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• A recurring, nagging problem situated in a process or function
• A topic such as technology, knowledge retention, or innovation
• An industry such as automotive, banking, healthcare, and so on
A CoP may also be described in terms of its goals such as the development of best
practices or benchmarking. A CoP may be self-organizing or sponsored by the
organization. A CoP may also be distinguished on the basis of the type of recognition
(or lack thereof) it has from the host organization ( Wenger 1998 ): unrecognized,
bootlegged, legitimized, supported, and institutionalized. These categories often refl ect
the maturity level of a community, but not all communities will necessarily aspire to
become institutionalized ( Iverson and McPhee 2002 ).
There are many forms that an online community can take, but most will contain:
• Member-generated content (e.g., profi les, home pages, ratings, reviews)
• Member-to-member interaction (e.g., discussion forums, member yellow pages)
• Events (e.g., guest events, expert seminars, virtual meetings, or demos)
• Outreach (e.g., newsletters, volunteer/leader/mentoring programs, or polls/surveys)
It is important to distinguish a community of practice from other groups such as
work teams or project groups. Many online communities may be termed communities
of interest as they have an open membership that is catalyzed by interest in a common
theme such as a hobby. A community of practice is more like a professional organiza-
tion. CoPs have a business case, a code of ethics, a mission statement, and so forth.
They are there for a reason, and they produce results that are of value to the profes-
sion. Typically, a CoP goal would have something to do with the improvement of the
common profession or professional theme that members are interested in. However,
the ways in which they are formed are quite unlike a professional organization as
communities self-organize and emerge in a bottom-up manner.

Roles and Responsibilities in CoPs
Communities consist of people, not technology ( Cook 1999 ). Community members
may take an active role by contributing to discussions or providing assistance to other
members — this is referred to as “ participation. ” Other members may simply read what
others have posted without taking an active role themselves. These types of members
used to be referred to as “ lurkers, ” but given the somewhat derogatory connotation
of the term, this has been replaced by “ legitimate peripheral participants ”
In almost every case, the more participation that occurs in the community, the
greater the value created for both community members and community creators.