CASOS Working PAPER

"Spatial Models of Large-Scale Interpersonal Networks"(PDF file)
Authors: Brian S. Bulter

Abstract
Communities of practice (COPs) play an important role in the use and transfer of knowledge within and between organizations.  Increasingly, new technologies, such as electronic mail and the Web, are being applied to create alternative infrastructures for these communities.  This paper presents a model of dynamic communities of practice (DYNACOP) that integrates the processes of member development, structural change, and communications costs.  The DYNACOP model was calibrated and validated with empirical data from a sample of Internet listservs.  The model predicts that infrastructures that reduce communication costs will ultimately result in slower development of focused, stable communities of practice.  While reduced communication costs increases the efficiency of communication, it also alters the processes by which members form beliefs about the community, which in turn affects the structural development of a community’s membership. Hence networked communities of practice are expected to have larger and more diverse, but also less stable and focused, memberships than traditional face-to-face associations.