Talk:TAO/Setting Up and Maintaining a Community of Practice

Basic Idea

Various (potential) members of the TAO Community of Practice are in charge of co-ordinating the exchange of knowledge and experiences and to co-ordinate action among distributed groups of peers. Within the TAO Community of Practice, these people play the role of multipliers; if we succeed to make the TAO CoP an interesting and useful tool for them, chances are good that we will be able to attract more members.

In the context of the project TAO, there are several instances of communities of practice being set up. In order to assess the likelihood of them joining the wider TAO Community of Practice on Wikiversity, we will need to tackle two crucial questions:

1. To what extent Wikiversity satisfies their needs regarding a purposeful community platform? What are possible measures for improvement?
2. Do the different communities of practice have enough things in common or best practices to share to make them converge into one big Community of Practice or do they rather diverge from each other?

Communities of practice in the context of the project TAO

Sub-communities according to the main target groups

• TAO Community of Practice: Exchange of know-how and experiences among staff members in a managing or co-ordinating function at organizations providing or intending to provide:
  • e-learning / blended learning for seniors
  • any other type of online activity for seniors related to online communities or social networks
  • web2.0 introductory courses
  • any type of service involving online communities or virtual teams which heavily rely on the participation of seniors
• TAO Community of Practice: Exchange of know-how and experiences among (volunteer) instructors/moderators/facilitators of:
  • e-learning / blended learning courses for seniors
  • web2.0 introductory courses for seniors
  • online activities for seniors in social networks or online communities
  • activities aiming at developping online services together with seniors in a co-creative approach
• Exchange of know-how and best practices among consultants working with organizations providing or intending to provide:
  • e-learning / blended learning for seniors
  • any other type of online activity for seniors related to online communities or social networks
  • web2.0 introductory courses
  • any type of service involving online communities or virtual teams which heavily rely on the participation of seniors

Sub-communities linked to concrete actions or projects (to be completed)

• Silberwissen: Exchange of know-how and experiences among representatives of host institutions in German speaking countries. (in German)
• Silberwissen: Exchange of know-how and experiences among Wikimedia chapters and host institutions at an international level. (in English)
• Silberwissen: Exchange of know-how and experiences among volunteer instructors in German speaking countries. (at present on internal forum / in German)
• Freie Fahrt ins Internet: Exchange of know-how and experiences among regional co-ordinators, volunteer instructors and volunteer helpers in Switzerland; co-ordination of activities in the areas of innovation, documentation, and quality management (in German)
• Freie Fahrt ins Internet: Working group for the maintenance and the development of e-learning offers (in German)
• Accessibility-Forum@Wikipedia: Exchange of know-how and experiences and co-ordination of activities to improve the accessibility of Wikipedia articles (instructions for contributors) (in English or German)
• Seniors in the Knowledge Society: Exchange of know-how and experiences among the partners of the Grundtvig Learning Partnership "Seniors in the Knowledge Society" in English

Step 1: Understand

Goal: The working group participants have clarified their “mission”; they have a rough idea of their resources; they have identified what it would need for them to consider their mission to be “successful”.

Step 2: Observe

Goal: The members of the working group understand the characteristics, motivations, needs and interests of the key stakeholders of the learning module.

Step 3: Point of View

Goal: Together with the key stakeholders and/or by consulting the key stakeholders, the members of the working group have reframed the problem and their mission. They understand what goals need to be reached for the learning module to be successful in their specific case.

Literature

Wenger, Étienne () Cultivating Communities of Practice. Kim, Amy Jo () Community Building. von Krogh, Georg / () Enabling Knowledge Creation.