Communities of professionals: An innovative experience in a distance learning perspective

The evolution of the economic system towards contexts characterised by greater instability and competitiveness is changing the organisations cognitive processes of the enterprises. The ability to learn and share knowledge and competencies within a network of players represents a key factor in order to manage the growing complexity of the economic and social environment. This scenario forces to rethink and redesign the training system giving new answers to new requests in terms of a continuous (in years and during the work) learning. The small and medium enterprise (SME) of the Italian districts is an interesting case study: the enterprise traditionally made few investments in training, so it is not able to supply to its employees and to the same entrepreneur a recurrent and customised training process. The outbreak of Information and Communication Technologies gives the possibility to set-up new forms and places of information, experiences exchange, learning and interaction where different subjects with homogeneous professional profiles are organised in on-line communities in order to develop their professionalism.