Communities of Practice

In this post I would like to touch upon the concept of communities of practice.  To recap we have talked about getting started in knowledge management, creating a value proposition, a business case, assessing your knowledge management efforts,etc.
So say you decide knowledge management is the way to go.  Now you need to decide what is going to be the most effective solution for your organization's challenges in the area of knowledge management. 
One that I would recommend is Communities of Practice.  I know there is a lot of debate on communities.  What are communities of practice?  How are they different from networks? Is this just another organizational fad? Yes, we have heard it all! 
Simply put communities of practice refers to a group of individuals who share a common interest and who come together to discuss and share information about their interest area because they want to, not because they have to. 
So how do you get communities started, do they already exist in your organization, if so how do you recognize them?  These are all questions I will address in my upcoming posts.
Have a great weekend!