Peer to Peer Model for Virtual Knowledge Communities

Knowledge management and communication scheme are keystones of virtual organizations or virtual communities. Both concepts can be based upon the peer-to-peer approach. This point of view is highly suitable to address virtual organization issues because it emphasizes both autonomy and communication. A Virtual Knowledge Community is a dynamic set of peers or agents gathered around a common topic of interest. We propose in this paper the design of successive packages that implement peers’ abilities in acting within communities. Our packages are fully generic and help implementing any types of communities. It is based upon a paradigm which considers a peer as an agent, and composed of knowledge and of a decision mechanism. Key–Words: Virtual Knowledge Communities, Peer to Peer, virtual organization, agent-oriented abstraction, knowledge management.