Professional Forums

AOKM Forum Facts

2004 - 4 Forums and 20,000 members
2009 - more than 60 Forums and more than 165,000 members
3,338 new members per month (avg)
102,525 unique visitors per month (avg)
3,400 unique visitors per day (avg)
139,000 documents downloaded per month (avg)

The Army calls its supported and structured communities of practice “professional forums.” AOKM provides a nested network of more than 60 facilitated professional forums and hundreds of knowledge networks that provide a foundation for knowledge creation and exchange. These professional forums differ slightly from communities of practice found in other professions and industry. Army professional forums focus on leader development. They intersect with other knowledge networks, communities of purpose, and knowledge centers through their members and facilitators. They maintain a secure place where candid conversations can occur.

Through these online professional forums, Army Soldiers and civilians connect to share explicit and tacit knowledge to solve problems, share best practices and develop their professional skills. Leaders and staff members have access to members with similar duty positions and challenges. Functional specialists and those interested in a particular specialized domain gather virtually in focused forums. Many members of AOKM forums maintain dual membership in two or more forums and serve to vitally transfer observation, insights, lessons learned and best practices across the boundaries of organizational hierarchy.

For a complete list of current Army Professional Forums go to https://forums.army.mil. An Army Knowledge Online (AKO) account is required.

Communities

Communities are groups of people sharing common concerns, problems, or professional interests. Individuals deepen their knowledge and expertise by regularly interacting with each other. Communities are a natural part of organizational life. These people may not work together every day; rather, they meet because they find value in the interactions. As they spend time together, members share information, insights and advice. They help each other solve problems. They discuss situations, their aspirations and their needs.

Some communities create tools, standards, generic designs, and publications. Others simply develop tacit knowledge that they share. Members accumulate knowledge and, through this process, form ties based on learning together. Over time, they develop a perspective on the topic as well as a body of common knowledge, practices, and approaches. Members develop relationships and establish ways of interacting. Communities do not need technology to exist. They are completely social networks; however, technology has allowed communities to form without regard to members’ locations. This has broadened their reach and made them more powerful and useful than ever before.

Virtual Communities

Army virtual communities take many forms based on their purpose and the type of interaction among members (See Figure 1.) Some focus on accomplishing a specified set of objectives. Others focus on job-related solutions. Some allow access to broad information repositories, link members to leading experts, and facilitate document sharing. Others inform and link groups with which members share interests but not passion.

Each virtual community has a life cycle and serves a specific purpose. Key to all Army communities is links to organizational objectives and a need for facilitated, managed conversations. Forums that lack these features (most informal networks) tend to focus on nonprofessional areas. The Army does not usually support informal networks. It does support the other types of communities shown in Figure 1.

Informal Networks

Informal networks consist of people who interact with one another but have little common bond or mission focus. These networks allow members to communicate and share information and data informally. E-mail and instant messaging are communications media often used to link informal networks. Using these tools to communicate, people can form large, extensive communities. However, these communities lack strong interpersonal links. Members are tied to the community’s focus but have few interpersonal bonds.

Communities of Interest

A community of interest is a group of people who share a common interest or hobby. These people exchange ideas and thoughts about the subject but may know (or care) little about each other. Nonetheless, participation in a community of interest can be compelling and entertaining. Members may create a community to which they return frequently and remain for extended periods.

Knowledge Center

A knowledge center is a Web site where individuals share documents and engage in limited conversation concerning them. An AKO unit site is a good example of a knowledge center. The knowledge center may include additional collaborative tools as either links or add-on features. A knowledge center’s purpose is to help people find or share documents related to the center’s subject. There is no enduring bond between users other than as members of an organization or interest in the center’s subject.

Communities of Practice

Community of practice is a group of people with a common interest who collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. These groups are voluntary, self-organizing and self-policing. They build a social network and develop bonds of trust deeper than those of other communities. Communities of practice are widely seen as cost-effective ways to develop organizational knowledge, create new knowledge, stimulate innovation, and share existing tacit knowledge.

