How to Capitalize Knowledge within Online Communities

Abstract

Social media has become a rising trend, creating new ways of collaboration, competition, and interaction between people, such as creation exchange and sharing of ideas and knowledge. However, one of the problems encountered is the organization of the knowledge capitalization process in order to facilitate knowledge access and reuse. The authors focus in this chapter on online communities and how they try to help their members to capitalize their knowledge. The authors propose a model for knowledge creation based on both the Nonaka's SECI model and an empirical model of questioning called the six Ws (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How). A case study related to a higher education community made up of teachers in computer science is presented, and the main results are discussed.