Claudia Cruz

Towards Reputation Systems applied to Communities of Practice

Communities of practice (CoPs) encourage the exchange of experiences within organizations, but there is a risk involved in regard to the quality of participation. For this reason, it is important to provide a means for the community to be able to recognize the reliability and usefulness of the participation of individuals involved. This paper presents a proposal for the use of reputation systems in CoPs in order to assist users in creating relationships for honest and useful participation, based on trust, for the benefit of the entire community.

A Proposal for Recognizing Reputation within Communities of Practice

One of the most critical points for Communities of Practice is shared information credibility. Professionals only feel secure to reuse solutions presented and discussed within the scope of the community if a process of trusting is well established among its members at that moment. We propose the use of Reputation Systems to promote trust among participants and, consequently, stimulate participation through the recording of relevant information, such as ideas, opinions, solutions, and recommendations.