I've been asked to make a short presentation on online communities of practice and would like to show a diagram that explains the stages of community development (from planning and initiation to growth, maturity etc).
I've been dipping into some of my favourite texts (Wenger et al., 2002; Preece, 2000) but I'm wondering if there are some new models that have caught the imagination of the "community enthusiasts" in this forum. I'm on the applied end of things, and would really appreciate input from those of you who study the theory of communities more than I. BTW, shameless promotion of your own papers and published works is definitely encouraged!!!