CPsquare – The Community of Practice on Communities of Practice*

Practice Groups

• Active: PhD on Communities of Practice Student Group; Community Coordinator, Technology, Social Process, Health Care
• Under construction/ consideration: Education, Internal/external Support and Consulting, Customer Communities, Rural Innovations, Associations; Community Governance; Agriculture Research and Communities; CPtoolkit; Executive sponsors; Community-based approach to training; Global communities; School leadership; Community-based associations; City development (World design); Government inter-agency communities; Cross-government innovation; Baby boomers issues: dealing with retirement; R&D/Product-development/Innovation; Mergers & acquisitions; Sales force; The new university

Workshops

• Foundations of Communities of Practice (online workshop) ²⁾
  2010-2013
  Week 1 – Community launch: software, community and workshop familiarization
  Week 2 – Domain inquiry
  Week 3 – Domain inquiry and guest speaker
  Week 4 – Projects and practice
  Week 5 – Projects, practice, and guest speaker
  Week 6 – Community transition and reflection

  1998-2009
  Week 1 – Community launch: software, community and workshop familiarization
  Week 2 – Domain inquiry, household formation, and leadership tasks
  Week 3 – Projects, practice, and guest speaker
  Week 4 – Projects, practice, and guest speaker
  Week 5 – Projects, practice, and guest speaker
  Week 6 – Domain inquiry: what and how are we learning?
  Week 7 – Community transition and process reflection

• Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice (5 weeks online workshop)
  Communities of practice theory glimpse
  Community technology stewardship
  Tools and their Integration
  Scanning the Technology Landscape
  Orientations: community experience and configuration of tools
  A More Distributed Future
  A Learning Agenda
• Faciliteren van online communities of practice (online workshop; Dutch Language; facilitated by Netwerk Leerarchitectuur)
  Week 1 – Inleiding over de drie structurele dimensies van communities of practice: domein, praktijk en community
  Week 2 – Rustweek
  Week 3 – Faciliteren van online communities; benutten van de drie dimensies. Samenhang ontwikkelen, eigenaarschap versterken, creativiteit bevorderen, etc.
  Week 4 – Rustweek
  Week 5 – De blokkades en de succesfactoren in online communities. Opstarten mini-projecten.
  Week 6 – Rustweek
  Week 7 – De kunst van het op gang houden van communities of practice; doorgaande processen van kennisuitwisseling en het transformeren van een community. Afronden mini-projecten.

Conferences

• Ning Stackathon – Profiling Ning-based or Ning-supported Communities, March 2012 – April 2013
  “From good community stacks come great community hacks!” – What makes Ning communities tick? Or not? What’s your community’s story?
• Religious and spiritual communities conference, June 27 -August 11, 2011, Online
  Jun 27: Communities of Practice: Organizing for Renewal
  Jun 29: Prayer request circles vignette from American Grace
  Jul 05: Isomorphism between Judaism and Communities of Practice
  Jul 07: the Jewish indie minyan “phenomenon”
  Jul 12: HSChinuch – a community for Judaic high school educators
  Jul 14: North American Association of Community and Congregational Hebrew High Schools
  Jul 20: Supporting Baptist pastors in transition, in reaching out and in general
  Jul 22: Gathering a global Buddhist community on BuddyPress
  Jul 27: Communities in the Mormon Church
  Jul 28: Finding a new building for a Shambhala Community – The Boston experience
  Aug 03: anunslife.org an online Catholic community
  Aug 10: A Christian community ministering to disaster victims in Japan
  Aug 11: Final reflection & review
• Wikis all around the world and all the way (WAATWAAT), January 7-?, 2009, Online
  Wikis all around the world and all the way (WAATWAAT) conference is a case-based inquiry into how communities use wikis and how wikis fit into the larger context of community activities and other tools. The WAATWAAT conference is an outgrowth of last year’s Long Live the Platform (LLP) Conference. It incorporates and builds on our practice of going on “field trips” that has evolved in the Foundations Workshop. But it also reflects the conversations we’re having in this year’s “Shadow the Leader” series with wikipedia editor Davee Evans.

  Jan 07: Conference opening: wiki videos and resources, open wiki sandbox, basic wiki resources
  Jan 09: Wiki as basic community software or add-on? KM4Dev and Kehilliyot
  Jan 12: The of core of the wiki way and its evolution
  Jan 14: Wiki case study: non-profit and government examples
  Jan 16: Wiki as platform element: SCOPE’s Moodle wiki and Ecco’s SharePoint wiki
  Other sessions to be scheduled
  Ongoing a-synchronous discussions

• Community Seeding 2.0: Seeding communities with social media training, August 20-31, 2008, Online
  Community Seeding 2.0 is a short conference on community launch strategies and cases that are based on introducing Web 2.0 tools.

