Other aspects are communication, learning, training, interaction, identifying, sharing, creating knowledge. This is a weakness of current Knowledge Management approaches i.e. that knowledge is still seen as structured and explicit, and not enough attention is given to the sharing of more subtle kinds of knowledge. Even when the issue is raised, it is not addressed in a distributed environment. As business becomes more international this aspect will become more important - here is a gap which needs filling. There is no formal training as such.
Newcomers have access to an old timer and undertake certain tasks on the periphery of the community.
They learn the language of the community and how to undertake the work of the community and gradually move to full participation. From the range of literature I extracted some key points which I felt would be in any Community of Practice and some other characteristics which would be present to a greater or lesser degree. A key point is that you cannot set up a Community of Practice. Some groups will function as one and others won't - it depends on the members. Most of the literature encountered, only dealt with co-located communities.