DCMOC
Department of Content Management and Online Collaboration
Communities of Practice
The following was a response to one of our previous posts, and in it’s elegance deserved it’s own post (AG)
Keith A. Morneau Says:
From Wenger’s Community of Practice book, two definition of communities of practice are of interest here -
#1 – “Communities of practice [CoP] are groups of
people who share a concern, 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”
#2 – “A community of practice [CoP] is a unique combination of three fundamental elements: a domain of knowledge, which defines a set of issues; a community of people who care about this domain; and the shared practice that they are developing to be effective in their domain.”
CoPs interact on an ongoing basis through different activities. From that interaction, artifacts are co-created and shared which deepens the practice. These artifacts need to be stored somewhere and where I believe content management fits.
I look at content management as a tool of a community of practice to codify the knowledge being co-created and constructed together. If you can understand CoPs, you will better understand the role of content management in the bigger picture. People want to collaborate with each other and I believe they do so in informal communities of practice.
You wrote “…appropriate experts throughout the organization…”: The right people, all over, own their content. This doesn’t say anyone can write anything; it says the right people can write their things.”
In a CoP context, you need a core members of the community who are willing to share and collaborate with others. Then, you also need folks at all different levels of participation to contribute. Some will become core members; others stay at the periphery. Everyone adds to the diversity of the collaboration.
We all belong to many CoPs in our daily lives including our personal, professional, and others. I wrote a paper on a faculty-to-faculty collaboration in the context of CoPs that you might find interesting or maybe not. The link is http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume3No2/Morneau.pdf
This is my 2 cents and hope it makes sense. Yes, it is important to understand content management, but I think you need to understand the bigger picture of communities of practice to get a feel for what drives people to want to collaborate in the first place. It will inform your definition of content management.
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Keith A. Morneau Says:
To continue the dialogue I started on CoPs. There is a concept of identity in a CoP that is very important. Everyone who participates and contributes to a CoP develops an identity. That identity transforms as the person continues to contribute and participate in the activity of the community.
As an aside, there is a concept of activity theory that plays well in help model the activities of a community. I can discuss that at another time if there is interest. This model is a good model to help us understand the activity of a community. I have used it to help me understand how professionals solve problems and what tools they use.
There also needs to be a way for a participant to develop their own identity through their own space. One reason MySpace has been so successful is its ability to manage communities but also give their members a say and a place to be themselves. This will give them meaning to be a part of something larger.
Also, for a collaboration and communication to sustain itself in a CoP context, there needs to be a purpose and reason for someone to want to participate over time.
We can build a communication, collaboration, and content management architecture but it does not guarantee that people will use it. This is why I like to look at this through a CoP lens because it is the people who want to get together and collaborate.
May 5th, 2007 at 7:22 am