Community Of Practice
From MoxyWiki
What are Communities of Practice?
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or interest in a topic, and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. CoPs often focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. A community’s specific purpose and goals inform the appropriate activities and technologies that should support it. [1]
Virtual CoP's are those where the participants in the community rarely if ever meet face to face. Such virtual communities are made possible by technologies such as email discussion boards or wikis.
Theory and History
One of the early proponents of CoPs was Etienne Wenger who wrote Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge, along with co-authors Richard Arnold McDermott and William Snyder[2]. Wenger has outlined his theory of CoPs on his web site [3].
