Virtual Communities of Practice - Experiences From VCoP

Online systems for sharing knowledge and for organizing communities of practice are increasing in numbers. In this paper, we claim that the system alone will not be sufficient regarding the knowledge sharing process, if fundamentals of creating and maintaining communities of practice are not attended to. This paper presents the experiences from two Norwegian organizations that have used an online system for sharing knowledge, for the purpose of building a community of practice within the organization. This is a pilot study of a larger project and the main focus has been on the role of the facilitator and on the key features of the facilitator role that supports the creation and maintenance of what is defined as Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP). "Ordinary" Communities of Practice, as Lave and Wenger define it, are based on voluntary encounters between practitioners (Wenger, 1998a, Lave and Wenger, 1991). We investigate to what degree the Virtual Communities of Practice are voluntary, if at all. The research is mainly qualitative and data is collected through interviews. The respondents are users and administrators of the system. The system is called Noddlepod(TM) and is a Norwegian developed Knowledge Management System.