Using Web 2.0 Tools to Support the Theoretical Constructs of ...

Using Web 2.0 Tools to Support the Theoretical Constructs of Organisational Learning Gavin J. Baxter and Thomas M. Connolly School of Computing, University of the West of Scotland, Scotland, UK {gavin.baxter,thomas.connolly}@uws.ac.uk

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the concept of Web 2.0 and to review how three established Web 2.0 tools: blogs, wikis and online forums, can be applied in organisational contexts. In doing so, this paper identifies ways in which Web 2.0 tools can support some of the key theoretical constructs of organisational learning. Furthermore, this paper proposes how to advance this area of research as it has been acknowledged that there is a lack of empirical evidence to substantiate the view that Web 2.0 tools can support the process of organisational learning. A traditional literature review will be used to indicate the differences between three of the most established types of Web 2.0 technologies: blogs, wikis and online forums with a view to providing recommendations on how these practices can be adopted in organisational settings. The findings of the traditional literature review show that despite their being relative differences between blogs, wikis and online forums; they have the potential, dependent on their use, to support the concept of organisational learning. Though this paper provides an overview of how certain Web 2.0 tools can be applied in organisations it does not provide empirical evidence of Web 2.0 use within enterprises. This paper presents a general overview on blogs, wikis and online forums and their use in organisations to assist management practitioners who might be unfamiliar in their use on how to apply them internally in their organisations. Keywords: Organisational blogging, Wikis, Online forums, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Organisational learning.

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Introduction

Web 2.0 refers to the social use of the World Wide Web and describes the social characteristics emanated by groups of individuals through using Web 2.0 tools in a particular way. In addition, a concept often associated with Web 2.0 that can be described as being interrelated though distinct from it is the term ‘social software’. The concept social software was conceptualised by Clay Shirky in 2003 who perceived social software to be software that predominately supported group interaction. There are many examples of Web 2.0 tools cited in the literature however this paper will examine three of the most established types of Web 2.0 tools: blogs, wikis and online forums. One particular area where these technologies are making a significant impact Á. Herrero et al. (eds.), International Joint Conference SOCO’13-CISIS’13-ICEUTE’13, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 239, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-01854-6_69, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

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is within the field of education altering the way in which educators deliver lessons and how they fulfil learning expectations of students [1]. However, in contrast to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in education, this paper aims to answer the research question of: ‘What concepts of organisational learning can Web 2.0 technologies support?’ In contrast, despite the advent of the concept of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ empirical research associated with Web 2.0 use in organisations appears to be limited [2: 301]. This observation has already been noted in the literature in relation to organisational blog use [3] and ‘Enterprise Microblogging’ [4: 4200]. Enterprise 2.0 refers to: “...the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers” [5: 1]. To address this issue of a lack of awareness of how to successfully integrate Enterprise 2.0 technologies this paper will provide a review of the usage of blogs, wikis and online forums to inform management practitioners in industry how these types of Web 2.0 tools could be internally applied in their organisations and what the effect of their use might be. To begin with, the concept of Web2.0 is examined to provide a sense of clarity about what the term means. Following on from this, comparisons are made between blogs, wikis and online forums to indicate their similarities and differences. Next, examples of how these different types of Web 2.0 tools can be applied to support organisational learning will be explored. Finally, a set of use case scenarios are provided illustrating to management practitioners how blogs, wikis and online forums could sustain the notion of organisational learning, as well as future directions on how to advance the state of the art of Web 2.0 technologies and organisational learning.

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The Concept of Web 2.0

Prior to the introduction of Web 2.0 the Internet and the way in which people interacted through its use was known as Web 1.0. The phrase Web 1.0 referred to when the World Wide Web began in 1993 as static pages and was primarily the read only era on the Web. Since 2004, and with the continued developments of multimedia, the term Web 2.0 has been used to describe what is known as the social Web. Several definitions of Web 2.0 have been suggested in the literature. According to Grosseck [6: 478] Web 2.0 refers to “...the social use of the Web which allow[s] people to collaborate, to get actively involved in creating content, to generate knowledge and to share information online”. This definition implies that use of Web 2.0 tools are predominately designed to facilitate collaboration online in addition to collective knowledge and information sharing. In contrast, Aharony [7: 227] emphasises the user-driven nature of Web 2.0 and argues that the concept “...emphasizes the value of user-generated content. It is about sharing and about communication and it opens the long tail which allows small groups of individuals to benefit from key pieces of the platform while fulfilling their own needs”. The characteristics of Web 2.0 denoted from this definition accentuate the high degree of openness and transparency through individuals collaboratively using Web 2.0 tools in virtual learning environments (VLEs) that supports their use. Figure 1 illustrates some of the salient phrases predominately associated with Web 2.0 focused around the core concept of collaboration.

