Several of the Communities of Practices (CoP) Alterra/Wing manages have reached their mid-life. Designed CoPs have come to life and have achieved alignment, from which we can learn. A growing interest can be signalised in using CoPs as management instruments and in governance. Governments are seeking new ways in policy making and new steering instruments. Using the case of agrologistics we describe how the Dutch government has used a CoP for complex planning and organizational problems. The social design, planning and management of a new CoP have linked together a wide range of stakeholders to establish a operational CoP. Alignment is a key factor in this transition to self-steering; the value of belonging is very powerful. Masters play an important role in setting up and in steering the CoP. CoPs can be developed as new instruments of governance, based on the theoretical concept of CoP.
E-learning at the workplace might be accompanied by synchronous cooperative learning episodes of small groups using net-based communication. In a field study carried out in a large software company an interaction of factors determining the quality of such cooperative learning was observed. In this study, a software tool was used which supported a specific instructional design by phase-specific delivering of instructions and learning materials as well as by means of process control (including turn-taking, role assignment, and coordination of task flow). There was no tutor or instructor present in the learning sessions. The learning processes of six small groups were evaluated on the basis of a content analysis. Results demonstrate a high amount of topic-oriented contributions and the realization of the expected learning activities. It was concluded that the learning processes were successful because of the fine-grained implementation of the instructional design in the software tool. However, feedback data indicated a low acceptance of the software tool. Participants evaluated the process control as being restrictive. It was assumed that there was a non-optimal interaction between the factors technology and target group / context in the study.