When reading about communities of practice, I kept thinking about how the United States as a community functions. "People's sense of connection to an organization comes through their relationship with their manager and peers." No wonder no one votes in this country. The disconnect between the government and the people is obvious. "The politicians will do what they want no matter who I vote for." I mean, why would anyone except the hyper-politically conscious bother to vote for the President if the guy they vote for wins the popular vote but the Presidency goes to the other guy? There are so many different religions, races, and attitudes in this country that the connections among everyone need to be very strong, but they're very weak.

Wenger's book is interesting to me because it seems a more scientific and technical study of the age-old adage, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Although that phrase was coined to refer mostly to business, getting jobs, etc., it can also extend to the idea of this book -- companies need to encourage the informal interaction of a community of practice. Networking is what so much of business is anyway. You meet people, you exchange information about things, things improve. The internet makes these communities possible. You see them everywhere, from Star Trek fandoms to the Freelancer's Union. Blogs are a great example. A pundit's blog is updated every day, increasing and evolving the domain of knowledge; the readership and commenters are the community; and the practice they are developing is sort of like the domain, just developing knowledge about issues and the world. Some businesses are now using blogs and incorporating open source technology to expand their communities of practice to the benefit of everyone. This is a great way businesses can be practical about it, but they also need to encourage face-to-face interaction. Like office Christmas parties. ;)

"In an age that emphasizes individual freedoms, institutions are often portrayed merely as constraints on this freedom."

This statement intrigued me because of the overwhelming influence on the country of big business. If anything, big business contracts our freedoms, constricting our choices in music, television, etc., and influencing Congress to vote certain ways on issues. So far, this agrees with Brown's statement, except Americans themselves are the ones perpetrating big business, trying to get jobs there, buying the products, etc. We have "freedom," yes, freedom to choose between NBC and ABC.