Knowledge Capitalization in the Communities of Practice of Engineering

Abstract

A successful accomplishment of engineering objectives requires a combination of technical specialties and expertise. Engineering becomes a team activity where various individuals involved are aware of the important relationships between specialties and between economic, political, and societal factors. With the vast movement towards promoting and developing models, practices, and technological environments in the domain of engineering, there is a need to facilitate communication, collaboration, and coordination amongst their actors. The purpose of this research paper is to solve the problem of capitalization of knowledge, tacit and explicit, in the domain engineering within the framework of an online community of practice (CoP). A generic knowledge model has been proposed to represent the CoP knowledge in the community memory, and the process of capitalization and management phases have been established. This work will contribute in proposing technology support for the CoPs and management of explicit and tacit knowledge.