Applying Reputation Mechanisms in Communities of Practice: A Case Study

Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people sharing practices, interests, and work objectives. In the virtual world, however, it is difficult to trust contributions from people we do not know, because of the variety of information sources and behaviors. In this context, a Reputation Model for CoP (ReCoP) was developed. This paper presents a case study that evaluates one ReCoP mechanism: the degree of agreement among members in evaluating artifacts shared within the community. Data was extracted from a real scenario, and the results provide useful feedback for further studies and improvements in implementing the model.