Mini track on Knowledge Sharing in Higher Education
Mini track on Knowledge management growth and role in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region
Mini track on the Relevance of KM in Project Management Environments
Mini track on KM Models, metaphors and epistemologies
Mini Track on Community Informatics

Mini track on Knowledge Sharing in Higher Education
Chair: John Girard, Minot State University, North Dakota, USA

In many ways knowledge sharing is engrained in the fabric of higher education. Take for example the scholarly journals in which academics eagerly and generously share their research findings. Arguably, there is no other profession that shares knowledge, at least codified knowledge, as well as higher education. A more recent example of knowledge sharing in action is the Open Course Ware concept in which universities from around the world are sharing the material from their courses.

Despite these excellent examples of knowledge sharing in action at the macro level, voids remain at the micro level. On many campuses, it is commonplace to find few examples of knowledge sharing. In some cases it is truly the opposite, knowledge hoarding, that remains prevalent.

We aim to provide an open and creative space within which to discuss and exchange ideas. We welcome contributions on any aspect of knowledge sharing in higher education.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page

John Girard

Mini track on Knowledge management growth and role in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region
Chair: Ian Michael, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

The value of Knowledge Management is proving to relate directly to the firm’s effectiveness. It (KM) enables the participants of the organization to deal with opportunities and threats effectively, and to envision and create their future. KM in a sense connects concepts such as; intellectual capital and the knowledge economy, the learning organisation, and the usefulness of enabling technologies such as knowledge bases and expert systems, intranets and extranets.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region covers a wide array of countries from Morocco in the West to Iran in the East. Each one of the countries has a long and rich history and strong individual characteristics. Various successful KM cases have been documented by large organizations in the Middle East such as Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC). The role and value of KM as a strategic tool for management is rapidly increasing in the MENA region.

This conference track invites submissions from researchers investigating KM in the MENA region. Topics could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The role of KM in the MENA region;
• The growth of KM in the MENA region;
• Successful cases of implementation of KM in organizations;
• The role of religion and culture on KM in this region;
• Government’s policy in implementing KM in various nations in the region;
• Comparisons/contrasts of KM in MENA region with Western and Asian nations

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page

Ian Michael

Mini Track on Community Informatics:  The academic and practitioner role in Knowledge Management and Information Management

Chairs:   Dr Shaun Pather and Prof Wal Taylor, e-Innovation Academy, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town.

The e-Innovation Academy (e-IA) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology is pleased to have the opportunity to facilitate a Community Informatics mini-track at ICICKM 2007.  The dramatic shift in Informatics towards a participative and connected society with emphasis on socio-economic development and social cohesion has spawned new challenges for policy makers and academics.  This track seeks interactive discussion and contribution towards the implementation of this shift in focus, especially, but not exclusively, in areas such as the social appropriation of ICT for local benefit and local content in Information and Knowledge Management.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page

Shaun Pather

Wallace Taylor

Mini track on the Relevance of KM in Project Management Environments
Chair: Herman van Niekerk, Suritec (Pty) Ltd., South Africa

Project Management is an example of knowledge-rich and intensive environments where knowledge needs to be shared and created to ensure successful project implementation. In a time of an aging workforce, affirmative action and the fight for global talent, the capturing of tacit knowledge remains one of the most challenging aspects facing organizations. Applying KM principles in a project management environment could be the solution for many of these challenges. Some of these KM principles include:

The capturing of tacit knowledge to improve the life cycle management of projects;

§         The provision of self-service knowledge bases and reuse of existing knowledge for project teams to improving organizational performance;

§         The role of Communities of Practice in improving projects, and

§         The role of technology in enabling collaboration in a project management environment.

This mini-track invites contributions on all of these and other issues where KM principles can be applied within a project management environment.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page

Herman van Niekerk

Mini track on KM Models, metaphors and epistemologies
Chair: Roy Williams, University of Portsmouth, UK

The KM field, and the related field of Intellectual Capital, is slowly getting to the point where we can establish some consensus on what we mean by knowledge, what the epistemological issues and models are, and what models and metaphors we use to operationalise KM in practice.

This mini-track invites contributions on all of these issues, hopefully to allow for some lively interaction between different views of the issues, to allow for some interchange between the more practical and the more theoretical perspectives on knowledge and knowledge management.

We also need to answer the question as to whether it is more useful to search for a consensus, or to celebrate diversity and get the work done to add business and social value. Perhaps we can explore 'what we mean' and 'what we use' alongside each other?

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page

Roy Williams