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.