Building a Third Sector Knowledge Sharing Network

Abstract

Many people will be familiar with the phrase ‘knowledge is power’ but few will know that it forms part of a much longer quotation:

"Knowledge is power. But mere knowledge is not power; it is only possibility. Action is power; and its highest manifestation is when it is directed by knowledge."

In post-industrial societies, knowledge is embedded in both human and digital networks and actively released through the conscious realisation of the power of the knowledge to lead to positive action and outcome. Effective knowledge-sharing networks, as a result, are the key to realising individual, group and organisational potential.

A knowledge-sharing network can be viewed as a form of human beehive where individuals, acting simultaneously as architect and builder, are engaged in the dynamic creation of honeycombed layers of intellectual, social, economic and physical capital with each layer of the beehive ecologically dependent on the other for survival. Each layer contains multiple networks, therefore the beehive becomes a network of networks: a meta-network.