Think global, act global : Towards a model for building virtual communities of practice for European research projects

This thesis report deals with virtual communities of practice (i.e. VCoPs) for European research projects. The purpose of VCoPs is getting more substance now the world is becoming more networked (van Dijk, 2006). A VCoP in the context of a European research project is an aggregation of (self-)selected project partners who participate in a collection of activities which are related to the research project. The project partners function as an interdependent network (at least) during the timeframe of the research project. The interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology, and the research partners have the shared goals of bringing the research project to a successful end in an effective and efficient way, and further the practice in the specific research domain, which is supported by protocols and norms. The research question that is central to this thesis is "which factors determine the success of a virtual community of practice for European research projects?"