Designing Community

Bob Bruce pointed me in the direction of this great article from the NLII.

Community of Practice Design Guide: A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating Communities of Practice in Higher Education

The article does a good job of outlining the lifecycle phases of community development & design. In my reading of the article, I’d say that our community is strong and growing and on the right track. I’d be interested in hearing what our members think about this.

Interesting also is how the article outlines why communities of practice are important, including:
Communities of Practice…

• connect people
• provide a shared context
• enable dialogue
• stimulate learning
• capture & diffuse existing knowledge
• introduce collaborative processes
• help people organize
• generate new knowledge

It’s a great resource and one of the most comprehensive and well-presented I’ve seen on the topic so far. Definitely recommended reading for our CoP. Thanks Bob!