There is a lot of confusion about communities within corporations. This confusion blurs the thinking on objectives, on adequate tools etc.
Making a long story short and therefore not going into details, I propose the attached framework for clarification.
The world of communities is divided into 4 quadrants; One barrier is the firewall of the corporation i.e. only corporate members can have access; The second barrier is the specific password required to be allowed access to a specific community.
The 4 quadrants are then the following:
IP GENERATION(inside corporations, selective membership): here only coopted or selected experts can work together, this is the realm of "IP creation Communities of Practice" (COPs). These communities use specific rules, specific jargons and specific tools. This quadrant is the one where "next" practices are developed (vs. best practices).
IP LEVERAGE (inside the corporation, accessible to anybody belonging to the corporation): This is the territory of dissemination COPs, of communities of interest, of Knowledge Management documents being made available, of internal folksnomy and tagging. These communities may use other tools, certainly have other jargons and respect other rules.This quadrant is the reservoir for improving productivity, best practice diffusion, etc.
CO CREATION (outside of corporation, selective membership): This is the area of Communities with alumni groups, suppliers, customers, closed social networks, etc.this quadrant allows new forms of experimentation and creation. Again new tools (or other tools configuration) are required, different jargons are used, different rules are observed.
INTERNET BRANDING (outside of corporation, total visibility and availability); this is the territory of open communities of interest, blogs, open social networks, candidate attraction, forums, etc. this quadrant builds the brands of the corporation (volontarily or not). The tools here are often the usual ones of the Internet, the jargon has to be understood by everyone, the rules are the ones of this totally open world.
Please Mention Boostzone Institute - Dominique Turcq if you use this copyrighted tool.