Identity in Virtual Communities of Practice

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Information Management, grade: A, London School of Economics, language: English, abstract: The "e;knowledge society"e; has become a predominant metaphor in the current day and age. Recent development of contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT) has enabled the emergence of new sorts of communities and communicative practices such as Virtual Communities of Practice (CoP). The digitization of identity may be viewed as a bottleneck in the civic engagement with Virtual CoPs, because identity is a critical cornerstone in such environment. This literature review explores a multi-dimensional view of Virtual CoP, acknowledging cumulative traditions in this research area. The review investigates researchers questions, approaches, and insights within information systems and other related fields, in order to identify promising new directions for study focusing on the role of identity within VCoP. In other words, this paper explores the importance and role of identity within communities of practice theory, which can be applied in the context of the networked organization. Reviewing how new forms of Virtual CoP enable a new paradigm of collaboration.