Masters thesis on social software, or more specifically groupblogs, wikis and social bookmarking and how they support knowledge management and communities of practice
This page looks at Communities of Practice as Distributed Collaborative Work and asks (a) are CoPs collaborative and (b) can they be distributed? (Selected and reviwed links to papers on CoPs)
This paper examines learning among museum staff involved in exhibition development in four European natural history museums. It draws upon a larger body of research undertaken for the Mirror project, a European Commission Framework Programme 5 Information
Review of "WHERE DID THAT COMMUNITY GO? - COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE THAT DISAPPEAR" by Patricia Gongla and Christine R. Rizzuto Chapter 24 in Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice
Although Communities of Practice have become a core concept in understanding how knowledge is managed within organizations, there have been few studies of the praxis of formation of Communities of Practice. In this article, we report on a Grounded Theory study of the members of a previously identified Community of Practice within the UK Higher Education Academy Psychology Network. In addition to providing data on the functioning of the community, the study also revealed a hitherto unrecognized form of community that exhibits all of the characteristics of CoPs yet has only a transient existence that seems to nucleate around an existing core community. Drawing on the metaphor of quantum behaviour, we termed these communities Quantum Communities of Practice. We describe a theory to explain this phenomenon that is grounded in the data from the study. We conclude by discussing the value and validity of our findings and methodology and indicating the next steps we will take in our research.
Masters thesis on social software, or more specifically groupblogs, wikis and social bookmarking and how they support knowledge management and communities of practice
Systemic reform often involves partnerships between multiple communities of practice (CoP). In order to understand the strengths and challenges of a partnership, it is necessary to examine the objectives and practices of the constituent communities and th
This paper examines the nature of virtual teams and their place in the networked economy. It presents a framework for categorising virtual teams and argues that fundamental changes have taken place in the business environment which force people and organi
NGOs need to tackle the problems of effective communication that arise from their local-global nature. This paper examines Knowledge Management (KM) practices for use with portal technologies in order to promote Communities of Practice in both local and
This paper presents a critical review of some of the claims made for CoPs. It will address questions such as "Are CoPs really suitable for use in a business setting?" and "Can a CoP ever be truly virtual?"
Masters thesis on social software, or more specifically groupblogs, wikis and social bookmarking and how they support knowledge management and communities of practice
Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators: Vol. 1 - contains links to authors and a full introductory chapter - deals with co-located CoPs
The workshop focuses on current research trends in technology enhanced learning solutions that aim at addressing the multiplicity and complexity of needs of Communities of Practice all along their lifecycle.
ELISA is a successful professional community in Edinburgh, but where does it go next? Wendy Ball suggests that the next stage of development for such groups involves defining your purpose and continuing to question motives.
Review of "UNDERSTANDING THE BENEFITS AND IMPACT OF COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE" by Michael A. Fontaine and David R. Millen, Chapter 1 in Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice
This Working Paper is the outcome of a short study commissioned by Intercooperation on existing communities of practice (CoPs) in the development sector in India.
Contains links to papers on KM/CoPs that are all:(a) examples of research undertaken in the MIS Group (b) refereed as part of a book, journal or refereed conference (c) available on line
The MIRROR project explores the mirroring of the learning interactions of individuals within communities of practice (CoP) through the use of technologies. The specific context explored within the project is that of museum natural scientists.
A paper presented at the Second Workshop on Understanding Work and Designing Artefacts: Design for Collaboration. Communities Constructing Technology at King's Manor, University of York (March 1999).
This paper aims at giving a more detailed description and discussion of two concepts of “community” developed in the research areas of text production/writing and social learning / information management / knowledge sharing and comparing them with ea
This study draws on the observations of five instructional designers who discuss their professional identities, their communities of practice and their roles as agents of social and institutional change.
The state of the open source movement and the activities that arise from it have shifted and continue to shift before me as I write these essays. While these ideas seem to be constantly reshaping, they are no less interesting to me than they were at the b