Communities of practice
I started off my research by finding a paper defining CoP’s by Etienne Wenger. This paper told me what a CoP is and what functions define it. It seems like a good idea of how to pass on and share knowledge. In fact I do believe that in some ways I was part of what could be called a CoP back in the Navy. When I was training for my nuclear qualifications I was required to get “check outs” from senior qualified operators in order to get signed off. During this training process much local knowledge of how our systems on our boat worked were passed down to junior sailors. In addition when we found an error in one of our nuclear manuals or even a more efficient way of doing things the manuals would be changed in accordance. It was useful because as Mike Burk discusses here I could tap into that knowledge anytime. I learned many useful tricks to getting my work done without mishap by listening and learning from those who had done it all before.
May 6, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I think that the armed forces probably have a lot of CoPs informally integrated into different areas. Anywhere there is some type of camaraderie between peers or coworkers seems to be a great place for CoPs to flourish. The only time I was ever really involved in one would be during my IT Manager job when I needed all the help I could get from other IT personnel to get my work done as I was kind of thrown into the job with no background or training. That is a situation where you had better get involved in a CoP quick.
May 7, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I like how you used an example of a CoP you were involved with functioned and how it benefited not only the immediate members of the group- but the larger organization as well. There have been a couple times in my life where I’ve been more or less informally involved with a community of practice (although we didn’t use that exact term at the time) and it was a great thing to be a part of. I’d like to see that same kind of phenomena happen in our program, but it might be somewhat difficult.