A compendium of articles that focus on how communities can be viewed from an organizational context, and how organizations are using communities to leverage external stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers. "Communities" are any cross-organizational subset of people that share a common knowledge, and these communities are the vehicle for social capital Within all communities are informal clusters of individuals who work together - sharing knowledge, solving common problems and exchanging insights and frustrations. When appropriately supported by the formal organization, these "communities" play a critical role: they are the major building blocks in creating, sharing and applying organizational knowledge Organizations ranging from British Petroleum to the World Bank have begun to invest time, energy and money in supporting their own communities, viewing these groups as essential vehicles for managing their organizational knowledge as a necessity to maintain competitive advantage. This book looks at how they achieve success using this approach.

Knowledge and Communities is the first book dedicated to a major new knowledge management topic. "Communities of Practice" are cross-organizational groups of people sharing knowledge, solving common problems, and exchanging insights and frustrations. Knowledge and Communities, a collection of authoritative articles, describes the dynamics of these groups and explains how they enable organizational knowledge to be creating, shared, and applied. The book teaches how organizations can empower both traditional and on-line communities and make them a cornerstone of a general knowledge management strategy. Readers will learn how communities can help unify an organization and its external stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers, and how they can critically support an e-commerce strategy. Knowledge and Communities will help readers understand a primary vehicle for building an organization's social capital and competitive advantage.