Learning from notes: organizational issues in groupware implementation
Computerization and controversy (2nd ed.)
Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Journal of the American Society for Information Science - Special issue on current research in human-computer interaction
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Interaction and outeraction: instant messaging in action
CSCW '00 Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities
Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities
Leading with Knowledge: The Nature of Competition in the 21st Century
Leading with Knowledge: The Nature of Competition in the 21st Century
The Social Life of Information
The Social Life of Information
Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge
Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge
Knowledge Sharing in Practice
Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams
Organization Science
Knowledge Management ¾ When Will People Management Enter the Debate?
HICSS '00 Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences-Volume 3 - Volume 3
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Strategic contributions of game rooms to knowledge management: some prelimenary insights
Information and Management
Human-Computer Interaction
Learning tacit knowledge in life science graduate programs in Taiwan
Proceedings of the 73rd ASIS&T Annual Meeting on Navigating Streams in an Information Ecosystem - Volume 47
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The aim of this article is to examine the role of information technologies (IT) in supporting practice and professional identity formation, both major axes for communities of practice. The article uses an ethnographic case study to understand how public defenders learn to improve their court performance. The concept of “communities of practice” helps to illuminate how the attorneys in a public defender's office share knowledge in order to practice effectively in court. This article presents findings that a community of practice serves as effective scaffolding to support professional development; this is especially true for the practice component. Further, this case study indicates that information technologies, such as listservs, are not very effective social integrators for professionals who work at different sites. In particular, today's IT forums are most effective when used for sharing technical information about work, and least effective for sharing important cultural meanings about how professionals should approach their work and develop professional identities. This research advances our understanding of the complexity of organizing communities of practice to support professional groups of colleagues and of organizing IT-enabled support for various activities of the community. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.