Communities of practice: dare to share the knowledge

Communities of practice are not a new idea, but they are being looked at more closely as an important tool for learning and mastering knowledge challenges. Communities of practice often lend themselves to a particular strategic intent for their existence.[6] The Help Desk with all of its ongoing training and sharing naturally lends itself to the purpose of a helping community. An inherent quality of communities of practice is that they connect people across organizational boundaries. By nurturing a community of practice that brings together student help desk staff, user services staff, and system support staff, the Help Desk is able to nurture a knowledge sharing culture that makes the student consultants feel more valued in their work, and willing to seek solutions from their peers as well as across traditional organizational boundaries.[3] The student consultants also contribute knowledge from their unique perspectives. This paper will review the history of our first attempts at dev...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: SIGUCCS
• Authors: Debbie Mojta
• Keywords: Help Desk, Help Desk Staff, Information Management, SIGUCCS 2004, Student Consultants