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Fig. 1. Key terms commonly associated with Web 2.0

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Web 2.0 Tools: Blogs, Wikis and Online Forums

Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and online forums are not new. For example, the phrase ‘Weblog’ was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 due to the blending of the two words ‘web’ and ‘log’ [8]. The person responsible for using the first wiki was Ward Cunningham in 1995 [9]. Furthermore, forums, sometimes referred to as discussion boards or bulletin boards, are one of the oldest types of technologies used for information sharing and collaboration [10]. This section of the paper provides an overview of blogs, wikis and online forums comparing the differences and similarities among their other characteristics as depicted in figure 1. 3.1

Blogs

There are numerous definitions of blogs in the academic literature. A blog is predominately defined by its format and is essentially “...a frequently updated webpage with dated entries, new ones placed on top” [11: ix]. In addition to displaying up-todate content blogs can also be used to store historical information. Blogs have strong connotations with diaries or journals due to their association with the word ‘log’. When creating a blog the owner of that blog can either make it publicly accessible to everyone or use it for private reflections. Many blogs can also be used collectively allowing several individuals to add content in addition to being administered by multiple authors. Though early blog design began with blogs consisting of a series of text and links, the format of blogs has continued to develop and many blogs now support multimedia content such as sound, video, animation and graphics.

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Wikis

The term wiki originates from the Hawaiian word ‘wiki-wiki’ meaning fast and was used to denote how quickly content can be generated with a wiki. There are numerous definitions of wikis in the academic literature; for example, Cole [12: 142] provides a concise definition that a wiki is “an editable website that is created incrementally by visitors working collaboratively”. According to Duffy and Bruns [13] there is no overall predetermined structure to a wiki page with content on a wiki often adopting the form of an emergent structure. Some wikis require the user to be familiar with some basic wiki syntax, which changes slightly depending on the type of wiki software that is used. For example, if using the wiki software Markdown to make text bold format would involve the user adding the command ‘** bold text **’ or ‘_ bold text _’. In comparison, when using the wiki software MediaWiki to make text bold the command ‘’’ bold text ‘’’ is used. 3.3

Online Forums

Online forums allow a user to post a message for others to read and to which others can respond. Vieira da Cunha and Orlikowski [14: 134] provide a more comprehensive definition of online forums and view them as a “many-to-many communication space where participants can post a new topic and reply to an existing one. This communication is archived, and all of the threads are always available for reading and posting. Online forums may be public or private”. The topics posted on online forums are known as ‘threads’ and the replies are known as ‘posts’. Online forums in contrast to wikis do not normally allow posts or threads to be modified once added. The exception might be in the case of a moderator whose job would be to oversee the use of the forum. The structure of an online forum differs from that of a wiki and threads in online forums are arranged in descending chronological order of the most recently posted message. 3.4

Comparisons of Blogs, Wikis and Online Forums

In comparison to wikis, the diary-like format of blogs makes them more appropriate to disseminate ideas [15], reflect and exchange opinions. It is the conversational nature of blogs [16] that provides users with a sense of empowerment to exchange views and opinions about issues of mutual interest. In contrast, forums are generally used by people to ask questions and receive answers to questions. The knowledge contained on forums can be thought of as being more declarative and procedural with less emphasis placed on context. In a forum individuals request knowledge that is related to ‘know how’ or to ‘know-about’ something. Though forums are used to share ideas and opinions it can be argued that blogs afford greater scope in permitting users to express their views. This is due to the diary-like format of blogs that promote reflection allowing bloggers inserting posts to reflect on the context of personal experience thereby sharing tacit knowledge with fellow readers.

