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?"
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
Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators: Vol. 2 - contains links to authors and a full introductory chapter - deals with distributed 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.
This paper examines the nature of virtual teams and their place in the networked economy. Using the evidence from two recent sets of studies, it highlights some of the barriers to effective virtual team working and demonstrates the critical importance of
This paper provides an overview of virtual teams in the information age, focussing on the definition of virtual teams, their salient characteristics, the communication issues they face (including information overload, geographic and social distance), th
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
Communities of Practice are conceptually positioned as a very important and successful element of corporate Knowledge Management. By utilizing IT platforms they enable a direct connection of knowledge workers and the transfer and reuse of tacit expertise
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
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)
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 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
This paper reports the findings from a longitudinal case study at University of York, UK. The findings from this study suggest that students and tutors in this programme employed different types and exhibited different degree of social presence when commu
Directing their discussion at a general audience, Hildreth and Kimble present 24 separately authored chapters exploring the application of the concept of "Communities of Practice" to knowledge management in business or commerce organizations.
Links to Chris Kimble's, research (CMC, CSCW, Knowledge Management, Distributed Teams); teaching (MIS, CIS HI2), and administration (Computer Science, Management)