According to Etienne Wenger, "Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor..." People who have something (whatever that something is) join groups of other people with that same commonality to meet those people and share ideas.
One of the first communities we join is our families. It is through our families that we learn to survive in the world, including our church, another community of practice. When I was pregnant, my church really came together for me at my baby shower, and I received a lot of useful stuff for my daughter. My church threw another shower for me when I got married last year.
Other communities of practice that we join are professional memberships. I am a member of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Communities of practice also exist unofficially. Facebook has thousands and thousands of groups that its members can join: English Majors Do It Better! for English majors at Valdosta State University; You Know You're from Georgia If..., and open group for anyone from and/or currently living in Georgia. Yahoo, Google, Flickr, MySpace, and ICQ all have groups that its users can join. People join these groups because they all have the groups' subject in common. Joining these groups helps keep us connected in our fast-paced world.
The following video from the UK helps to explain how communities of practice work.
References
Stephendale. (2008, October 17). Communities of practice explained. Video posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2paN0Ox-Ia0
Wenger, E. (2006 June). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
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