Many young social and tech innovators believe that if people want to be innovative they have to get out of the organizations. Too much control and permission asking kill the spirit of innovation, as they say. Yet, organizations don’t stay immune to the impact of such tech-enabled, social life forms as communities of practice, knowledge networks, professional learning communities, open source innovation, innovation communities, etc…  In fact, visionary leaders sponsor them.

We have been advising leaders in the European Commission about the developing their strategy for working with CoP, as well as facilitating the learning community coordinators  since the Summer of 2006. CoPs in the Commission come in different forms, sometimes called "knowledge networks," or just simply "networks." No matter what their name is, their common denominator is: they exist because their members derive some value from participating in them.