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Blogs have been associated with knowledge management [17]. For example, in organisational contexts blogs are sometimes referred to as k(knowledge)-logs [18]. Wikis are also regarded as a useful knowledge management tool [9], however, wikis may be useful for managing knowledge that is formalised in documents and which is made explicit whereas blogs are informal in nature and may be better suited for sharing tacit knowledge and subjective experience [19]. Similar to wikis and forums, blogs are also associated with communities of practice. It could be argued that blogs build communities through the exchange of dialogue and opinion as do forums though the knowledge contained in a forum is less contextualised. Table 1, adapted from Miyazoe and Anderson [20], summarises the differences between blogs, wikis and online forums. Table 1. Characteristics of forums, blogs, and wikis [20: 186] Key Characteristics

Forums

Blogs

Wikis

Number of users

Many-to-many

One-to-many

Editing

By moderator

By author/moderator

Many-tomany All users

Purpose

Ask & answer questions Threaded

Express experiences Reverse chronological

Edit documents Final artefact

Help

Articulation

Collaboration

Content structure Social-cognitive use

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Web 2.0 Tools Adoption: Making the Transition to Organisational Learning

In comparison to the educational sector, there appears to be a lack of empirical evidence relating to the use of Web 2.0 tools being applied internally in enterprises to support the concept of organisational learning [21]. There have been several definitions of organisational learning proposed in the academic literature. Despite this, a useful interpretation of organisational learning that assists to affirm its theoretical association with Web 2.0 technologies is a definition provided by Stata [22: 64] who views the process of organisational learning as being something that “…occurs through shared insights, knowledge, and mental models… [and] builds on past knowledge and experience – that is, on memory”. This perspective helps to denote that Web 2.0 technologies, dependent on their implementation and internal use in an organisation, can support one of the key domains of organisational learning which is knowledge creation and sharing among staff within the workplace. The following section identifies some important concepts associated with organisational learning and provides suggestions on how wikis, blogs and online forums can assist towards supporting these theories.

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Organisational Knowledge Creation

It has been acknowledged that the sharing of tacit knowledge is a dilemma that can on occasion be problematic for certain organisations due to tacit knowledge being thought of as less formal than other types of knowledge [23]. Tacit knowledge is generally regarded as knowledge that is personalised and based upon experience, context and the actions of an individual. In the context of how organisational knowledge is created Web 2.0 tools, for example, the use of a blog or a wiki, have the potential to support the socialisation and externalisation stages of organisational knowledge creation. Socialisation entails the sharing of tacit knowledge through the social interaction of individuals through shared mental models and technical skills. The use of a collective blog or wiki would provide organisational team or departmental members with the ability to record this knowledge making it accessible and readable in an explicit format for other staff members to learn from thereby assisting with the externalisation process of organisational knowledge creation. 4.2

Communities of Practice

The majority of Web 2.0 tools, as indicated in section four, have the potential to support the learning theory of social constructivism. This process of learning can be sustained in what is known as a community of practice or CoPs. Wenger, McDermott and Snyder [24: 4] define CoPs as: “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. For example, the co-editorial and collective authoring features of wikis make them very useful for staff to socially construct knowledge among one another when collaboratively creating and sharing documents. These documents can be disseminated among the department to all employees providing an invaluable repository of organisational knowledge. For example, an individual recently having started employment within the department can access the wiki to review prior and current documents and things that the department has worked on. Furthermore, this individual can also impart their own knowledge gained from their prior working experience on the wiki for others to learn from and apply within their department. 4.3

Transactive Memory

Web 2.0 tools also have the potential to support the process known as transactive memory in organisations [25]. The concept of transactive memory refers to “...a shared awareness among individuals about who knows what” [26: 244] and has particular reference to how members in teams transfer, retrieve and update knowledge among one another especially in teams or groups. In this respect, communities of practice are very suitable for accommodating transactive memory systems because they adhere to the three processes that are salient to the functioning of a transactive memory system, namely, directory updating, allocation or storage of information and the ability to retrieve information [27]. For example, through the use of a wiki, blog or online forum, knowledge can be updated by other members in a team or group that reflects existing knowledge of other group members or builds upon this knowledge.

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Knowledge can also be effectively stored and retrieved by all group members providing individual group members with a greater awareness of who knows what within their team. 4.4

Organisational Memory

Organisational memory can be thought of as “...stored information from an organization’s history that can be brought to bear on present decisions” [28: 61]. Organisational memory is considered to be made up of both mental (i.e. knowledge, information, experiences and relationships) and structural artefacts (i.e. roles, structures, operating procedures and routines) [29]. Organisational memory is closely related to the notion of transactive memory as organisations can store different classifications of knowledge, for example, procedural or causal knowledge in a centralised knowledge repository for organisational members to access. For instance, the use of a blog would be highly applicable towards recording working experiences of employees; for example, how they have tackled known issues and problems at work so that work colleagues can learn from them and apply this knowledge in future working scenarios.

