In reply to Nancy White.

When I saw your name, I knew you would ask an interesting question, Nancy ;-)

I wouldn't say that co-operation is a soft skill, but HR hacks have been saying that for a long time. Even Wikipedia says so - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills
Therefore, co-operation is a soft skill from the perspective of The Corporation.

I agree on the fuzziness between co-operation & collaboration. I guess it crosses the line when you have to get something done at a certain time (e.g. deliverables).

Of course, what people do is what matters. My point here is that a spirit of co-operation, without any interest in achieving a specific goal, is not the same as collaborating on a task. That spirit of giving freely, without any objective of recompense, enables networks and differentiates them from teams.

What is a community? I'm not sure. A mix of collaborative and co-operative behaviours exhibited by some combination of networks and groups (?).