Netboards: digital portals to communities of knowledge and practice

The netboard IT infrastructure is designed to facilitate the creation and support of Communities of Knowledge and Practice (CKP), by supporting the main activities required for participation. A netboard provides an active catalogue that contains brief structured descriptions of the objects relevant to the CKP, or "items" (which can be persons, projects, concepts, tools, documents, cases, stories, procedures, calls, rules…). Each description (the "page") is created and maintained by an owner, and contains, apart from a brief description that acts as a showcase, a series of structured standardized descriptors that facilitate searching and sorting, and links (URLs) to access the item itself and contact the owner. This hybrid structure is materialised as a portal combining functions of a website, a database, a search engine, a content management system (CMS), a directory, and a message board. It addresses essential functions of the management of a CKP (who does what, how to get access to them). It solves some of the main issues of the classic instruments, namely keeping the information up to date in a centralized manner while respecting the diversity of communication formats and the participants' privacy. By supporting the CKP and its growth, the netboard is also an instrument to foster participatory research. This paper describes the structure and functions of a netboard, and presents lessons learned while managing four of them.