Rob Paterson offers the example of the New Bedford whaling community as a successful community of practice.
The entire community was financially behind the trip. All contributed to ensuring that the investment was safe by offering the very best equipment from the boat to the rigging. All crew members were paid on a share basis – all had a vested interest in supporting all the others on the ship. It was considered bad form to sail with the same crew so experience was continually spread around the fleet. Every position was apprenticed so their was a hierarchy of experience behind every trade and position. All captains shared their logs at the end of every trip so the NB fleet collected the collective wisdom and experience of every trip.
New Bedford = New Brunswick? Couldn’t we use a similar model for LearnNB? I think that some of the keys to this community are shared risk, no return on investment until the voyage is over, and the sharing of ships’ logs. Sounds almost like the open source community.
