Page 181 -

164 Chapter 5

Box 5.9
An example: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

CIDA (http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/) focuses on the dissemination of information, results,
and lessons learned. A study showed that CIDA was spending about $100 million on
repeating and reinventing knowledge the organization already had. Knowledge is created
through bringing together partners and shareholders in the organization around issues
and practices to produce new ideas, perspectives, and insights. In the application of knowl-
edge, CIDA has requested that partners and shareholders collaborate online on specifi c
projects. As part of the Canadian government, CIDA needs to make all information and
services available to citizens electronically through a project called Government Online.
This means making information available outside of Canada as well, such as on immigra-
tion services, goods and trade, development assistance, and so on.
CIDA uses an extranet, which is a culmination of the various intranets and the Internet.
Access is controlled to promote free fl owing discussion and information sharing. CIDA
uses its extranets to promote knowledge sharing through its Partners Forum, Field
Representatives Forum, and Strategic Information Management Forum. Finally, regional
forums allow different CIDA branches to share among themselves. The fi rst step is to
disseminate information that can be used as formal or explicit knowledge. The second
step is to encourage members of each extranet to develop new knowledge through
online discussions. The third step entails the implementation of this new knowledge in
the design, development, and management of specifi c projects. The goal is to harvest
the results of this implementation effort and to disseminate those as formal/explicit
knowledge through the agency ’ s intranet. To date, CIDA has documented about 4000 best
practices and lessons learned.
Within CIDA there are about thirty CoPs involving about 1,200 people. A KM Forum
was organized involving about 150 people from various departments and partners. These
networks are the primary knowledge-sharing vehicles within CIDA. CIDA management
now provides support to the CoPs and has developed expert directories to promote interac-
tion from both within and outside the organization. CIDA is currently involved in profi l-
ing and metadata to map and identify appropriate forms of access to knowledge and
expertise within the agency. An example is the Online Project Management, which devel-
ops tools to support KM within the organization. CIDA is also extending knowledge skills
to its partners and encouraging interaction between them through its Strategic Informa-
tion Management Forum initiative.