Case study video – CoPs at Homeland Security

Here is an interesting video by Jose Vazquez on the use of Communities of Practice for First Responders at Homeland Security in the USA.

First Responder Communities of Practice is a professional networking, collaboration and communication platform created by the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate to support improved collaboration and information sharing amongst the nation’s First Responders. The technology platform includes

• Discussion forums
• Calendar
• Document libraries
• Wikis
• Blogs
• User profiles

You can see screenshots of the community technology on the video

At the time this video was recoreded, the Community was about 600 people, working through 27 sub communities covering the major disciplines of First Response. However a visit to the communities index today shows 213 communities, many of them with only a handful of members.