Classifying communities for design: A review of the continuum from CoIs to CoPs

Abstract

Cooperative design is a complex process that usually involves participants from different cultural and social domains, with different backgrounds and experiences. In this context, the need for social structures that support sharing and common understanding is an essential requirement. The response to such a need can be found in the creation of 'Communities of Practices' and 'Communities of Interest'. Both types of structures have successfully and extensively been applied in different domains; however, a detailed analysis of these concepts points up the need for additional research that leads to their application to cooperative design. This chapter presents a review of the 'Communities of Practices' and 'Communities of Interest' concepts in order to propose a systematic process for classifying communities. This process might allow practitioners to identify which kind of structure is more suitable to support specific cooperative design processes. © Springer-Verlag London 2012.