A Case Study

A fascinating article about two different CoP's opperating in a rural setting using Web 2.0 technology as a means of supporting their communities. Josien Kapma traces and reflects upon the experience of farmers in Portugal and the pros and cons of Web 2.0 technology for use in CoP's.

What I found interesting about this article is the two CoP's seem so different despite the fact they are drawing from the same population. Every group really is unique!

Comparing the two communities side by side highlights some interesting points which seem to support most of the common theory of CoP. Being clear about "Domain" definitions and working hard at establishing the "Commmunity" aspect seem to significantly affect the success of the community.


Kapma also helpfully highlights some of the potential issues that can exist within web based communities such as no-one from within the community taking a leadership role, lack of visibility and thus lack of identity, public -private boundaries of the community and interestingly the rise of cliques and a seperateness created by an overly inward looking community. Gender likewise seems to play a role in the nature and quantity of particpation.

It is worth considering how many of these problems were specific to the cultural and communal particularities of the rural Portugal and Dutch culture, and how many of them might be relevant in urban professional environments elsewhere.


Reference
Kapma, Josein (2007). Web 2.0 supported rural communities: a case study from Portugal. Knowledge Management for Development Journal 3(1): 79-92. Retreived 7/12/2007 from http://www.km4dev.org/journal/index.php/km4dj/article/viewFile/95/162