Interesting to note that of the 12 Internet-mediated Communities of Practice, that I have case studied in my research, one has closed, one has closed its doors to the public, another has changed management and still another appears from the public side to have grown dormant. Seems you have to be very quick in this game to be able to case study living communities. As Wenger et al, (2002) suggest there may be a natural development to CoPs, that includes an end or death, but from my research it appears to have less to do with the success or otherwise of the community but changes in priority for the funding bodies, sponsors and the core group (leaders).