Full Circle Associates

James Robertson suggests that CoPs are a way to manage an intranet in his article Establishing an intranet community of practice

"Many intranet teams have struggled with the role of 'gatekeeper', setting standards and attempting to enforce them on the intranet authors and publishers.

An alternative approach involves establishing a 'community of practice' that involves all intranet stakeholders. This group then takes on shared responsibility for maintaining and improving the intranet.

This approach has been used very successfully by a wide range of organisations, in both the public and private sectors. Indeed, establishing an intranet community of practice is now seen as one of the 'critical success factors' for an effective and sustainable intranet."

My question is, how is this not a team? Is not the activity of supporting the intranet a clearly defined task? I wonder if we get confused about the differences and similarities of CoPs and teams. Alternatively, maintaining an intranet can be one of the tasks of a CoP on intranets, but it seems to me the key purpose of a CoP is learning. Doing is certainly part of it, but I'd suggest that anyone taking Robertson's suggestion make sure that maintaining the intranet is not the only activity of the community of practice.

I believe in "AND." Task and learning.