Online Knowledge Communities

This paper describes the concept of online knowledge communities. The concept is defined, and six qualities of online communities are identified: members (user roles are clearly defined); mission (generally accepted goal-statement, ideas, beliefs, etc.); commitment (members give their loyalty to the mission); social interaction (frequent interaction between the members); mutually beneficial (participation is useful for individuals and other members); and location (an online meeting place). A table provides an overview of these qualities as they apply to study, social, knowledge, and e-commerce communities. Online knowledge communities are divided into corporate communities, communities of practice (i.e., work or profession-related communities), and social knowledge communities. In addition, four guidelines for the design of line knowledge communities are presented (i.e., the online knowledge community has to be functional, usable, sociable, and valuable). Two projects are described in which online knowledge communities are designed and implemented based on these guidelines: E-study Europe, a project focusing on an online knowledge community called E-study in an international university context; and StudyCom, an online knowledge community for secondary education in the Netherlands. (Contains 21 references.) (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY