What is a Community of Practice?

What is a Community of Practice?

“Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share concerns, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. (Wenger 2002)

In a CoP, Members typically:

*

Share information, insight and advice
*

Help each other solve problems
*

Discuss situations, aspirations and needs
*

Ponder common issues, explore ideas and act as sounding boards
*

May create tools, standards, generic design, manuals and other documents
*

Develop an understanding of what they share

In a nutshell, in a community of practice people accumulate knowledge and become informally bound by the value in being together. Communities of Practice are everywhere – most are invisible.

Etienne Wenger et al. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press. Etienne Wenger web site http://www.ewenger.com/