Learning and developments professionals are being invited to participate in a discussion about the way new web-based technologies are influencing their business practices following a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The CIPD hopes that 'Web 2.0 and Human Resources: a Discussion Document' will encourage debate about the impact of such applications among the learning and development community. The document provides an introduction to social networking, a glossary of terms, as well as an illustration of how learning and development organisations have been using Web 2.0 and an outline on how to get the most from these technologies. The paper is intended to offer a new way of making a significant contribution to an organisation’s strategic and operational goals.

Speaking exclusively to TrainingZone, Martyn Sloman, learning and development adviser at the CIPD said: "We are at the beginning of a voyage of discovery to see how a new set of channels are going to affect the delivery of the way we train and learn at work. With technology such as broadband becoming as accessible as the telephone, we have to ask what kind of impact it will have on learning and training organisations.

"We are now looking for illustrative case studies so we can identify how effective this technology is likely to be in the long run as a source of intervention and therefore what the activist training manager should be doing now to prepare," he said.

The discussion document will be posted on the CIPD website from today to coincide with the Recruitment and Retention Conference at Olympia on today and tomorrow (18-19 June).