Communities of Practice, Learning as a Social Systemby Etienne Wenger

A community of practice implies shared practice

A CoP defines itself along 3 dimensions:

What it is about

How it functions

What capability it has produced

CoPs move throug different stages of development

CoPs develop around things that matter to people

CoPs are fundamentally self-organized systems

A community of practice is different from a network in the sensethat it is "about" something, not just a set of relationships.

A CoP has identity as a community and thus shapes the identities of its members.

A CoP exists because it produces a shared practice as membersengage in a collective process of learning.

CoPs do not require much managementbut they can use leadership.

CoPs do not require heavy institutional infrastructures but their members need time and space to collaborate.

They self-organize but they flourish when their learning fits with their organizational environment.

No community can fully design the learningof another; but conversely no community can fully design its own learning.

CoPs become crucial to those that recognize knowledge as a key asset.

They are nodes for the exchange and interpretation of information.

They can retain knowledge in "living ways"

They provide homes for identities

CoPs structure an organization's learning in two ways

through the knowledge thy develop at their core

through interactions at their boundaries

The development of CoPs depend on internal leadership

In order to legitimize the community as a place for sharing and critical knowledge,recognized experts need to be involved in some way, even if they don't do much of the work.

Internal leadership can take many forms:

The inspirational leadership

leaders and recognized experts

The day-to-day leadership

those who organize activities

The classificatory leadership

those who collect and organize information

The interpersonal leadership

those who weave the community's social fabric

The institutional leadership

those who maintain links with other organizational constituencies

The boundary leadership

those who connect the community to other communities

The cutting-edge

those who shepperd out-of-the-box innitiatives.

Leardership must have intrinsic legitimacyin the community.

managers must work with CoPs from the inside raher then to design or manipulate them form the outside

Nurturing CoPs include:

Legitimizing participation

Negotiating their strategic context