Social Networks, Social Computing and Knowledge Management

Social networks are the ‘connections’ that individuals utilise through various modes of communication to conduct their work. These communications come in the form of email, instant messaging, phone calls, wikis, blogs, face-to-face interactions, etc. These connections make up the central nervous system of information intensive organisations. The information that workers use to analyse, explore, understand and make decisions about their environment often fl ows through these connections. Understanding these connections can therefore provide important insights into how the information structure of a fi rm affects it performance. Knowledge management is defi ned as the ‘systematic application of actions to ensure that an organisation obtains greatest benefi t from the information that is available to it’ (Marwick 2001). Knowledge here is seen as the experience of the people within an organisation (tacit knowledge) combined with information from documents within the organisation, as well as access to relevant reports from the outside world (explicit knowledge). As such, knowledge management combines the use of ICT systems with an insight into the social processes around the movement and production of information. Knowledge management systems are now moving to a position of exploiting the insights gained from analysis of social structure, and from the dramatic rise in popularity of social networking systems both inside and outside the enterprise. For example,