Hi Everyone,

After reading though the today's materials, and especially the Wikipedia article, I have come to realize that I'm much more involved in CoIs (Community of Interest) than CoPs.  The main difference between the two, being that in a CoI, Members are not necessarily experts – they need only be interested in the subject.  In CoPs, membership is dependent on expertise.

In this respect, I'm involved in several CoIs including a district OER group, and am on several OER-related listservs including the CCCOER (Community College Consortium for OER), a public discussion list intended for community college faculty, librarians, instructional designers, administrators, and other educators who are interested in open education policy, practices, and resources.

I guess a this point, I feel little uneasy about starting or joining a CoP on Open Education because I know I'm not an expert.  As stated as an in example in the Wikipedia article, "Someone who is interested in photography and has some background/training in it finds an online CoP for working photojournalists, who use it to discuss various aspects of their work. Since this community is focused on working photojournalists, it would not be appropriate for an amateur photographer to contribute to the CoP discussions there."  And I am definitely an amateur in this field.

But that's why I'm here, to add to my knowledge, and to provide me with more that I can use and share with the faculty at my college..to be less of an amateur and more of a practitioner.