Communities of Practice

After completing some of the readings, I realized how many communities of practice I have been part of, or have seen others benefit from.

1. Quilting Camps. I am not a quilter, but I have several relatives and friends who are. They look forward to their quilting camps like they were going to Disneyland or something. They are able to share patterns and techniques with like-minded people, and connect throughout the year when not meeting in person at the camps. 
2. Dog rescue/ownership. This is one I had not considered before the reading, but when reading the definition from Etienne Wenger, it meets the criteria: a domain of interest (dogs and dog rescue), a community of people involved in that domain sharing information engaging in discussions, and attending events, and we are practitioners - we share resources, stories, tools. We lean on each other for support or ideas if our dog gets sick or if we are experiencing a behavior problem and need help addressing it. We reach out to others to foster dogs in need or solicit donations to pull dogs from shelters. In engaging in these ongoing discussions through the rescue's facebook page, we continue to learn from other practioners. 
3. Articulate User Community. This is a community of practice of made up of users of a particular eLearning software suite. The company set up the website with discussion boards, forums, and links to resources. While the moderators are the company employees, and there are "experts" who can help, many members of the community contribute templates, work products, ideas, and help others figure out solutions to problems they post about in the forums. 
4. Work community website. At work, my company began a community website called "Connect". All employees have access to it, and there are different subgroups for different interests. Some are related to work functions and processes, but others revolve more around outside interests, like those who are runners or skiers, or those who own pets or are into gardening. It was designed to bring together people from all over the country and our international locations to share best practices and reduce waste and duplication of efforts. Documents and processes are posted and shared. But it's also meant to instill a sense of community where people can learn from each other in many different areas. 

Communities of Practice can be found everywhere, and this is just a small sampling of the ones that came to mind in my world.