Episode 7, Communities of Practice

Need to know how a Community of Practice works?

Whole Podcast 37 min

1st half 18 min

2nd half 19 min

Listen to this fascinating podcast conversation between:

Dr. Nada Dabbagh, Associate professor in the Instructional Technology Program at George Mason University.

Tom Kuhlmann, Vice President at Articulate, manager of the user community for Articulate and author of the Rapid E-Learning Blog.

Mike Parmentier, Principal at Booz Allen, founder of the Training Education and Performance Support CoP at Booz Allen .

This panel discussion about Communities of Practices (CoP) integrates the academic, private and social perspectives of Communities of Practice.

CoP’s are defined around a shared passion and a common goal driven by the learning from one another. In fact a CoP already exists in your organization whether it is formally recognised or not.

Discussion rises around the tension between the corporate desire to formally capture the knowledge being shared in the community and the requisite grassroots informal learning environment to grow a CoP.

The first section discusses:

1. Defining a Community of Practice
2. Infrastructure and Technology
3. Levels of participation–The lurker

The second section discusses:

1. Growing a community grass roots style
2. Measuring the effectiveness
3. The corporate perspective, capturing and nurturing
4. The potted plant analogy
5. The sidewalk metaphor
   

Links and Resources

• http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm
• http://www.feverbee.com/
• http://www.communityspark.com/
• How to Build a User Community, Part 1l