KM may be conducted across multiple organizations, such as with suppliers, partners and customers.
Such KM activities obviously rely on communications networks and systems (Van de Ven, 2005) .
“Value supply chain” inter-organizational networks are in common usage to enable retailers
such as Wal-Mart to interact with suppliers to ensure that inventories are always of desired levels
on retail shelves, in retail stockrooms and in warehouses and that deliveries are made according
to a predetermined schedule. These systems operate on an “automatic” basis that is made possible
by the knowledge that is embedded in the software by the participating partners.
The well-known Linux software development project is an example of the effective utilization
of a loose network of volunteer knowledge creators. It operates with two parallel structures
– one which represents the current “approved” version of the system and the other in which
enhancements are continuously being developed and tested