Although the term has been coined in recent years, the phenomenon is not new but refers to an age-old idea.
According to Jean Lave, a
cognitive anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, an educational theorist and computer
scientist, CoPs have existed for as long as people have been learning and
sharing their experiences through storytelling. Some examples are the first
knowledge-based social structures, back when humans lived in caves; the corporations
in ancient Rome; artisans in the Middle Ages; physicians and nurses, or
priests and nuns, in the late Middle Ages and afterwards; communities related to
organizations and industries, whether formally recognized or not, in more recent
times; etc. More generally, as Lave and Wenger (1991) assumed, communities of