Communities of practice serve a functional purpose as well. Members of the community assist each other by sharing experiences, suggesting strategies, and exchanging information on community-related issues or projects. A key component of communities of practice is the vitality of their conversation, that is, the frequency with which members communicate both within and outside the community’s forums. Most research suggests 75 to 80 percent of conversations between members occur outside the forum. Communities of practice are most notable for the bonds between members and the trust members place in one another regarding assistance given and received.

Characteristics of a Professional Forum:

Shares the design principles of communities of practice.
Approved and supported by the Army.
Moderated and facilitated.
Linked to the organization’s objectives.
Members do not necessarily share a single common problem.
Crosses organizational boundaries.
Contains many communities or networks.
Membership is limited to those in the function, echelon, or other common characteristic.
Name is meant to communicate the intent of the professional conversation.
Positive voice for the Army.
Participation is voluntary.
Organizational support is provided but unobtrusive.
Adheres to established standards of implementation and sustainment of the forum.

Army professional forums maximize collaboration and productivity improvements across Army organizations. These forums allow sharing lessons from training or operations online. The online environment enables those needing the information to learn and apply it in hours rather than months. Professional forums may be one of three types: unit forums, leader forums, and functional forums.

Unit Forums - Unit networks, such as Cav Net and Ironhorse Net, support connection and collaboration up and down a unit’s chain of command. They are hierarchical and directive. Information is shared immediately after an operation—from the most complex to low-level patrols—and is rapidly distributed to unit members. The KM section normally builds technical and social unit knowledge networks. The section may use AOKM for support in constructing and operating them. While the G-6/S-6 builds unit technical networks, the KM section is responsible for ensuring knowledge placed on unit networks is organized and that these unit networks are effectively and efficiently used to meet organizational knowledge requirements.
Leader Forums - Leader networks, such as Company Command Net and NCO Net, allow Army-wide collaboration among peer leaders. Net forums create and transfer knowledge through conversations among Soldiers with similar leadership roles. Members request assistance or provide feedback by posting unclassified versions of tactics, techniques, and procedures, standing operating procedures, and lessons learned from outside the unit. Agencies outside the unit construct these online collaborative spaces. Unit KM sections provide connections to them. Additionally, KM sections monitor how unit members use the networks to ensure compliance with operations security. Should the unit network demonstrate potential value as an Army-wide network, its KM section would need to obtain support from AOKM.
Functional Forums - Functional forums, such as SustainNet or S1NET, support collaboration among Soldiers and Army civilians who share functional duties and skills. These networks allow all ranks to exchange expertise equally in a positive professional manner. Again, agencies from outside the unit normally develop such networks, and unit KM sections provide connections to them. The section also monitors members’ use of the networks to ensure compliance with operations security.

Knowledge Networks
Atomic image showing overlapping linking of personnel from various networks with examples of each network given.

Communities of Purpose

A community of purpose is a group of people tasked to accomplish a specific objective. These communities' life span is usually limited to the time required to accomplish the objective. Communities of purpose are valuable for teams and working groups. They are usually hierarchically structured and provide for some level of managed conversation and document sharing.

Collaboration within these communities may be synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous collaboration occurs in real time. It requires capabilities similar to those of a chat room, conference call, or video teleconference. Asynchronous collaboration occurs when technical capabilities or other factors do not allow all correspondents to simultaneously communicate with each other. Means of effecting asynchronous coordination include telephone calls, electronic mail, and instant messages that do not include all correspondents.

Key to a community of purpose is the ability to link expertise rapidly to solve a specific problem. An example of a community of purpose might be an improvised explosive device defeat community formed to identify the best way to counter a specific device type. Other tools communities of purpose may use include desktop video teleconference collaboration tools, repositories, expertise locators, and wikis. (A wiki is software that lets users create collaborative Web sites. These sites are also called wikis.)

Recently, one of the senior forum facilitators said, "the ultimate goal of Army Knowledge Management has always been crystal clear and is simply to facilitate experiential knowledge transfer between Soldiers. Everything else will be second and third order effects resulting from this transfer. We must provide the technical and human means for Soldiers to connect to other Soldiers both online and offline so they can learn from each other through a combination of social learning and social networking."