Supporting knowledge flow in web-based environments by means of narrative

Knowledge and competence can be passed among people, across time, space and organizations, just as transferable entities, like fluids, can be let "flow" among locations. This flowing, or sharing, of knowledge is crucial for success in the work environment. It is, however, a challenging task, because often work-related expertise is tacit and difficult to be elicited and represented. In this paper, we concentrate on narrative as a knowledge sharing device. Narrative, in the form of stories and narrations, is a natural form of communication, easily and effectively used to transmit possibly complex information in simple and compelling way. It provides a powerful frame to help people represent experience and make sense of it. In collaborative contexts, narrative supports the creation of shared understanding and adds concreteness to joint reflection, helping to elicit tacit knowledge. By reflecting on some examples from the literature, which include both joint story construction and collaborative work on individual narrations, this paper aims to highlight how narrative can be used to support knowledge flow, adding concreteness to people's interaction and helping to exploit the different ways of "acting together" which are currently afforded by network technologies.