There has been a lot of discussion about the value of community and how social networks are a for communities to develop and interact.
Etienne Wenger describes Communities of Practice (CoP) as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” This learning that takes place is not necessarily intentional.
Three components of CoPs:
- the domain – a shared domain of interest
- the community – members that interact and engage in activities, help each other, and share information with each other, and
- the practice – members are practitioners.
Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith, authors of Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, identified 9 orientations that can be useful for choosing technology from the perspective of the community.
Digital Habitats Community Orientation Spidergram Activity
View more presentations from Nancy White
Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger) – http://www.learning-theories.com/communities-of-practice-lave-and-wenger.html