Social Networks for Communities of Practice

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.