Knowledge for health (K4Health) project external learning evaluation : knowledge management leadership and social media

The external evaluation's main questions were: (1) what state-of-the-art social media and social networking practices (including Web 2.0) do K4Health and other companies and organizations use to reach audiences in the developing world?; (2) what role has K4Health played as a KM leader?; (3) what recommendations would K4Health and other companies and organizations offer for the future use of social media and social networking as part of an overall KM strategy?; and (4) what intangible assets does K4Health offer regarding social media and KM? The evaluators reviewed K4Healths documents and other associated documents and websites. Forty individuals representing the K4Health team, USAID (Washington and field), members of the implementing partner community, and other development organizations were interviewed. With social media aspect evaluators findings include: (1) K4Health both develops and participates in a variety of active and useful communities of practice (COP); (2) the K4Health team has taken a leadership position in developing good uses of social media for family planning and reproductive health; (3) the team stays abreast of social media trends, but evaluates and tests before embracing the latest sites. With KM, the evaluators found, overall, interviewees had strong positive feelings about the work of K4Health in KM generally and as a KM leader. Several interviewees mentioned that they considered the modeling of internal and external KM practices as a key element of KM leadership. Since some time has passed since the start of the project, the recommendation is that the project share its internal KM experiences. The evaluation also found that older information technology has caused some limitations both in dealing with the inevitable obsolescence of platforms and responding to emerging technology changes. Decisions about which platform to use and when to move to a new system need to be more responsive to the changing nature of the technology. (Excerpt, modified)