Knowledge and Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

Knowledge management and knowledge sharing are topics best addressed in a different book. This Chapter is intentionally introduced in the book to introduce the reader to knowledge management and knowledge sharing and to think about these growing areas where there are potential opportunities to apply social capital to solve real world practical problems. Though the use of social capital and knowledge management was briefly introduced in Chapter 3, by reiterating these two issues here it will broaden the reader’s understanding of the critical role social capital plays in enhancing knowledge management through knowledge sharing in virtual communities. In addition, this Chapter discusses some of the most important challenges to knowledge sharing in virtual communities. Furthermore, this Chapter describes the basic concepts often associated with knowledge management and social capital.