IT support for communities of practice in organizational settings

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are increasingly being seen as innovative and creative value adding entities in organisations. Their contributions in the sharing of perspectives and context, support of learning processes and creating a social and communal identity, yield invaluable knowledge exchanges. With the advent of internetworking, the boundaries of organisational settings are broadened. This is particularly significant to CoPs as they can continue their ways of working, work practices, social engagement and connectivity in these settings, harnessing Information Technology (IT). This paper reports on early findings from an ongoing investigation into ways in which IT can support practices and knowledge exchange processes of CoPs in organisational settings.