Supporting Communities of Practitioners: New Ways to Leverage the Experience of Safeguards Professionals

Communities of practitioners (CoPs) form spontaneously and informally out of the need for interaction among professional peers. Communities of this sort have been around for a very long time because they have proven to be very good at bringing together the knowledge and experience of their participants, creating new knowledge by encouraging the exploration of ideas, and transferring corporate memory from one generation of workers to another. In the past, CoPs relied on face-to-face encounters as their principal medium of exchange. Today, people who share a focused professional interest are likely to be widely dispersed. Consequently, such groups are looking increasingly to technology to help connect members during the long intervals between still-cherished get-togethers. This paper explores some of the many Internet-based solutions that have emerged to support such communities, such as custom-designed CoP platforms, Web portals, and multi-functional Web conferencing. The paper makes the case for encouraging and supporting online communities of practitioners within the IAEA Department of Safeguards, as well as within the INMM and ESARDA communities, as a powerful means of solving problems, creating new knowledge, and preserving corporate memory.