Communities of Practice for Regional Knowledge Brokers <p>The Knowledge for Regional NRM Team, with&nbsp;input from regional bodies, identified the need to establish a community of practice to support regional NRM practitioners and knowledge brokers. A community of practice is a network of people that share a common interest in a specific area of knowledge or competence and are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to develop and share that knowledge.</p> <p>A community of practice of NRM knowledge brokers links knowledge brokers across Australia in sharing learning and personal experiences to adapt and effectively respond to changing circumstances. It will provides a wide pool of expertise to draw on. Much of this 'know-how' has not been captured, written down or stored in databases. Other benefits are described below.</p> <p>The NRM Navigator (<a href="http://www.nrmnavigator.net.au/">www.nrmnavigator.net.au</a>) is a great place to find NRM communities of practice in Australia.&nbsp;</p> <h2>Benefits of a community of practice</h2> <p>There are many benefits associated with communities of practice, as they:</p> <ul> <li>provide a valuable vehicle for developing and sharing specialist knowledge</li> <li>provide a non-threatening forum to explore and test ideas or validate courses of action</li> <li>have access to broad networks and expert help</li> <li>enable rapid problem solving</li> <li>generate new knowledge in response to problems and opportunities</li> <li>can be more flexible than traditional arrangements</li> <li>cut across organisational boundaries and formal communication lines</li> <li>provide early warning of potential opportunities and threats</li> <li>can be a vehicle for cultural change (creating a knowledge sharing culture)</li> <li>are largely self-organising</li> <li>allow for professional skills to be honed through sharing of ideas and discussion.</li> </ul> 2009-04-29T04:10:06Z 2009-05-26T03:45:19Z