Organizational design of an IT-based knowledge system: the NetAcademy concept

The emergence of new media channels such as the World Wide Web has induced a profound growth in the publication of books, paper, pictures and hypertext documents. In addition to forming a large knowledge base, the NetAcademy (NA) is meant to provide a meeting place for the joint discussion of trends, the exchange of personal opinions and research results within a specific scientific field of research or interest. Building up a compound knowledge system does not only require an adequate design and good technological implementation, it involves also permanent engagement from a core of people responsible for news update, reviewing viewing and feedback response. A smooth integration and automation of processes is therefore a key prerequisite for the successful maintenance and continuous attractiveness of the system. The paper describes the realization of the NetAcademy platform, dealing with its template based design and the combination of different software tools such as e.g. Lotus Notes, InterNotes Web Publisher, Domino and Oracle/SQL. It illustrates the connections between the internal organization and the interaction with the knowledge medium, explaining how both can be optimized to mutually support each other