Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Communities Based on Mapping Implicit Knowledge 1 Jasminko Novak (Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication, MARS Exploratory Media Lab Schloss Birlinghoven, Germany j.novak@imk.frauenhofer.de) Michael Wurst (University of Dortmund, Dept. of Artificial Intelligence Dortmund, Germany wurst@ls8.cs.uni-dortmund.de) Abstract: This paper discusses some implications of knowledge creation processes in informal social networks for the development of technologies to support them. The principal point of departure are social theories of learning and the theories of organisational knowledge creation. The focus is on models for the exchange and sharing of implicit knowledge. A model of personalised learning knowledge maps is presented as one possible way of addressing the problem of capturing, visualising and sharing implicit knowledge of a community of users. In particular, we discuss how this model resolves one critical shortcoming of the existing socialisation and externalisation approaches: the creation of a semantic representation of a shared understanding of the community which reflects implicit knowledge and incorporates personal views of individual users. Finally, we outline the application to a real-world interdisciplinary Internet platform netzspannung.org. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Communities of Practice, Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Visualisation, Semantic Web Categories: H.5.1, H.5.3, H.5.2, H.3.3 1 Introduction One of the major models of the generation and the exchange of knowledge in today’s so-called information or network society [Castells, 96] are technologically supported informal social networks. Such social networks are often referred to as virtual communities [Rheingold, 93], communities of practice [Brown, 91], or knowledge communities. They bring together groups of people based on a shared set of interests or specific concerns (virtual communities), or based on work-related sharing of knowledge and experience (communities of practice). While such social formations have been a major model of knowledge production and dissemination in scientific research even before the Internet, in recent years they have been increasingly acknowledged as major forms of knowledge exchange in professional and work- 1 A short version of this article was presented at the I-KNOW '03 (Graz, Austria, July 2-4, 2003). Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol. 10, no. 3 (2004), 235-251 submitted: 30/1/04, accepted: 27/2/04, appeared: 28/3/04  J.UCS