Key insight for me:

the sharing of knowledge, and the cooperative application of new technologies are part of the responsibility of belonging to a community of practice.

First time I've seen the notion of knowledge sharing articulated as a responsibility of community membership.

[McGee's Musings] [Ron Lusk: Ron's K-Logs]

» Hmmm... I guess it's one of those point of view things.  It seems obvious when I think about it that if you are really a member of a community then sharing is an implicit responsibility.  Whilst the value of what you have to share will vary over time, you will want to share to enable the community to grow.  Otherwise you're not really a member.

For me it's the difference between carrying a Union card and going to meetings (I never did either but hopefully that doesn't hurt my point too much).  If you don't go to the meetings then you're not really part of the Union.

 

Damn.  If I'd had TrackBack I would have seen this:

http://www.emergic.org/archives/2002/05/30/index.html#blogging_communities

where Rajesh describes BlogStreet and how it relates to the Blog Connector (and later BlogPlex) ideas I have been musing about.  Pity it's taken me this long to pick it up.