Title: Organisations as virtual communities: a sense-making approach for uniting knowledge consumers and knowledge workers

Authors: Michael S. Nilan, Michael D'Eredita

Addresses: School of Information Studies, 4-206 Center for Science and Technology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-4100, USA. ' School of Information Studies, 4-206 Center for Science and Technology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-4100, USA

Abstract: We propose virtual communities created around specific problems or ranges of problems on which organisations and consumers collaborate to solve. We propose two independent but compatible conceptualisations of sense-making behaviour as theoretic and methodological approaches for the basic interaction in virtual communities where dealing with problems is the primary activity.

Keywords: e-commerce; electronic commerce; sense-making behaviour; knowledge workers; knowledge consumers; cognitive movement; virtual communities; web-based communities; problem solving.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2005.006926

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2005 Vol.1 No.3, pp.262 - 271

Published online: 25 Apr 2005 *

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