What is a Community of Practice (CoP)?
A community of practice is a group of individuals with common interests that bring them together.
Who can form a CoP?
Anyone can form a community of practice! But first, it’s important to do your research when starting a community. Is this new or revived from past efforts? Check to see if there are similar communities that already exist or that you can collaborate with. If one already exists, consider learning more about what is in place; there may be opportunities to take on leadership or coordinating roles in existing CoPs. Subscribe to the Micronet Listserv, this voluntary organization for IT professionals is a great place to connect, ask questions, and learn from your peers!
We encourage you to review your CoP with the One IT Program Manager. Before reaching out, determine your community’s scope and purpose, create a core team to run and manage meeting logistics, and draft a charter
AI Community
The AI community of practice is chartered to engage staff and spread our best ideas and thinking on all forms of artificial intelligence. The group provides an inclusive environment for all interested Berkeley staff of all abilities and backgrounds, from beginners to experts.
- To join, add yourself to the Community of Practice listserv.
AppNet
AppNet is a platform-agnostic community of practice for application programmers at UC Berkeley. Meetings are open to all and are usually discussion-based rather than presentation-oriented. Check our website for meeting plans. Please visit our AppNet website for the monthly meeting schedule (Berkeley VPN is needed to access the site).
Berkeley User Experience (Berkeley UX)
The Berkeley User Experience (Berkeley UX) group is a community of practitioners dedicated to improving the usefulness and usability of campus projects by teaching, training, and providing expertise about user experience research and user experience design. User experience is an approach to products in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the users of a product are given attention at each stage of the research and design process. It is an essential complement to the practice of business analysis. Goals include:
- To raise awareness of how user-centered design can help increase user satisfaction, productivity & adoption while decreasing development, support, and training costs.
- To provide professional development opportunities and access to materials to help community members build their knowledge & skills in the area of user experience (UX).
- To provide campus project teams with feedback on the usability and usefulness of their websites & applications.
For more information, please visit the Berkeley User Experience website
Business Process Analysis Working Group
Business Process Analysis Working Group (BPAWG), a University of California, Berkeley community of practice, offers a forum for discussing business process analysis and associated methods, tools, and strategies. While each of the following deserves its own forum, BPAWG brings the UC community of interest together to discuss how these disciplines intersect, interact and add value to each other. BPAWG meetings offer demonstrations, discussions, and opportunities to meet with experts and colleagues working in these areas:
- Business Process Analysis
- Project Management
- Organizational Development
- Change Management
- Systems Analysis and Design
For more information, contact Isaac Mankita
Cal Assessment Network
The Cal Assessment Network (CAN) offers the UC community a forum where like-minded colleagues can make connections, find support, receive training, and share best practices on the topic of assessment. Monthly presentations, a list-serve, and a session archive provide resources for discussing a broad of topics, including but not limited to:
- How to Write Effective Surveys
- Where to Find the Data You Need
- Creating Data Presentations That Pop!
- Metrics for Data-Driven Decision Making
- Student Services Assessment
For more information, visit Google Group | YouTube| Past Sessions
Cal Coaching Network
The mission and purpose of CCN are:
- To bring together managers and staff interested in developing their coaching skills to support one another.
- To have informational sessions on various areas of coaching.
- To provide a safe skills practice opportunity.
For more information, visit our website
Cal Data Visualization Network
The Cal Data Visualization Network is:
- A community of practice for Cal staff dedicated to learning good data analysis and visualization practices.
- We are platform agnostic.
- We are always open to learning and sharing new ways to seek and deliver answers.
- All Cal staff are welcome, regardless of skill level.
- Our goal is to share knowledge that will empower staff to further the university's mission and broaden their skill sets.
The CDVN works to give staff opportunities to network, share ideas, and grow their skill sets. To that end, we collaborate with other like-minded communities of practice on campus to share learning opportunities. We stay in touch between meetings via our mailing list or our Slack Team.
For more information, Contact CDVN
CalNet Tech Team
The CalNet Tech Team brainstorms, discusses, reviews, and evaluates technical solutions to identity and access management challenges. The CalNet team brings our latest projects and recommendations to the Tech Team for review, suggests alternative approaches to solving technical problems and asks the group for input, and facilitates conversations that help bIT staff and campus developers understand how each other's systems work and how systems might best interact. The group deals most frequently with operational issues but also surfaces areas where policy and expectations need clarification. Visit the CalNet website for more information.
Cloud Computing Community of Practice
Please note: the UC Berkeley Cloud Computing Community of Practice has been revised to an internal, operationally oriented cloud computing user group. The user group has merged with the Berkeley Cloud Resource Center and is overseen by Robert Amos and Walter Stokes (bCloud team) from Berkeley IT. The group shares resources, training, and announcements for UC Berkeley cloud computing users. Note: the cloud user group will require a berkeley.edu email address.