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Use Case Scenarios: Practical Uses of Web 2.0 in Organisations

From the academic literature discussed in the previous sections it appears that Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and online forums can support several key theoretical concepts associated with organisational learning. However, it is also important to consider what practical aspects Web 2.0 tools can assist both management and employees within an organisation. This section of the paper will provide three use case scenarios that illustrate how certain Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and online forums can assist staff on a practical basis. 5.1

Blogs as Project Reporting Tools

The creation of a dedicated project blog has the potential to provide an alternative method of allowing project members to informally communicate about their project roles, objectives and initial thoughts about a project prior to commencement. The use of a blog can assist in making relevant information available to project members as well as creating a unique collaborative project culture. In addition, a centralised project blog could allow project managers to frequently update their project teams on a regular basis on a project’s overall status, alterations in project objectives and milestones. Encouraging openness and information sharing through the use of a project blog can help to alleviate the problems of failing to report bad news within a project’s lifecycle. Project team members would also be able to provide their own updates and progress reports on the blog allowing project members to provide feedback and supportive comments.

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Wikis Applied in Virtual Teams

A virtual team can be defined as “…a distributed group of people working together across distances to achieve a common purpose via technology” [30: 116]. Adopting the use of a wiki for project members who are geographically dispersed to share information could assist to alleviate the problem of the disparateness of individuals in project teams. However, even within a small-to-medium sized company a scenario might arise where staff had to work in a four man project but if these four people were geographically distributed then a wiki might be useful for the purpose of long distance project co-ordination and information sharing. The fact that wikis seem to be associated with project work, especially within the area of software development, means that they are beneficial tools to support virtual communities of practice though further empirical work is required to substantiate this assertion. 5.3

Online Forums for Locating Expertise

The use of an online discussion forum, especially within a large organisation, can be a very useful tool to help employees locate expertise and knowledge within their company. For example, if an employee has just recently joined a new organisation and requires information to a specific query or question then the use of an online forum could help them to locate expertise within that organisation. For example, through posting a question to a work related issue or problem on a forum an employee could receive a response by a colleague that addresses that particular issue. In addition, the employee that posted the question would then know who to contact in the organisation regarding this subject area should they encounter any future problems.

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Conclusions and Future Directions

This paper has presented a general review of the use of three specific types of Web 2.0 tools, namely, blogs, wikis and online forums to indicate from a management practitioner perspective how these Web 2.0 tools could be applied in organisational contexts. In addition, this paper also set out to investigate the question of ‘What concepts of organisational learning can Web 2.0 technologies support?’ Focusing on blogs, wikis and online forums and their potential association with organisational learning, it has been identified that at a theoretical level, these technologies have the ability to support the organisational learning constructs of: communities of practice; transactive memory and organisational memory. The traditional literature review performed in sections three and four of this paper also identified that the Web 2.0 technologies examined have the potential to facilitate and sustain the process organisational knowledge creation. Furthermore, dependent on their use, these types of Web 2.0 technologies can facilitate the process of organisational knowledge creation. With regards to moving the area of Web 2.0 tools and organisational learning forward, suitable areas of focus, might include the following: (1) How effective are Web 2.0 tools in supporting the process of organisational learning?; (2) How can communities of practice be fostered through the use of Web 2.0 tools?; (3) How can

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organisational knowledge creation, transactive memory and organisational memory benefit from Web 2.0 adoption?; (4) What is the overall impact of ‘enterprise 2.0’ on organisational performance? and (5) What impact would Web 2.0 technologies have in supporting an organisation’s transformation into becoming a ‘learning organisation’? Advancing the state of the art of ‘enterprise 2.0’ through future empirical organisational studies will assist towards identifying whether the use of Web 2.0 tools in organisations can support the process of organisational learning and in doing so provide a wider contribution to knowledge in this area that will benefit the wider academic and management practitioner communities. Acknowledgements. This work has been co-funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme under contract 519057-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3NW (Ed2.0Work – European Network for the integration of Web2.0 in education and work).

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