**3. Conclusion**

226 New Research on Knowledge Management Technology

4. A non-competitive environment: Sharing knowledge with peers from different organization reduces competition and increases willingness to share, as there is no

6. A moderator: To ensure ease of use by members and to keep the discussion focused and

Finally, in a global community, it is important to understand any cultural barriers to access. In a 2006 study done by the engineering firm Caterpillar (Ardichvilli *et. al.,* 2006) in it's international offices, located in Brazil, China, and Russia, researchers investigated what factors might prevent employees from participating in an online community of practise with their international affiliates. They found that the most commonly cited

Language barriers; concern that their English was not good enough to communicate

 Competitiveness and job security; the notion that knowledge is the key to employability, and by sharing that knowledge they lose their competitive edge Hierarchy; higher level employees may not find the time or may not see value in

The GLaD*Support* component will utilize some of the above-mentioned principles and lessons learned in developing a novel closed social network for laboratory professionals to

The GLaD platform can provide significant benefits to the laboratory community. The following lists some example scenarios on how GLaD contributes to global collaboration and consultation while providing efficient means of finding relevant

 Toxicology Testing for Melamine: Traditionally, responsible organization would spend significant amount of time looking for information on laboratories that could perform melamine testing, typically through word of mouth. GLaD's search engine, if populated with such laboratory profiles ahead of time, can interactively and rapidly locate all toxicology laboratories and their locations, and provide the means to further

 Influenza Diagnostic Capability and Capacity: A laboratory network spends great effort and resources assessing Influenza capacity within its member laboratories, information, which becomes quickly out of date. GLaD provides a mechanism for laboratory profiles to be available online and kept up to date. Diagnostic gaps can be

Typical current practice is to search the Internet for information, which can be extremely time consuming and oftentimes misleading, or to use traditional approach of using phone calls to search for expertise. GLaD platform can provide a one-stop-shop for laboratory

quickly addressed and equipment supplied without costly surveys.

5. Asynchronous communication: Convenient, anytime- anywhere access

 Preference for face-to-face communication over online communication Reluctance to share knowledge with members of "other" groups

individual recognition involved

Modesty; fear of looking boastful or immodest

facilitate global collaboration and consultation.

narrow the search for melamine testing.

with international colleagues

professional

barriers were:

participation

**2.4 Scenarios** 

information:

Global health security is everyone's responsibility. Uniting scientists and their expertise into networks is one way to strengthen response, build capacity and share with others at local, regional and global levels. Successful models of cooperative networks-- Global Outbreak and Response Network, the UN agencies (WHO, Food and Agriculture Organization) supported networks, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) reference networks, PulseNet International and its sub-regional networks-- are examples of functional networks and a testament that networks do provide the connection and are irreplaceable repositories of experience and knowledge. Paradoxically, even as the scientific community recognizes that it is easy to form a network, it also recognizes that sustaining the work of the networks can often be challenging. The development of knowledge management tools for this project is intended to assist the GLaD laboratory community to meet their challenges.
