Edinburgh Napier University

  This report discusses the main findings of a pilot study that set out to establish the main risks and opportunities of the adoption of social computing tools within organizations for collaborative work purposes as perceived by information and knowledge management professionals. The output of the research project reveals that the
business environment is in a period of evolution with regards to information infrastructures and, as a consequence, levels of adoption of social computing tools vary from organization to organization. Although notall participants in the study currently have access to these tools in the workplace, they are largely enthusiastic about their potential, particularly with regards to how they may improve knowledge and information sharing in support of collaborative work. Of the available tools, wikis are regarded as the most important. The greatestorganizational risks associated with these tools, as perceived by study participants, relate to how they are integrated into the business. Partial/non-adoption or poor implementation raise most fears. Means of maintaining easy access to information resources and information governance issues are also a concern. A number of training needs have been identified, ranging from the requirement for individuals to become familiar with social computing tools at a basic introductory level, to provision that will allow knowledge and information professionals to influence how implementations are managed.