The contributions related to the use of conventions/forums in the constitution communities of practice and expression of the collective intelligence: the case of Bibliocontas

摘要

This paper reflects on the Communities of Practice (CoPs) under the perspective provided by Pierre L?¨vy?’s concept of Collective Intelligence. It describes L?¨vy?’s viewpoint, with the intention to establish a dialogue with the concept of the CoPs created by Etienne Wenger. It points out some elements found in conventions/forums, of the Bibliocontas Group (a group formed by information professionals who function in the Brazilian Court of Auditors), that could contribute for the creation of communities of practice. It notes that the conventions/forums are channels of integration for the effectivity of a community of practice whose result promotes the transformation of people, the formation of identities, and the negotiation of meanings for the professional activity. It observes that the collective construction of knowledge has been materialized in the form of directives and actions that have been or are to be implemented by the institutions to which the participants of the group in question, and the result of analysis of quantitave data that indicates a steady growth of messaging in the virtual environment and increase the number of participants in the group.