Building Virtual Collaborative Research Community Using Knowledge Management Approach

Many online communities nowadays are emphasized more on peer interactions and information sharing among members; very few online communities are built with knowledge management in nature supported by knowledge management system (KMS). This study aims to present a community of practice on how to effectively adopt a knowledge management system (KMS) to neutralize a cyber collaborative learning community for a research lab in a higher education setting. A longitudinal case for 7 years was used to analyze the retention and extension of participants‟ community of practice experiences. Interviews were conducted for the comparison between experiences and theories. It was found that the transformations of tacit and explicit knowledge are in accordance with the framework of Nonaka‟s model of knowledge management from which we elicit the strategies and suggestions to the adoption and implementation of virtual collaborative research community supported by KMS.