Richard Ribeiro

Research

Identifying "Hidden" Communities of Practice Within Electronic Networks

This work aims to investigate the possibility of creation of a process that allows one to discover the existence of "hidden" (and potential) Communities of Practice (CoP) inside virtual communities, and to use this knowledge to nurture them to achieve ultimately a developed Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP).

It will be analysed relevant questions related to that:

• the relation between CoP, virtual communities and VCoP;
• the possibility of changing a virtual community into a VCoP;
• the implications of to be a hidden community;
• the possibility/implications/wish of a hidden community to be "revealed";
• and finally, how to clearly define a real VCoP.

 

Supervisor: Paul Cairns