Participatory Forums and the Informal Transfer of Knowledge US Army Officers and Complex Records within a Professional Community of Practice Heather Soyka University of Pittsburgh SAA 2013

Site of study: Company Command

Questions What can a continuum approach reveal about the nature of an information system created and used by a professional community of practice? What is the role of records in actively creating and sustaining this community? What can this case study reveal about the records continuum model?

Frameworks Records continuum model (Upward, 2005): a framework for considering systems rather than individual actors that recognizes that human activity is mediated by communication and organizational contexts

Frameworks Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1999): groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis Three defining common characteristics: Domain Community Practice

Social theory of learning Social theory of learning (Wenger, 1999) places social participation as an important process in learning and knowing 1)Meaning 2)Practice 3)Community 4)Identity

Sources of Data Forum and forum posts Published versions of forum conversations Interviews with forum creators and administrators at the United States Military Academy Interviews with forum members

Selected forum posts published in ARMY magazine on a monthly basis since 2005 Set of narratives that is complex, mediated, individual, and corporate View of war from the edges of the organization Pilot Test

Recordkeeping Vector Evidential Vector Transactional Vector Authority Vector DIMENSION 2 Capture Records DIMENSION 3 Organise Recordkeeping Regime DIMENSION 4 Ensure Societal Memory DIMENSION 1 Document Accountable Acts ACTS Collective Memory Organisational/Individual Memory Evidence Representational Trace [Archival] Document Records Archive Archives Institution Organisation Unit(s) Actors Acts Activities Functions Purpose Records Continuum

Emerging Themes Micro/macro level impact that can be mapped using the records continuum as a framework Impact of records on the formation, sustainability, and growth of community Use of knowledge management as a community records practice that contributes to formation of identity

Thank you! Heather Soyka