This document discusses how communities of interest can build shared understanding through boundary objects and distributed intelligence. Boundary objects are artifacts, documents, or vocabulary that different communities interpret differently but can use to form a shared understanding. Discussing these differing interpretations across communities enables the formation of shared understanding.

1. Communities of interests and boundary objects boundary objects Distributed Intelligence: From Reflective Practitioners to Reflective Communities, Gerhard Fischer. Center for LifeLong Learning & Design (L3D) Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/ , may 2005. Artifacts, documents and perhaps even vocabulary that can help people from different communities build a shared understanding . Boundary objects will be interpreted differently by the different communities, and it is an acknowledgement and discussion of these differences that enables a shared understanding to be formed.