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Virtual Worlds as Platforms for Communities of Practice

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Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning

Part of the book series: Annals of Information Systems ((AOIS,volume 4))

Abstract

The problem of effective tacit knowledge transfer has long been identified and studied in the field of knowledge management. Communities of practice have been proposed as one way to facilitate tacit knowledge exchange. In this chapter, we propose virtual worlds, or computer simulated 3D environments, as potential platforms that can be used to facilitate communities of practice. We differentiate virtual worlds from other Web based communication technologies, and discuss four unique affordances, namely self-expression, co-creation, co-experience and crowd sourcing, as enablers of attributes of communities of practice.

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  1. Department of Management, Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Lakshmi Goel, Iris Junglas & Blake Ives

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  1. Lakshmi Goel
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  2. Iris Junglas
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  3. Blake Ives
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Correspondence to Lakshmi Goel .

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    Goel, L., Junglas, I., Ives, B. (2009). Virtual Worlds as Platforms for Communities of Practice. In: King, W. (eds) Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. Annals of Information Systems, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0011-1_12

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