You Are Here: The New York State Forum, Inc, Releases Starter Kit for setting up Communities of Practice
The New York State Forum, Inc. has released a new resource for government leaders, the Community Of Practice (CoP) Starter Kit. Communities of Practice are increasingly a means for members of a defined community to collectively address issues and draw upon the knowledge and energies of their members regardless of whether they work on the national, state or local level. The CoP Starter Kit is being made available for use by any group interested in establishing collaborative communities to examine common issues and to learn from and with one another.
Collaboration and knowledge transfer are practices that make up the foundation and operation of The NYS Forum, Inc. The CoP Starter Kit is a product of the leadership and collaborative efforts of The Forum''s Information Technology Skills Development (ITSD) Work Group. "I''m pleased that we are able to make this Community of Practice (CoP) Starter Kit available. In addition to being illustrative of The Forum''s core services at work, the CoP Starter Kit is a tool that can have impact beyond The Forum''s stakeholders" states Deborah V. Buck, Executive Director of The Forum.
James Nicol, Computer Aid, Inc. and co-chair of the 2009-2010 ITSD work group says "The CoP Starter Kit was developed to address the need to fill the gap between formal and informal learning. Over the years, The Forum has successfully fostered several CoPs meeting a need for those who share a domain interest to engage in dialogue and collaboration. The shared learning opportunities supported by the CoP''s have resulted in tangible and positive outcomes at the organizational and individual level."
The Community of Practice Starter Kit is a tool intended to help guide the development of community collaboratives that can be recognized as a legitimate means to achieve a group''s established purposes. Donna Canestraro, Center for Technology in Government and co-chair of the 2009 -2010 ITSD Work Group states "Communities of Practices are evolving structures and as such the Starter Kit should be viewed as a guide and catalyst rather than a hard and fast approach. We hope that this Starter Kit will be a means to launch many new collaboratives."