Using Weblogs for knowledge sharing and learning in information spaces

There are various Knowledge Management Systems available currently and designed to support knowledge sharing and learning. An example of these are “Experience-based Information Systems” in the domain of Software Engineering, i.e., Information Systems designed to support experience management. Lately, these have become more and more sophisticated from a technical point of view. However, there are several shortcomings that appear to limit the input, the content of these systems and their usage. The problems identified in this paper relate to knowledge acquisition, learning issues, as well as to the users’ motivation and trust. We introduce an approach meant to enhance the content of the experience base and improve learning from experiences within information spaces, namely weblogs that are maintained during daily work and serve as input for both an experience base and for an information element base. In order to enhance learning, a pedagogical information agent is envisaged for retrieving suitable experiences to be further enriched with additional information elements and produce micro-didactical learning arrangements. In addition we consider the relevance of motivation and trust issues. An empirical study demonstrates that using weblogs for such an approach is feasible.