This is awesome! I’m constantly brought back to Wenger’s Legitimate Peripheral Participation concept –
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimate_peripheral_participation).
It’s like my Papert’s gear or something. Anyway, this idea of introducing new members into an existing learning community reminds me of it once again. I belong to a number of antique motorcycle enthusiast forums where people talk mostly about their oily leaking projects and they use the community to get them moving once again. These forums are an excellent example of this type of community where the peripheral learner begins by searching the forum for answers to a personal learning query. Slowly as the newb begins to develop skills and competencies, they begin to share their own posts and even start answering questions that newer members might have. Many of these forums provided over a decade of threaded knowledge in which new members join everyday to learn.

Thanks for sharing this.