As a general rule, capturing explicit knowledge requires repositories. People must have the time to share-there are only 24 hours in a day. They may need some kind of motivation. And, finally, they need someplace to collaborate, which is where many tools and products come in. Moster also believes that the creation and nurturing of online community is key to the success of a knowledge management initiative.
Communities are where our members share their ideas, their tacit and explicit knowledge.
They start out as very informal groups, where members share a common interest they wish to collaborate on. They may evolve into more formal groups, a community of practice, where now it's more than just a common interest, but a group where the members have created thoughtware around their interest. Next, they may evolve into a group with more of a commitment to sales of a service. Thus, the community has taken its shared interest and turned it into a CGI service. Communities may start out as a place where our members share, but can end up meeting specific business objectives and generating new business.