IT Communications Partners
This group, led by Berkeley IT Communications, is a community of practice for One IT members with a communications role in their unit. Meetings are held monthly to discuss upcoming marketing and communications needs related to projects in flight, change management, IT service announcements, and/or events. An opportunity to discuss what is happening related to communications across the broader campus (e.g., VCA, Public Affairs, etc.), share best practices, professional development opportunities, and more.
IT Review of Architecture and Design Community of Practice
The IT Review of Architecture and Design Community of Practice (IT-RAD-Community) is an informal group open to all UC Berkeley employees, students, and extended colleagues, that provides a cross-technical review of infrastructure, architecture, applications, platforms, and services for the development of secure and robust IT environments. When any campus IT group discusses these topics, presentations to the IT-RAD-Community can be an avenue to engage with the broader campus community and receive feedback.
- To join the IT-RAD-Community, send an email to it-rad-community+subscribe@lists.berkeley.edu
- Do you want to volunteer to share your story? Contact the IT-RAD-Community organizers by sending an email to: it-rad-community-planners@berkeley.edu.
ISWorkgroup
The Information Security Workgroup (ISW) is a forum for IT staff to learn about and provide input on central security solutions. Group meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend but will be geared toward departmental IT staff responsible for managing information security.
Examples of issues we will bring to this group for discussion and review include:
- Feature requests and updates for ISO applications (Socreg, bSecure, etc.)
- Security Policy updates and changes
- Training opportunities
- Guidelines for appropriate security controls for systems, apps, DB, etc.
- Suggestions for ISO service additions and improvements
All meeting announcements and communications will take place through the ISWorkgroup - sign-up at the ISWorkgroup page.
Learning Spaces Community of Practice
UC Berkeley Community of Practice focusing on the audio/visual and videoconference technology needs in learning spaces across campus. Via the RTL Departmental Spaces consultation service and listening to campus partners, we've identified a significant need to aggregate the various stakeholders within the UC Berkeley community who are working on, or working with, audio-visual technology, academic or otherwise. This includes seminar/conference rooms, Zoom Rooms, media studios and really any space that may involve media and audio video technologies.
- For more information visit the Learning Spaces webpage.
One IT Student Leadership Community of Practice
Purpose: Foster an exchange of ideas, strategies, and best practices to support the development of One IT’s student employee and leadership development programs.
Chairs: Natalie Montañez and Kelly Chang
Who can join: current supervisors, student staff, and any One IT community members interested in connecting students to our work.
Career staff can join the bIT Slack channel: #team-supervisors-of-students
Project Management Community of Practice
The primary goal of the PM-COP community is to spread knowledge of good project management practices throughout the organization for more successful outcomes.
Join us to:
- Learn new skills to advance careers by promoting the professional development of staff.
- Be aware of new professional opportunities
- Work with colleagues in a more inclusive, equitable, and constructive manner.
- Build a sense of community among project managers and promote the professional development of staff working on projects.
- Share lessons learned about project successes and failures and adapt our practices to meet our evolving needs.
- Identify and create programs and activities in support of these goals, e.g., training, a project management mentorship program, and social gatherings for the community of practice
For more information/ideas and/or suggestions for topics, please email: drieger@berkeley.edu.
ServiceNow and IT Service Management
Smartsheet Berkeley User Group
The Smartsheet Berkeley User Group provides a supportive community where members can come together to learn, collaborate, and explore the possibilities of Smartsheet. Join us for our bi-monthly meetings, where we discuss best practices, showcase use cases, and brainstorm innovative ways to use Smartsheet. Our group welcomes individuals of all skill levels.
Sign up todayand become a part of the Smartsheet Berkeley User Group community.
UC Berkeley Instructional Designers
Our mission is to form a community of instructional designers who will collaborate toward developing a shared knowledge around instructional design (academic and administrative) and its application at UC Berkeley. We will keep an open, ongoing dialog to support each other in solving instructional design problems and challenges we face in our individual departments.
To join the Berkeley Instructional Designers Community of Practice, please send a request to: instructional_design@berkeley.edu.
UC Berkeley XR Community of Practice
Research, Teaching, and Learning (RTL) has created a community of practice supporting campus community members who are interested in or use Extended Reality (XR) technologies, especially in the realms of research and instruction. Starting with the XR project launches by several awardees of the 2020 Berkeley Changemaker Technology Innovation & Connected Campus Grants, the community of practice will grow to welcome and nurture the broadest possible range of works-in-progress while also promoting emerging practices around accessibility, design, content curation, as well as security and privacy. Learn more, including how to join at: UC Berkeley XR Community of Practice.
Webnet
Webnet is a voluntary organization for any affiliate of the University of California, Berkeley campus who:
- Is responsible for managing websites
- Writes content for the Web
- Develops applications for the Web
And wants to exchange information, resources, ideas, and tools via email and people-to-people networks and meetings. Visit the Webnet Wiki for technical tips and best practices. Engage with colleagues via the University Web Developers Slack channel. For more information, please visit the Webnet website.