Knowledge management issues for online organisations: 'Communities of practice' as an exploratory framework

Communities of practice have been identified as sites where knowledge is cr eated in organisations. The author reviews studies of situated learning and situated action and suggests that these two activities may characterise th e learning process in communities of practice where they are supported by a distinctive 'social' infrastructure. She analyses recent fieldwork in thre e online communities (a digital library reference service, a virtual enterp rise and an online shopping group) to discover to what extent they may be d escribed as communities of practice, and to establish how they support part icipants' learning.