Thomas Vander Wal has just posted a great discussion of how people go from being smart about their own personal information and personal processes to greater collaboration with larger groups to getting things done and accomplished together. This should be considered as part of the context of the discussions organizations have in wanting to jump on the next technology (collaboration, KM, social, etc.). On Fire with Social Progressions.
When talking with organizations about social tools and logical social flows for information from ideas all the way to formal outcomes (white papers, process docs, product enhancement requirement documents, etc.) there have always been stated steps. Some of these steps have different incarnations and labels, depending on how things are done conventionally. But, there is a usual natural progression of how these flow that is rather common and universal across organization types (formal or not).
The basic progression is Personal -> Sparks (small idea) -> Campfire (building with people) -> Bonfire (spreading to a large group) -> Torch (honing, sharpening, set the next fire?). Read his whole post for the details, of course. I like how Thomas has described this flow, as it reminds me of yet another aspect on how organizations think about their knowledge management efforts. Depending on where they are on this flow, they might be more focused on a specific stop along this flow. Thomas makes it clear that the effort needs to consider everything from the individual behavior to that of small groups, large groups and the enterprise - and beyond.