Hemsley, J., & Mason, R. M. (2013). Knowledge and knowledge management in the social media age. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 23(1), 138-167.

In this article Hemsley and Mason discuss three uses of knowledge management systems (KMS): foundation, dissemination and application; and the formation of knowledge ecosystems as a product of the combination of knowledge creation and knowledge management. Their research synthesizes opinions of reputable sources on the subject of KMS. An example of empowered “grass-root” voice is given with the YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars” (2009) by Davis Caroll. It shows how rapid dissemination of viral events affect tremendously the management of systematic knowledge assets. The broadcasting wave finds its way to the farthest of the source links. In this particular case, the United airlines went under scrutiny because of documented viral incident which affected negatively the reputation of the company. The cyclical process of KMS is represented by the mass media distribution of information which started from the shared YouTube video and expanded to wide broadcasting stream through various social media platforms.

The knowledge management is presented as themes: such as the Nature of knowledge (“creation” and “manipulation”), KM systems infrastructures and enterprise knowledge value. The virality here is described as a dual process, which involves one’s decision to accept and share information. Hemsley and Mason accept Schultze and Leidner’s definition of knowledge management: “the generation, representation, storage, transfer, transformation, application, embedding, and protecting of organizational knowledge.” They define a KM system to be “the set of enabling structures, policies, processes, and technologies that support an organization’s KM efforts.” Knowledge management ecosystems are complex infrastructures of KM environments and social media ( SM) platforms. Evidence of the affect and limitation of social media on knowledge management is given by cases from different fields (e.g.” communication, information science, political science”). The knowledge itself could have differing forms and scope; “pyramid”, “tacit (e.g., wisdom, knowledge), and explicit (information, data)”, it could be an object, process, or capability (“know-how”). KMS could also have different emphasis: they could be more computational, or cultural; static or propelling. Blogs and wikis are examples of dynamic KM models with a strong influence on shaping people’s opinions.

The Social Media’s software allows people to build social networks and communicate in a faster and inexpensive way. SM serves as a facilitator and accelerator. Thus, people connect on micro and macro levels based on their interest (personal, scholarly). The authors go on to discuss in detail the specifics of different current media: Flick, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and other virtual-writing places. Hemsley and Mason suggest that social media is modifying the knowledge management concepts and this is why those should be reconsidered.

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