ICF Community of Practice

What is a Community of Practice?

"A community of practice is a group of people who share a common concern or a passion for an activity and attempt to do it better through interacting regularly." Three necessary characteristics are:

1. Domain—an identity defined by a shared common area of interest. Membership "implies a commitment to the domain."
2. Community—"In pursuing interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions... and share information."
3. Practice—It is "not merely a community of interest." Members are practitioners and "develop a shared repertoire of resources, experiences, stories and ways of addressing recurring problems... This takes time and sustained interaction."

From Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice

Communities of practice vary in size, and contain a core group of peripheral members. Some communities are local and others cover the globe; some meet in–person and others on–line. Some are within an organization, and others have members from numerous organizations. Many of the elements of a community of practice are already in place with the ICF. The World Health Organization holds a meeting of experts, creating global coordination. The World Health Organization Family of International Classifications for North America (NACC) holds annual ICF meetings. The NACC also sponsors a monthly electronic newsletter with 900 subscribers, and you can review messages of the ICF Clearinghouse. There is, however, a need for sustained interaction, which will be accomplished with three new interactive activities.

ICF Community of Practice—Three Interactive Components

1. ICF Forum—an interactive venue dedicated to fostering online "threaded discussions" of various ICF topics suggested by our moderator, expert of the month, or our users.
2. ICF Bulletin Board—posting messages and interactive queries needing short answers.
3. ICF Presence at the Interagency Subcommittee on Disability Statistics (ISDS) teleconferences—a bi–monthly interactive presentation of an ICF topic at the teleconference, with abbreviated minutes of the ICF discussions housed on the CIRRIE website