Saturday, October 18, 2008

Summary of Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction

The article called “Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction” tells about what communities of practice means, what it includes, how and in which areas it is applied. Firstly, in the article, it is explained that Communities of Practice should have three traits such as domain, community and practice. If these characteristics are not included, we cannot accept it as a community of practice. Furthermore, the writer explains that Communities of Practices may come into existence from small groups and they may be local as well as universal. Moreover, the article mentions the activities by means of which the communities develop their practices. These activities are problem solving, requests for information, seeking experience, reusing assets, coordination and synergy, discussing developments, documentation projects, visits, and mapping knowledge and identifying gaps. In the article, it is also told that where the concept of Communities of Practice comes from. In addition, the writer also mentions the applications of the concept in different areas such as organizations, government, education, associations, social sector, international development and the web. In the light of this information, it is important to say that the article is a very useful source for having a detailed idea about Communities of Practice as it covers it very effectively.

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