Appropriate software tools may improve communication and ease access to knowledge for research groups. A weblog is a website which contains periodic, chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage , whereas a wiki is hypertext-based collaborative software that enables documents to be authored collectively using a web browser. Although not primarily intended for use as an intranet-based collaborative knowledge warehouse, both blogs and wikis have the potential to offer all the features of complex and expensive IT solutions. These tools enable the team members to share knowledge simply and quickly—the collective knowledge base of the group can be efficiently managed and navigated.

This paper was written by a medical research group that employed password-protected blogs and wikis to disseminate information such as abstract submissions, meetings, grant-applications, links to recommended scientific papers and other research-related information. These tools provided a simple and quick way to establish a collective knowledge base that could be efficiently managed and navigated. Previously, this research group utilised manuals and quality management systems (QMS) documents for knowledge management but maintenance of these documents was laborious and access to the information could be difficult. In essence, the effective implementation and use of blogs and wikis allowed the scientists to focus on their core business (research). This paper provides an example case study of a organisation (most likely small in nature) that has successfully utilised blogs and wikis for knowledge dissemination and management. It may be worthwhile to suggest the use of these tools within the DEBI Institute or a larger and more geographically distributed research group.

• Quality management system (QMS)
• Collaborative hypermedium