What is Agent-Based Modeling (ABM)

Information Technologies (IT) seem to be affecting individuals and organizations’ communication and behaviors since many years now. This chapter is about understanding the possible impact of IT on the process of individual learning in a community of practice; in other words the authors wonder if those technologies can possibly help increasing individual competencies in order to improve their learning. They will specifically compare communication in two IT (the email and the web forum) by using agentbased simulation. Results show that each technology has a different impact on individual learning and that communication through emails appear to make individuals learn slower than on a Web forum. Conclusions are widely discussed.