The IBIS Community of Practice

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The IBIS Community of Practice

• Lois M. Haggard, PhD
• Office of Public Health Assessment
• Utah Department of Health
• Phone [phone]
• Email loishaggard_at_utah.gov
• http//ibis.health.utah.gov/home
• October 18, 2007
• O

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Problem

• Software is expensive to develop. The industry
  changes so quickly. Utah cannot maintain IBIS
  into the future without the generous federal
  funding we have been so fortunate to have
  received.

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Proposed Solution

• Systems that were supported by federal are
  essentially open source, although not
  technically part of the Open Source Initiative.

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Partial Definition of Open Source

• Free Redistribution
• No royalties or fees
• Source Code
• Must include source code
• Derived Works
• Allow modifications, derived works, and
  distribution of such
• . . .

From Open Source Initiative website
http//www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php
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Community of Practice

• The current environment for organizations is one
  that is characterized by uncertainty and
  continuous change. This rapid and dynamic pace of
  change is forcing organizations that were
  accustomed to structure and routine to become
  ones that must improvise solutions quickly and
  correctly

Knowledge Networks Innovation through
Communities of Practice. Paul Hildreth and Chris
Kimble (Eds.) (2004) lthttp//www.cs.york.ac.uk/m
is/knicop.htmlgt
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Community of Practice

• To respond to this changed environment
  organizations are moving away from the structures
  of the past that are based on hierarchies,
  discrete groups and teams and moving towards
  those based on more fluid and emergent
  organizational forms such as networks and
  communities.

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Community of Practice

• How does it function?
• People become members of a CoP through shared
  practices they are linked to each other through
  their involvement in certain common activities.
  It is mutual engagement that binds members of a
  CoP together as a social entity (Wenger, 1998).

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Community of Practice

• Common Purpose / Motivation
• The CoP members will have some sort of common
  goal or common purpose and it is often the case
  that the CoP is internally motivated i.e. driven
  by the members themselves as opposed to some
  external driver.

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Community of Practice

• Relationships
• Relationships are a key part of a CoP and is what
  makes it possible for a team to become a CoP - as
  the informal relationships develop the source of
  legitimation in the group shifts in emphasis.
  These relationships are key to the issues of
  trust and identity in a CoP.

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Community of Practice

• Formal or Informal?
• In many cases, a CoP is not a formally
  constituted group and membership is entirely
  voluntary. In some cases, the organization might
  not even be aware of its existence.

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Community of Practice

• What is produced?
• The members of a CoP build up an agreed set of
  communal resources over time. This "shared
  repertoire" of resources represents the material
  traces of the community. Written files can
  constitute a more explicit aspect of this common
  repository although more intangible aspects such
  as procedures, policies, and specific idioms may
  also be included (Wenger, 1998).

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IBIS Community of Practice

• Share ideas, developments
• Share contractual talent
• Provide mutual technical assistance