NOTE: The Business Case for CoP's, Facilitating Flow, ABC's for CoP Quick Start, and CoP Tools, portions of this section are extracted from the Department of the Navy Cport CD-ROM. See Acknowledgements page. A copy of the Cport CD-ROM is available from the Dept of the Navy. The Navy point of contact is Jill Garcia at garcia.jill@hq.navy.mil.
Discussion of Communities of Practice inevitably raises the question, "What is the definition of a Community of Practice?" There are many definitions in use and it is good to notice that differences stem largely from the distinctive types of Communities of Practices in various organizations. Also, different definitions may originate from the same author over time because he or she has been doing pioneering work and Community of Practice concepts are evolving. Etienne Wenger writes,
"A community of practice is a group of people who…
- Share an interest in a topic - The domain
- Why is this important to the organization?
- Why would people want to participate?
- Interact and build relationships - The community
- Who should be involved?
- What are ways to foster trust and engagement?
- Share and develop knowledge - The practice
- What knowledge matters?
- What activities are needed?
- … and thereby contribute to the success of the organization."1
The Federal Knowledge Management Working Group commissioned Etienne Wenger to create a guide, Supporting communities of practice: a survey of community-oriented technologies (see Related Resources below), for selecting and assembling a technological platform to support communities of practice across a large organization.
As one of the leading tools in Knowledge Management, Communities of Practice made a good initial pilot for the Federal Knowledge Management Working Group. In July 2000, the Federal CIO Council tasked the Working Group to identify and develop three intergovernmental communities that would provide high impact results in a yearlong pilot project. The communities were to demonstrate the value of bringing together subject matter experts from around government on specific issues in order to share lessons learned and develop best practices. In June 2001, three pilot communities were identified and began meeting as well as developing online collaboration methods. Final results of the three pilot communities will be published in June 2002.The Pilot Communities are: the Electronic Filing and Regulatory Community of Practice, the Acquisition Community, and the Indian Diabetes Community.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is pursuing an aggressive initiative to foster Communities of Practice. Three communities have public Web sites:
Warrior Knowledge Network (WKN) is a US Army Training and Doctrine Command initiative that is focused on two major thrusts — on information and making Army products work better in meeting the needs of soldiers, and on knowledge and finding the best methods to tap into the experience base of our soldiers and leaders. In order to achieve these objectives, the WKN organizes around "Communities of Practice". (See Related Resources section below.)
The Knowledge Management Working Group sponsored Etienne Wenger to create a guide for selecting and assembling a technological platform to support communities of practice across a large organization.
Related Resources (See Attachments section below to download #1–4) (Download Adobe Reader here)
Want to learn more about what other Departments are doing?
- Supporting communities of practice: a survey of community-oriented technologies (PDF) by Etienne Wenger (NOTE: file name=Content+Technology_Survey.pdf)
- Army Knowledge Management (AKM) (PDF)
- Army Knowledge Online (PDF)
- Warrior Knowledge Network (WKN) Information Sheet (PDF)
- High Tech Community Venture — Article on FHWA CoPs (GovExec.com, October, 2001)
- Practice makes perfect — Article on a CoP in PBG (InfoWorld.com, November 2, 2001)
Footnote:
1 Wenger, Etienne. (2001). Supporting Communities of Practice: A Survey of Community-Oriented Technologies.
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