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Networks for Prosperity PART 2, Chapter 5: The Knowledge Organization
Case: Knowledge networks for development: UNDP’s Teamworks “The more the tool is used to store knowledge, experience, and lessons learned, the more useful it becomes. We must all take responsibility for doing our bit to make knowledge sharing a reality.” Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, December, 2010 cxxiv
In the five years after 1996, when the World Bank branded itself as the ‘knowledge bank’, many other development agencies followed its lead by launching knowledge management or knowledge sharing programmes, with substantial but incomplete success (King & McGrath, 2004). As much as 80% of knowledge residing inside institutions is thought to be tacit and thus hard to share except face to face (Serrat, 2008), and yet most knowledge initiatives were designed before the launch of Facebook in February 2004. To fill this gap in 'social knowledge networking', the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy, Knowledge Management Group, began developing its own knowledge management platform, called Teamworks in 2009. By November 2010 it had 7,500 users of its blogs, multimedia, social networking, community, gallery and other features, with substantial customization options. By November 2011, users had doubled to 14,500, with up to 500 active users online in a 24 hour period.cxxv Teamworks is designed to provide a forum for social networking, in order to share knowledge assets, create several types of collaborative “spaces,” and establish communities of practices linking together thousands of staff members, experts, consultants, external partners and clients around the world. Users from three dozen UN agencies are beginning to join the platform through dedicated areas, either in their own domains or under an umbrella (http://one.unteamworks.org).Trusted partners, consultants, alumni, and retirees can also be invited to join, with the intention that the tool becomes a
secure online collaboration platform for development practitioners more broadly to share their knowledge and expertise. For the eight thematic areas and their individual Joint Programmes of the MDG Achievement Fund, a dedicated area has been created on Teamworks, accessible at https://mdgf.unteamworks.org. Within the MDG-F Teamworks platform, users can: Network with colleagues and project partners for specific trouble-shooting and knowledge exchange; Establish more generic or thematic networks across the UN system and outside it; Profile one’s work, experience and practices, promote events and improve the outreach and advocacy of one’s programmes and activities; Build databases of private sector service providers (consultants, writers, photographers, etc.) Communities of Practice: create or join moderated or free-flowing Communities of Practice or ad hoc user groups; Pool knowledge by uploading files, bookmarks, pictures/videos, news articles, meeting minutes and blogs; and conduct research on resources provided by colleagues of different thematic areas and UN agencies; and Seek solutions or policy advice.
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