Searching Usenet for Virtual Communities of Practice: Using Mixed Methods to Identify the Constructs of Wenger's Theory
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: espanolIntroduccion. Esta investigacion se inicio para determinar si las comunidades de practica pueden estar basadas completamente en Internet aplicando formalmente el marco teorico de Wenger a los colectivos de Internet. Metodo. Se desarrollo un modelo de una comunidad virtual de practica incluyendo constructos identificados por Wenger en las comunidades co-localizadas de practica: compromiso mutuo, repertorio compartido, empresa conjunta, comunidad y aprendizaje o adquisicion de identidad. El modelo incluyo atributos empiricos adicionales asociados con el potencial superior de la comunidad de practica: tema profesional, interaccion-volumen alto, discusiones focalizadas no-conflictivas y estructura nucleo-periferia. Una busqueda sistematica de la red de discusion Usenet descubrio once grupos de noticias que despliegan estos atributos y se comprobo formalmente la presencia de los constructos de Wenger. Analisis. Se aplico a grupos de noticias seleccionados, una encuesta cuantitativa de participantes de grupos de noticias y un analisis cualitativo de contenido a discusiones de miembros centrales para detectar los constructos de Wenger, conservadoramente evaluadas como presentes solo cuando concurrieron ambos metodos. Resultados. Cuatro colectivos en linea, uniformemente divididos entre temas de ordenadores y de no-ordenadores, fueron valorados como comunidades de practica basadas en Usenet porque mostraron el conjunto completo de constructos de Wenger. Conclusiones. Estos resultados hacen evidente que las comunidades extra-organizacionales de practica pueden surgir espontaneamente en las areas sociales de Internet, igual que surgen en escenarios organizacionales y que las verdaderas comunidades de practica no estan limitadas inherentemente a la interaccion cara a cara. EnglishIntroduction. This research set out to determine whether communities of practice can be entirely Internet-based by formally applying Wenger's theoretical framework to Internet collectives. Method. A model of a virtual community of practice was developed which included the constructs Wenger identified in co-located communities of practice: mutual engagement, shared repertoire, joint enterprise, community and learning or identity-acquisition. The model included additional empirical attributes associated with higher community-of-practice potential: professional topic, high interaction-volume, non-conflictual focused discussions and core-periphery structure. A systematic search of the Usenet discussion network detected eleven news groups displaying these attributes and they were formally tested for the presence of the Wenger constructs. Analysis. A quantitative survey of news group participants and a qualitative content analysis of core-member discussions were applied to select news groups to detect the Wenger constructs, conservatively assessed as present only when both methods concurred. Results. Four online collectives, evenly divided between computer and non-computer topics, were assessed as Usenet-based communities of practice because they exhibited the complete set of Wenger constructs. Conclusions. This provides evidence that extra-organizational communities of practice can emerge spontaneously in the social areas of the Internet, just as they emerge in organizational settings and that true communities of practice are not inherently limited to face-to-face interaction.
Source: Information Research
Author: Enrique Murillo
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2993478916