"Distributed"communities of practice are the ones which cannot rely on face-to-face meetings and interactions as their main "engine"for connecting people.They are able to cross different types of boundaries.Geographically distributed communities link people across countries,time zones,and organizational units.
Four factors are essential for distributed communities:distance,size,organizational affiliation,and cultural differences.When these factors are mixed together,they make building and sustaining communities more difficult.
Distance:connections and visibility
Community members connect harder when there are boundaries such as different time zones or geographic separation between them.The main obstacle though, is distance, because it makes it difficult to remember that the community exists.In contrast to local communities,where members can freely interact,distributed communities are generally less"present"to their members.Of course they can communicate through web sites or on a teleconference call,but it is harder this way.
Size-knowing people
Usually distributed communities are formed of hundreds if not thousands of members.Obviously,it's impossible to know so many personally.Size becomes a more important factor when it's combined with distance.
Affiliation:priorities and intellectual property
As normal,distributed communities cross more organizational boundaries than local ones do.A problem that frequently appears in global communities,is that of getting senior managers with different priorities,to aquire interests in the idea of knowledge sharing with other companies.
Culture:communication and values
Distributed communities can cross cultures also.The development of a community can be affected by the members who do not come from the same culture.Thus,they have different points of view regarding different subjects.This can lead to ignorance between them,they can disagree in public or contradict known experts.All these are the result of different backgrounds.
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