Virtual professional communities : a new lever of knowledge management[Les communautés professionnelles virtuelles : un nouveau levier de gestion des connaissances]

Nowadays, virtual communities (whatever of practice, of knowledge, of interest, of project…) in the professional environment, represent an important value for the companies. They constitute places of creation, transfer and sharing of information and knowledge. Many companies try to use these communities to develop new services or products, to support the emergence of innovations and to be competitive. The often informal character of these communities makes very difficult their identification and their management. Moreover, the development of these communities is closely related to that of the ICT, by there virtual side, which naturally raises the question of the adequacy of technological supports proposed, in particular collaborative tools with their needs and constraints in the work situations. This paper tries to highlight the concept of PVC and to define its role in a global solution of knowledge management. It presents, on the one hand an engineering methodology for the design of PVC and so for supporting collaborative knowledge management, and on the other hand, a virtual collaborative working environment to support and sustain the emergence and the development of these communities.