  8/20: The Community Seeding 2.0 Conference overview and framework
  8/20: A “traditional” case
  8/23: Social Media Bootcamp
  8/24: A Network Weaving Community
  8/25: Tech stewardship workshop
  8/26: Subtstance abuse prevention communities in Oklahoma and Kansas
  8/27: Experience and research with teachers communities
  8/31: Training trajectory for GUUS/LNV/vrouwen van n.

• Long Live the Platform Conference (LLP Conference), January 14 – February 4, 2008, Online
  Platforms for Communities of Practice
  The Long Live the Platform Conference (LLP Conference) is a three-week conference looking at many different platforms (new and old) through the eyes of their working online communities around the world. Rather than asking which platform is “the best” we are asking, “what kinds of communities thrives on each of these quite different platforms?” We’re inviting community leaders, technology stewards, and software vendors to all spend three weeks together thinking about issues of common concern.

  * xPERT eCommunity (Q2learning)
  * CompanyCommand – Eco (Tomoye)
  * TBA – Web Crossing
  * TBA – drupal
  * CIARIS – Custom-made using Ruby on Rails
  * Story-telling in Organizations – Ning
  * Best practices in e-learning community – Moodle and Facebook

• Collaborative Communities of Practice (CCOP), September 27-28, 2005, online
  Conference Theme: Collaborative Communities of Practice as Learning Networks
  (produced by iCohere in co-sponsorship with CPsquare)
  The Collaborative Communities of Practice (CCOP) conference is a virtual online conference focused on best practices for designing, leading, assessing and sustaining Communities of Practices.

  Prerecorded Presentations:
  Learning For A Small Planet
  Collaboration at CSC: From Virtual Teams to Communities
  Building Association Learning Networks Using Social Media
  The Apple Digital Campus Exchange Community
  Blending Communities of Practice and Training
  Online And Face-to-face Learning For Communities
  Empowering Transformational Collaborations: Learning Communities in Ohio
  Design for community – how intentional can it be?

  Live Panel:
  Technology, Communities, & Knowledge Sharing In Healthcare

• Web 2.0 and Communities of Practice mini-Conference, January 3-31, 2005, online
  An online mini-conference to focus on 5-6 major technologies (or tool groups) that reflect the qualities of what is being termed “Web 2.0.”. For each tool we’ll consider how it’s actually used in a community of practice (or speculate how it could be used).

  Sessions: Conference launch;Blogs and RSS; Wikis; Tagging; Social Network Analysis (SNA), Friend of a Friend (FOAF) & networking; Podcasting and audio applications;Mashups;Interoperability; Final reflection and summary

• CPWeek, May 19-22, 2003, Santa Cruz, California, USA
  CPweek is the annual worldwide summit of CPsquare, an emerging, international community of practice on communities of practice founded by Etienne Wenger. CPweek is discovering together, exploring the latest insights, engaging in projects, and building lasting relationships. CPweek is a unique experience – a rare opportunity to learn and work side-by-side with leading practitioners and top thought leaders in the field.
  The State of communities in the world today
  Module on the role of the coordinator

  Case clinics:
  Philips e-learning case; Novell case on launching a virtual community knowledge initiative; Saba customer community case

  Presentation Sessions:
  Technology usability study—the PMCoP case; Government knowledge initiative; Education—identifying potential issues to address; mini-case on professional development for school principals; Social process issues—what they are and how address; Connecting technologies and people; Reflections on themes

  Project work and presentations:
  Coordinators; Healthcare; Education; Customer; Technology and content (focus on CPsquare Workspace); Governance (about CPsquare community)

  Workshops:
  Community development; Differences and similarities across sectors; Social and group process issues in communities of practice; Strategy; Sponsorship; Support

  Household groups and reports:
  (Households aka “homerooms” or “buddy groups” – small groups whose members connect and reflect)

  Reflections on CPweek and next steps – conversation in small groups and whole group

Events

Research and Dissertation (R&D) Series (was: semi-annual Research and Dissertation Fest and Dissertation Fests)

