Forming a community of practice to strengthen the capacities of learning and knowledge sharing centres in Latin America and the Caribbean: a Dgroup case study

This paper presents a case study of the work carried out by CIAT to facilitate the creation of a community of practice, using Dgroups and taking advantage of this virtual space to apply a qualitative monitoring technique called Most Significant Change. The experience reported here mixed key ingredients to create and facilitate a community of practice to facilitate knowledge sharing and communication flow among 14 learning and knowledge sharing centres in Latin America and the Caribbean. To create a community of practice, it is not enough to have a common and free virtual space, technical support, and on-line facilitation. Factors such as connectivity, experience in using virtual tools, personal interests, influence of gender on participation, and decision making play key roles in determining the success of a community of practice. A major lesson learned was that a community of practice is an initiative that must build on its membership and not outsiders who only are taking into account some issues, one side of the situation and not the whole context.