George Siemens in Knowledge sharing Environment:

Some components needed in a well-crafted environment suitable for knowledge sharing:

• Informal, not structured
  
• Self-forming connections - let members of the environment decide how to interact
  
• Tool-rich - members should have many options for connecting and dialoguing.
  
• Simple/single starting point...but multiple branches/exits
  
• Diversity of participants - very critical...people tend to form into groups of similar people. Knowledge sharing and innovation require smashing together ideas of contradictory or unrelated nature
  
• Time - facilitation is best viewed as a small spark that grows into a roaring flame over time. Most managers seem to prefer explosions that die out quickly...
  
• Trust - knowledge sharing is about people. Safety and security (face to face or online) lead to trust. General community rules should value individual contributions and personalities.
  
• User-shaped - most KM initiatives begin with the mindset of building a house and then telling employees to move in an basically only hang up pictures. Instead, they should be given tools and supplies...and then allowed to create what they really need.
  
• Community feel - communities of practice have gained a reputation as being effective means of sharing knowledge...because we are most likely to share what we know with people we know.
  
• Capturing and searching - these staples of KM are still important. Newcomers should be able to observe the trials others have walked...and if done right, a KM system could link into persformance support systems...resulting in up to date resources for people...when they are needed.

Commenting Denham Grey suggests to "inquire what sharing knowledge really means" and points to wiki about knowledge sharing.

School administrators need to respect teachers. This is not done by dumbing down the curriculum with 'teach to the test" and scripted learning. What we are talking about is peer centered ways of collaborating. For teachers it is collaborating about the PRACTICE. If we are working with students we are talking about student centered collaborations where they construct new understandings by giving them choices on how to creatively exhibit their new knowledge. If teachers are not respected and are given top down crap, does this affect the way we teach our students? I think so. Political hacks who do not know a damn thing about teaching are mandating tests and curricului that are not efficacious nor sound. So both teachers and students find themselves in institutions that are betraying their mission. Why share knowledge in a school or classroom if the each days lesson is scripted. Talk about going against the human spirit. Then politicians wonder why good teachers leave the profession!  

8:30:47 AM