Virtual Communities - Characteristics, Design Principles And Knowledge Management Processes

Abstract

The topic of virtual communities is being intensively discussed in the field of education and training in science and practice. In particular, the question of the possibilities of embedding this new type of knowledge exchange and knowledge acquisition in the existing education and training landscape is in the foreground here. However, the description of the phenomenon of virtual communities is still relatively fuzzy. In this paper, the focus is on the description of characteristics and design principles of virtual communities to enable the successful realisation of knowledge processes. Against the background of knowledge management processes in virtual communities, three application contexts are also examined in more detail using examples.