  This paper looks at what happens when Communities of Practice are used as a
tool for Knowledge Management. The original concept of a Community of Practice
appears to have very little in common with the knowledge sharing communities
found in Knowledge Management, which are based on a revised view of
'cultivated' communities. We examine the risks and benefits of cultivating
Communities of Practice rather than leaving them 'in the wild'. The paper
presents the findings from two years of research in a small microelectronics
firm to provide some insights into the wild vs domesticated dichotomy and
discusses the implications of attempting to tame Communities of Practice in
this way.
