Enhancing E-government in Developing Countries: Managing Knowledge through Virtual Communities

Abstract

The article reviews the role of virtual communities as a knowledge management mechanism to support e-government in developing countries. It explores the need for knowledge management in e-government, identifies knowledge management technologies, and highlights the challenges for developing countries in the implementation of e-government and especially knowledge management solutions. It further assesses the feasibility of this and other knowledge management mechanisms in light of the financial and technological limitations of developing countries. The article suggests that knowledge management is needed to facilitate information exchange and transaction processing with citizens, as well as to enable inter-government knowledge sharing and integration. It concludes that simple knowledge management solutions, and especially virtual communities, will be the most appropriate for developing countries, while enterprise solutions are not suitable.