e. the important a
reas for consideration are still:



People



Processes



Technology

If we look at the requirements for a discussion forum, what might some of the things be that
we need to consider? Some of the things raised

incl
ude:



Accessibility



Can you find it?



Can you use i
t?



The level of discipline / structure “imposed” by the software or rules



What is expected of people posting to the forum
? (s
ee
Assignment 4, in
the
Assessment Details

for more information)



Is the information current / appropriate / useful?



Are the c
onsistent contributors people with “too much time on their hands”
or
people
providing useful information
?

An observation I would like to make is that, despite use of electr
onic media being promoted in
the media as the new way of communication, how few people (less than 1/3 on a show of
hands in a class of nearly 20) have previously participated in online discussion forums. So
even among ourselves, the “technically / compute
r literate”, there are new technologies, new
means of communicating, to be learnt.

What are some of the things happening on the KMS discussion forum?



there are series of ideas being expressed, statements being made, but
seemingly
not much

in the way of

dis
cussion …



there is no debate happening
–

it
seems

disjoint with
a lack of

flow to the
‘conversation’



multiple topics are being created where a single, nominated(?) topic might help
to focus the discussion e.g. have a nominated topic for a period

(how many
topics are titled “knowledge”?)



there is no ownership of the discussion



how many
people are asking questions
?

What are some of the things that are working in the KMS discussion forum?



at least there are no flame wars (yet?)



search works



different ideas are

being expressed (can be creative)



(can) get momentum



references are useful



get to see other peoples thinking



can help you organise your thoughts



help to test your arguments

What are some of the things we need to consider when gathering requirements for a
discussion
forum? Is this any different from the considerations we would give to gathering requirements
for any system? Some of the things we may need to consider are:



is there a problem needing to be solved
–

and if so, what is it?



what is the context i
n which we are operating



stakeholder identification, and identification of their issues / concerns / ideas /
thoughts



project requirements (e.g. resources, scope, time, cost, quality, options)



information needs



processes we might use within the system.

Nei
l Lynch

5 September 2010