What is a community of practice and how can an intranet support its activity?

Community of practice

‘Community of practice’ is a recently developed term, established (according to Robertson 2004) in 1998 by Etienne Wenger. Robertson (2004) describes communities of practice as the sharing of information between colleagues in an informal manner.

Communities of practice can exist anywhere. Wenger and Lave created the term whilst studying apprenticeships (Wenger nd), but Wenger explains that the application of communities of practice reaches governments, the education sector, the social sector and more. Most significantly the theory of communities of practice has been applied to business organisations. In particular, Robertson (2004) discusses how it is used within knowledge management organisations.

Wenger (nd) suggests communities of practice can be used to collaboratively solve problems, request information, share experiences that might be of value to others, share intellectual innovations, and coordinate activities, just to name a few!

Intranet

It is important at this point to clarify what an intranet is, before we consider how it can be used to promote the activities of a community of practice. The ODLIS definition of an intranet as a ‘web site designed to be used only by the staff or employees of an organization [sic]’ (Reitz 2006) provides a simple understanding.

Robertson (2004) elaborates, explaining that the intranet is an information resource for an organisation allowing publications to be shared across the intended community. Furthermore, Robertson argues that the use of the intranet can be expanded to advance the purposes of the knowledge-based organisation.

Using the intranet to support a community of practice

The first suggestion Robertson makes is to use the intranet to build a ‘home page’ for the community of practice. Although simple enough, this is a solid basis on which to build other, more creative features. It allows members of the community of practice to come together intellectually to share ideas, experiences and knowledge (whether members are physically connected or not).

Another feature of the intranet which Robertson mentions is that it allows a forum for publication of information contributed by the community of practice. Not only does this allow the members of the community to share and access their information, but it also provides an access point for others within the organisation. In this way it acts as what Robertson refers to as a ‘content repository’.

Within this repository, intranets can facilitate the use of weblogs, wikis, content management systems and other dedicated tools to promote the activities of the community of practice.

Obviously a community of practice cannot exist without the interconnection of people who share relevant knowledge. What Robertson suggests is that the intranet can be used to make this connection possible, and along the way can enhance the community’s capabilities.


REFERENCES

Reitz, J.M. 2006, ODLIS- Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science, Libraries Unlimited, viewed 30 August 2007, http://www.lu.odlis/.
Robertson, J 2004 ‘Intranets and knowledge sharing’, KM Column, Step Two Designs, last updated 1 May 2005, viewed 30 August 2007, http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_intranetsknowledge/index.html.
Wenger, E (nd) ‘Etienne Wenger home page’, viewed 30 August 2007, http://www.ewenger.com/index.htm.