A group of individuals who share common interests related to a specific domain and are committed to learning from one another to deepen their knowledge and expertise through collaboration information-sharing.  Often established in education healthcare, and other broad fields, three elements of a COP include: 1) common area of interest – the domain; 2) personal and professional interactions – the way in which individuals pursue their interests within the domain; 3) practice of learning from one another – members via ideas, tools, documents, case studies, frameworks, etc.

In large COPs, various sub-communities are often created to enable members to become more deeply engaged in a particular area of interest,

A COP usually differs from a Work Group. The latter focuses on new products or development of services, whereas the former focuses on furthering groups knowledge in a specific area.

Alternate terms: Learning Networks, Thematic Groups