The Use of Intranets: The Missing Link Between Communities of Practice and Networks of Practice?

Abstract

This chapter examines how members of local Communities of Practice (CoPs) have appropriated intranet systems and how their use of these systems has contributed to the emergence of more broadly based Networks of Practice (NoPs). CoPs are groups of interacting agents who share common activities and knowledge. NoPs are composed of people who are geographically separate but who still share work-related practices. This chapter argues that intranet systems provide the means by which members of local CoPs can overcome geographical distance and connect with other CoPs to create NoPs. This argument is based on four case studies that relate how individual CoPs have implemented, managed and used specific intranet sites and how this use has strengthened their local Community of Practice (CoP) as well as fostered links with a wider Network of Practice (NoP).