Global Organizations have started realizing the importance of having a “LEARNED” working force and the impact they can have to their core business. Traditionally these organizations have been investing a significant amount of money in training infrastructures which include classroom trainings, e- learning courses and tracking the competency of their employees through integrated Performance Tracking tools. However, the effectiveness of such trainings has always been debated and of late most of the market studies have corroborated the fact that these trainings are not as effective as they are expected to be. Market studies also state that most of the knowledge gained by individuals is through the day to day interactions they have with the people around and most of the time it is through informal mechanisms. The term ‘informal’ learning is fast catching up and organizations have started realizing the value in leveraging technology to implement such informal learning platforms. Collaboration solutions are aimed to provide this platform to the organizations by leveraging the Web 2.0 concepts and design.

The basic idea involves building a platform that acts as a meeting place for geographically separate employees to share their thoughts, views and get their questions answered. It’s an informal mechanism that not only makes it easy for an individual to learn new concepts, but also a reference platform that is available for a longer period that be referred to as and when required. Web 2.0 concepts like Blogs, Wikis, Discussion forums, Personalization, Targeted search and podcasting can be leveraged extensively to build such platforms. These platforms can also be designed for various portable devices, thus making them accessible to a wider audience that may not be computer savvy.