Why sharing boundary crossing? Understanding the motivation for knowledge sharing in virtual Communities of Practice

In this paper, we reflect the experiences made in the build up phase of a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) called Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP). We describe the experiences and compare them to those made by initiators and facilitators of other CoPs. This allows us to analyse and discuss specifics of VCoPs and to identify challenges people face while sharing knowledge in a VCoP that spans organizational and cultural boundaries.