Understanding CoPs

What is a Community of Practice?  To my understanding, it is a group that gathers to practice something in which they are passionate and ultimately become more experienced with more interactions.

In my own life, I've been part of many Communities of Practice (CoP), but never called it so.  Most of my CoPs were church-related because I grew up in the church and find that is where I spent much of my "free time".  Sign language troop, children's choir, drama team, worship arts team, Bible studies...

To this day, I am still involved in many of these CoPs because I can surround myself with people who all share similar interests and pursuits.  More recently, I have become involved in online CoPs, specifically in the area of education.  Social networks like Twitter and Nings, bring together passionate educators who create a very distinct type of CoP.

This project will provide a fascinating insight into other CoPs that meet, simply for the fact that there are such varying topics of interest.  I plan on asking friends and family for recommendations for local CoPs before blindly selecting one to observe.  It will also be interesting to compare how one of these local CoPs functions outside of a "religious" context or an online context.