Defining Communities of Practice

Table of Contents

Communities of Practice
Defining CoP
Value Proposition

Knowledge Ecosystems
KM Oxymoron
KE: "Bi-focal" Lens
KE: "Triple Network" Lens
KE: "CAS" Lens
KE: Choose Your Lens
Knowledge Ecology
"Data to Wisdom" Curve
KM and KE
The Wheel of KE

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Defining Communities of Practice

"Communities of Practice" is a term that refers to the ways in which people naturally work together. It acknowledges and celebrates the power of informal communities of peers, their creativity and resourcefulness in solving problems, and inventing better, easier ways to meet their commitments.

"[They] are peers in the execution of 'real work'. What holds them together is a common sense of purpose and a real need to know what each other knows." - John Seely Brown, VP and Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp

"A community of practice is group of people who are informally bound to one another by exposure to a common class of problem." - Brook Manville, Director of Knowledge Management at McKinsey & Co.

Last updated on 02/26/00
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