Broadband Videoconferencing as a Knowledge Management Tool

Abstract

A Knowledge Management framework was adopted to augment research and evaluation of a broadband videoconferencing trial undertaken in 2002 at the University of Calgary. Involving distributed research teams across Canada, the InSite Broadband Collaborative Research Project was designed to measure the extent to which knowledge workers embedded in mediated workplace networks would adopt and then adapt small- and large-format videoconferencing in support of informal interaction aimed at knowledge creation and transfer. Textual output from informal interaction in videoconferencing and chat room sessions was recorded over a 5-month period. Data were analyzed using qualitative and content analysis methods to test for knowledge processes thought to be embedded in informal collaborative interaction. An exit survey comprising nominal and ordinal data was used to measure participant perceptions of using videoconferencing technologies to enhance knowledge-based collaboration. Indicators of knowledge processes in informal interaction were drawn from the KM and videoconferencing literatures. Analysis suggests broadband videoconferencing can be an effective enabler of communication and informal interaction dynamics supportive of knowledge creation and transfer. A concluding summary addresses barriers identified in the study and suggests approaches for future KM research in the video-mediated research domain.