• Sep 2012: Pepperdine Award session: Building an On-Line Community of Practice with Digital Storytelling (Leadercast)
• Mar 2011: Educational Research and (Virtual) Identity in Postmodernity
• Jul 2010: Learning Architecture: an exploratory study of space and learning in work settings and close-to-practice learning
• Fall 2009 Research and Dissertation Fest, October 12 – November 23, 2009
  Research and leadership around emergency health care in Australia
  Qualities of Personal Interaction: the Promotion of Research Utilisation for Quality Improvement in the US Health Care Sector
  The Role of Communities in the Sustainability of open educational resources in South Africa
  Online Tables & Table Cloths: Facilitating Space for Online Learning & Collaboration
  Implementing and Sustaining Faculty Learning Communities/Communities of Practice at Australian Universities
  Trace analysis in the evaluation of a system of social service communities of practice
  The experience of being evaluated from a community leader’s perspective
  Monitoring and Evaluation of Knowledge Management Strategies in the Development Context
  Communities of practice and social learning systems: the career of a concept
• Spring 2009 Research and Dissertation Fest, May 26- June 9, 2009
  Justifying the use of communities of practice and network analysis as approaches to study volunteer organizations
  Listening habits assessment instrument
  The Nonprofit Board as Community of Practice: An Exploratory Case Study
  Lurking: a Challenge or Another Way of Learning? A focus on Corporate CoPs
  Knowledge management within Communities of Practice
  Use of the C4P Model in a Communities of Practice study: Good practice building better theory
• Fall 2008 Research and Dissertation Fest, November 4 – December 2, 2008
  (CANCELLED) Learning Architecture and design: an exploratory study of space and learning in work settings and close-to-practice learning
  Perceptions and Uses of Boundaries by Respected Leaders — a Trans-disciplinary Inquiry
  Serious games for first responders — improving design and usage with social learning theory
  Knowledge sharing in Standard AERO’s redesign group
  A system that Works for Me — an anthropological analysis of computer hackers’ shared use and development of the Ubuntu Linux system
  Between passion and work– blogging practices of knowledge workers
• Dissertation Fest – January 2007
  The connection between socially relevant representations (SRRs) and willingness to contribute to a community
• Fall 2006 Dissertation Fest – September 2006
  Taxonomy of Collaborative E-Learning
  Establishing an Online Community of Practice for Instructors of English as a Foreign Language

Conversations within CPsquare…

• Aug 2008: Conversation with Davee Evans about intersecting Communities of Practices: Wiki editors and Shambhala
• Jul 2006: Conversations with CPsquare and Steven Denning about “The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling.”
  Opening questions and scope: Narrative and Leadership – Jul 17
  Values and intentions – Jul 20
  Communities and collaboration – Jul 28
  Knowledge: stories that are characteristic of Communities of Practice – Aug 03
• May 2004: Conversations with Etienne Wenger about his 10-year research plan “Learning for a small planet – a research agenda”
  Theory – 17–23 May
  Trends – 24–30 May
  Implications – 31 May – 6 Jun
  Cases – 7–13 Jun
  Methodology – 14–20 Jun
• Jul 2003: CPsquare as a learning space for cultivating global literacies

Shadow the Leader series (2006-2011)

Monthly “Shadow the Leader” sessions where we follow the activities of one community leader for an entire year

2011-2012: Marc Coenders – Topic: Social learning strategies
2010-2011: Franklin Cook – Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE): A community of practice on suicide bereavement in the United States
2009-2010: Josien Kapma – Melken Over De Grens (Milking on the border): A global community for expatriate Dutch dairy farmers
2008-2009: Davee Evans – The Wikipedia editors community and the Shambhala meditation community
2007-2008: Beth Kanter – #NPtech community: a group of nonprofit technologists formed around a tag
2006-2007: Robert Tollen – Myeloproliferative Disease Support and Daily Email Digest (MPD-Support-L): A distributed health support community

CPsquare / SCOPE field trips

Quarterly visits to living communities; “Field Trips” are an important element of the Foundations Workshop.

Nov 2012: SCoPE – an online community for individuals interested in educational research and practice
Jan 2012, Watching videos together on Google-plus

Apr 2011: KM4Dev

Aug 2010: Healthy Minds – Healthy Campuses community
Jun 2010: Executive Network’s Global Talent Network
Feb 2010 (#3): Wikisourcing Sustainable Enterprises community

Nov 2009: Cloudworks – a community for learning design developed and hosted by the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University
Aug 2009: WikiEducator

The Practice Field / My Practice series’ (monthly)

Start in Dec 2004: “The Practice Field” series will focus on the various practices that thrive around CPsquare (or in the field generally) but which are not the subject of the kind of research presentations we have in the highly successful Research Forum that Etienne leads.

Start in Jan 2010: For the “My Practice” series we invite member of CPsquare during the first 10 days of each month to talk about their work: their job or current projects and the communities of practice or social learning issues that are currently coming up for them.

Informal Gatherings

May 2010: Aalborg, Denmark @ International Conference on Networked Learning
Oct 2008: Copenhagen, Denmark @ Association of Internet Researchers Conference
Oct 2005: Vaouncver, Canada @ AACE E-Learn Conference
Jun 2004: CPSquare open house, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Dialogues

Oct 2008: Prato Dialogue – Keeping track of memory, forgetting and learning in communities of practice
Sep 2003: Amsterdam Dialogue – ‘Phase change’ in a community of practice
Jun 2002: Setúbal Dialogue – A loose agenda to share work, ideas and practices about communities of practice

Book Club events (one month-long discussion)

Jul-Sep 2008: Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators
Jul 2004: Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning

Community Inquiries

Oct 2013: Supporting the Independent Online Learner while Supporting Ourselves (4 days)
Nov 2012: The Learning Facilitator’s Role: How Is It Changing? (2 days)