ABSTRACT
Communities of practice are emerging as important bases for creating, sharing and applying knowledge. These communities share ideas and innovations, collaborating across traditional hierarchical structures and geophysical boundaries. What brings members of a community of practice together is a shared vision and goals, and a passion for mutual dialogue (Wenger, 1998). Communities of practice are often focused around critical issues or professional functions and frequently linked through virtual learning environments, using information and communication technology (ICT) to stay in constant contact despite geophysical or temporal differences. Current research, such as that presented in this volume, attests to the importance of community building for best practices. Most of this research and most talk of communities in practice generally occurs in the US and Western Europe (see for example, Hildreth and Kimble, 2002; Johnson, 2001). This is the same for communities of practice in education and in online and distance learning (Fraser, 2002; Grisham et al., 1999; Haythornthwaite et al., 2000; LeBaron et al., 2000; Lengel and Murphy, 2000; Nachmias et al., 2000; Rogers, 2000; Squire and Johnson, 2000). However, very little research is emerging from the New Europe (Lengel, 2000), which is defined for purposes of this chapter as Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), South-eastern Europe, the Newly Independent States and the Russian Federation.
