1. Reinventing the wheel? Development and relief interventions: challenges for knowledge management Silva Ferretti Oxford Brookes University Aid Workers Network

2. Updates and news, who is doing what where Manuals, how to guidelines Reports, data on operations Collaborative processes of data / information exchange across organisations Organisational learning Conceptualisation of knowledge (research studies, production of manuals and procedures) Coordination mechanisms Monitoring and evaluation Communities of practice On line training Discussion lists Correspondence from HQ Information and information generation processes

3. INFORMATION FROM LEARNING INFORMATION FOR OPERATIONS Knowledge : “A fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert inside that provides a framework for incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and applies in the mind of knowers. In organisations, it often become embedded not only in documents and repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms”. Information: A message, usually in the form of a document or an audible or visible communication, that is meant to change the way the receiver perceives something. It must inform: it is data that makes a difference. Data: “Discrete, objective facts about events” Information for operations, information from learning

4. Organisation staff External stakeholders & resources Leveraging individual experience Learning by doing, organisational memory Learning in organisation Knowledge Adaptation, change learning Action

5. Learning in the humanitarian system individuals organizations “system”

6. Collective learning

7. The Aid Workers Network http://www.aidworkers.net

8. AWN: some of the assumptions behind it The wheel is continuosly reinvented in the field Aid workers need tailored information There is not a ready-made answer to everything Knowledge is not held by ‘experts’ only (& the challenge of ‘quality’) Knowledge management is essentially about people (not IT) There is a need for a generalistic community, able to bridge across specialised CoPs and organisation. Development / relief workers, national / expat staff can benefit from a common arena for knowledge exchange. A broad community of aidworkers can create the critical mass that allow for economy of scale in information circulation.

9. Components of the network Members (the community) Content the library, the super-manual Q&A the meeting area, the help desk

10. Demand-driven information and knowledge exchange

11. AWN: participants

12. AWN: the importance of facilitation Self- directed K-services & networks Faciliteted translfer Resources required Results achieved O'Dell, Carla, and C. Jackson Grayson. 1998. If only we knew what we know. New York: The Free Press  Create trust  Make knowledge sharing a habit  Provide support and guidance in using IT  Promote the network  Support activists  Animation  Networking

13. Creation of trust User support facilitation organisations CoPs Q&A members gatekeepers AWN: pushing and pulling information NewsletterFacilitation Creation of content

14. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/refsettle/ The website of the PhD research (to be updated soon) http://www.aidworkers.net/ The website of the aidworkers net Silva Ferretti: sferretti@brookes.ac.uk or silva.ferretti@aidworkers.net To find out more