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Tag: CoP

Finding ‘value’ in social networks and Communities of Practice

Finding ‘value’ in social networks and Communities of Practice

An update to a post previously published 30 Dec 2009. There has been much written about measuring the value of online communities such as Social Networks or Communities of Practice.  However, most pundits tend to think of measuring value from a purely financial perspective, i.e. the Return on Investment (ROI). Clearly this is an important factor, but it’s not the only factor that should be considered. Surprisingly few organisations consider the value that is being created by having better informed…

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Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

The following is a list of the critical points to consider when embarking on a project or plan to build an online community.  This information is available from previous blog posts I’ve shared over the years, and Slideshare presentations, but for convenience I’ve curated these posts into a single post/page of “knowledge nuggets”.  The items have been kept deliberately brief, but further and detailed information (with relevant citations and references) can be provided on request. Ensure you have community facilitator/community…

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Communities of Practice – Planning For Success

Communities of Practice – Planning For Success

My experience of knowledge sharing in organisations stems mainly from my involvement in setting up Communities of Practice (CoPs) for UK local government. This was part of a broader Knowledge Management strategy that I was commissioned to deliver for the Improvement and Development Agency (now part of Local Government Agency -LGA). An online collaboration platform was launched in 2006 to support self-organising, virtual communities of local government and other public sector staff. The purpose was to improve public sector services…

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Communities of Practice – What I’ve Learnt

Communities of Practice – What I’ve Learnt

I  was recently asked  by a colleague to share some “words of wisdom” about what I’d learnt from 9 years of consultancy projects that involved setting up Communities of Practice. I could have written an essay on this topic (and maybe one day I will) but I thought I’d distill it down to the key points as follows: The Basics: We don’t know what we don’t know. People don’t learn from content, they learn from other people. You can’t force…

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Maximising the power of collective knowledge

Maximising the power of collective knowledge

Introduction This is a summary of one of the breakout session I ran at the Cisco Public Services Summit, Oslo 9-11 December 2011.  It describes the role of Communities of Practice in supporting more effective collaboration and knowledge sharing between organisations working in the public sector. It notes the key lessons learnt from a 6-year journey, starting from the launch of the UK local government CoP platform in 2006 and how this led to an ambitious attempt to create a…

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The Role of the Facilitator in Building and Sustaining Communities of Practice

The Role of the Facilitator in Building and Sustaining Communities of Practice

I have the honour of being invited to present at the XIII Seminari Compartim L’e-moderador i altres nous agents de coneixement a les organitzacions on 21st September 2011. The event is sponsored by Generaliti de Cataluña, centre d’Estudis Juridics, I Formacio Especialitzada. This post is a brief preamble to my presentation. Background My experience of knowledge sharing in organizations stems mainly from my involvement in setting up Communities of Practice (CoPs) for UK local government. This was part of a…

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Communities of Practice: a strategy for more effective collaboration

Communities of Practice: a strategy for more effective collaboration

Acting as a public administrator, it was my privilege to arrange and facilitate a meeting this morning between a delegation from the Government of Singapore and some of the ‘expert’ Community of Practice Facilitators from the local government Community of Practice platform. My thanks to Etienne Wenger for making the original connections with the Singapore Government, and to Adrian Barker (Policy & Performance CoP – 3913 members), Neil Rimmer (Productivity and Efficiency Exchange CoP – 2513 members) and Michael Norton…

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CoP Usability and Sociability Heuristics

CoP Usability and Sociability Heuristics

As some of my regular readers will know, I’m involved in a major new project to deliver the ‘next generation’ community of practice platform for UK local government organisations, see previous blog posts about the ‘Knowledge Hub’. The current platform has been (and continues to be) a huge success, with over 63,000 users and more than 1,300 active CoPs, working towards various outcomes but with a common goal to improve public service. These will eventually be migrated to the new…

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Icentivising Community of Practice Contributors

Icentivising Community of Practice Contributors

I think that most community of practice (CoP) facilitators or moderators will recognise the challenge in getting conversations started within the community. The ratio of “lurkers” to “contributors” is one of the standard indicators that should be measured for any CoP in order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics and health of the CoP. It is unreasonable to expect that everyone will be a contributor, and the fact that members don’t contribute doesn’t mean they are not getting…

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Communities of Practice in Local Government

Communities of Practice in Local Government

It’s always pleasing to get some good publicity about how Communities of Practice are reshaping the way that local government works; creating new opportunities for knowledge sharing, collaboration and co-creation. The article in e-government bulletin says it all, and indeed I was one of the panel of three who were invited to judge the entries for the CoP of the Year award mentioned in the article.  A very difficult decision I might add, since all of the entries demonstrated the…

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