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Shouldn't this article be merged into the more widely used term, "Community of practice"? Bellagio99 22:53, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
"What distinguishes a network of practice from other networks is that the primary reason for the emergence of relationships within a network of practice is that individuals interact through social discourse in order to perform their work, asking for and sharing knowledge with each other." I believe this is actually inconsistent with Brown and Duguid's (2001) definition of NoP. They do not make actual interaction the defining principle of a NoP, but only the existence of a shared practice and the corresponding potential for knowledge-sharing. This is why NoPs are so extensive, unlike CoPs which do require direct interaction. Indeed, Duguid (2005: 113) more recently characterised a NoP as "the collective of all practitioners of a particular practice".
Duguid, P. (2005) “The Art of Knowing”: Social and Tacit Dimensions of Knowledge and the Limits of the Community of Practice. The Information Society, 21: 109–118.