A patent for communities of practice (CoP)

Patent Abstract

A method is provided for establishing a community of practice including a plurality of users, one or more experts, and one or more community of practice managers. A need for a community of practice is identified. The roles and responsibilities of participants in the community of practice are identified. One or more goals are identified for the community of practice based on the identified need. A plurality of the participants in the community of practice collaborate to achieve the identified goals.

Knowledge management system and method
United States Patent Number: US 7,127,440
Date of Patent: Oct. 24,2006Inventors: Jeanblanc; Anne H. (Galva, IL), Coffey; James M. (Peoria, IL)
Assignee: Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, IL)
Appl. No.: 09/995,822
Filed: November 29, 2001
Date of Patent: Oct. 24,2006
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7127440.html

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This is the height of abuse and arrogance. Doug Engelbart invented these subsystems 40 years ago. Shame on the US Patent Office.

This CAT subsystem is a discussion group and bulletin board that has attachments and user profiles. It is just about like any other ordinary subsystem for unstructured information. The current count is about 4300 so-called communities. For example, the discussion of a particular bolt issue on a front loader is called a community. About 1000 communities are 'dormant' (?) and need to be removed. CAT has done an excellent job of marketing this hubris, both internally, and, as we have now seen, externally. BTW, this frivolous KM patent was awarded 24 Oct 2006.

After seeing the recent CoP patent, it was easy to find another important United States Patent that may even be more useful and important for KM. It is also user-operated, offers plurality and portability.

It is a definitely among the Best Practices in KM for motivating workers to share, the process of innovation, self-management, autonomous leadership, etc.

United States Patent Number: US 6,293,874
Date of Patent :January 29, 2002
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6293874.html

Certifications and conferences will certainly be coming soon from the Institutes, the 'Pro' groups, the KM tabloids and consultants.