With a complement of staff based in many different countries in different parts of the world, it is not always easy to know "who is who" within our organisation – or, more importantly, "who knows what". The latter is crucial for us to maximise our potential of working together within a learning organisation. Many of you reading this may recall that an internal knowledge mapping exercise was launched in 2003, with the idea that all IC staff involved in thematic and methodological work should fill in a personal profile, indicating their main skills and expertise. In the new Member profile, the professional fields have been modified according to feedback gained from those completing the profiles. The thematic and process competences listed are the same as those used in the Doc and Project databases, for full compatibility in topic mapping.

The Member profiles serve not only to identify "who knows what" but also as a means for geographically distanced staff to introduce themselves to each other. With this in mind, the new profile contains an optional field for more personal information that members would like to share. We hope that with a better sense of knowing each other, everyone will feel more motivated to join and interact in electronic discussion groups, Communities of Practice (CoPs), etc. Including a photograph is also very important for "putting a face to the name".

A small part of the Member profile (basic details of name, position and photograph) will be available to the general public – linked to the Project database. Most, however, is only available to the IC Knowledge Community, whilst only IC staff can access attached CVs.