SUPPORTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTED INNOVATION WITH BLIKIS

This paper explores the inter-relationship of blikis (the combination of weblog and wiki) and Ecollaboration in the context of knowledge management and contributes how this new type of software-tool can support these tasks in virtual teams. The leveraging of the relevant intellectual assets of an enterprise is not limited to technology but knowledge sharing applications can greatly support knowledge management activities.

The first section of this paper covers the related work and the theoretical background of e-collaboration in the context of knowledge management and blikis.

Based on this literature review the second section presents the related empirical study. The central aim of the research was to find out, if blikis are a suitable tool to support distributed innovation processes in a multinational organization in the field of consulting and software development and its distribution.

The following tasks had to be performed:
• Analyzing the starting situation
• Analyzing the organizational and environmental changes
• Tool selection
• Tools adaption, roll-out and usage
• Data collection and analysis

To gather data for this empirical study qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to data. At the beginning of the study the tool google-analytics has been integrated in the bliki-tool in order to determine key figures of the system usage throughout the evaluation period. At the end of the testing phase qualitative interviews with the participants in all countries were conducted.

The results show that the bliki-tool is suitable to promote communication on the level of groups, the enterprise and between different organizations joining a network. It can be used to document the exchange of knowledge, ideas or thoughts that are usually takes place in personal conversations.

The weblog functionalities were primarily used to document and share experiences or emotions, like success stories or reports about “the life of suffering” in the context of development or consulting activities. The functionalities to store knowledge and experience in a structured way (wiki-like) were less used.

The analysis of the quantitative data confirmed the results of the qualitative interviews. The number of visits and the most often visited pages show that the participants were mainly interested in discussing than in establishing a structured, wiki-like knowledge base. The portion of long visits can be interpreted as an indicator for the examination of the contents and contributions.

The integration of the two concepts wikis and weblogs was seen very positive by the participants. With this concept there are no platform barriers.

The most often mentioned point of critique was that the system was not integrated with other systems already used in the enterprise. But to avoid additional work and expenses it was the intention of this pilot system to be used as a stand-alone solution. In case of a roll-out in other organizational units this is the most crucial success factor.