This International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Knowledge Communications Practice Note looks at how "knowledge concepts and practices for international organizations have emerged out of a cross fertilization of management approaches in the private sector, innovation in the uses of information and communications technologies, and processes for addressing international development through more consultative approaches."

The diagrammatic format for illustrating this sectoral influence is a table with a column for each of these sectors, disciplines, and communities:

• Private sector information and knowledge management experiments.
• Social science and popular culture influences, including social network analysis.
• Technological evolution, including new approaches to collective ownership of intellectual property.
• Lessons from the international development field on technology transfer, knowledge for development (K4D), and community capabilities.
• Research sector (including academic institutions, governments, non-governmental organisations (NGO), and research and development (R&D)
  departments in companies) on knowledge generation, research networks, and policy influence.
• Civil society engagement, networking, and participation in decision making.
• Multistakeholder processes as an emerging "sector"; new forms of governance through transnational, trans-sectoral approaches.

 These notes were originally prepared as background for a study on knowledge mobilisation for The World Conservation Union (IUCN).