This week involved looking across the landscape of online collaborative tools focusing initially on Wikipedia. We discovered that there were multiple forms of wikis for different applications but equally important that tactics in using wikis for collaboration needed to be considered against the cultural values of the participants.
One article in class talked about wiki responses across international groups using their norms for social interaction. For example, cultures where there was strong central authority (China) tended to have a different type of wiki collaboration than countries that were more individually-independent (Netherlands).
I see the principle of culture applying to corporate settings. In fact, I think this explains differences that I have observed within my company to people working with wikis.
Related to cultures, I made contacts with a couple of practitioners this week in communities of practice. What I am hearing is that relationships are key to CoP success, effectiveness and sustainability. This has the tone of paying attention to "culture" that I mentioned above. I'll continue my conversations with these CoP experts and see where the dialogue leads.
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