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Managing the Web 2.0 life cycle
As more and more information is communicated through informal channels such as blogs and wikis, the importance of incorporating those electronic documents into a formal life cycle strategy also increases.
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Start at the beginning
Knowledge retention programs aimed at operational information should encompass Web 2.0 content along with traditional documents. Keeping a long-term perspective is important. "It's not enough to start interviewing an employee a few weeks or even a few months before his or her departure," emphasizes Dr. Jay Liebowitz, professor in the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. "Organizations should have a knowledge retention plan in place from the time the employee arrives. For one thing, that's when a lot of learning takes place, so documenting a new employee's questions and answers, for example, can be as helpful as documenting the insights of an experienced professional."
Such a plan (described in detail in Liebowitz's recently published book, Knowledge Retention) allows for tracking from the time of knowledge creation to active use and finally to permanent storage if needed.
Social media will continue to grow, Liebowitz predicts, and its use is a good way of capturing previously tacit knowledge. He says, "With this type of informal exchange, the challenge becomes one of organizing it and making it searchable, so that the content can be found when it's needed."
Liebowitz also notes that the information captured through wikis can become a record. "If the wiki is maintained by a knowledgeable community and the appropriate content is being added and modified, there are points in time at which it constitutes a record and should be preserved," he says. A strategic plan helps organizations decide what needs to be saved and what does not, which helps reduce the volume of information.
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