Just learned a new acronym/concept today: COINs. Denham Grey posted a comparison of
Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) to Communities of Practice (CoPs): On COINs and CoPs.

As I now understand things, a COIN is a specialized form of CoP, an informal network that spans business boundaries and has a prime focus on innovation rather than individual participant identity, awareness and learning.

COINs follow examples of the open source ethos, participants are early adopters and they adhere to principles of collaborative knowledge networking. This seems to a fusion of social networks, enabled by web technology and knowledge sharing.

Denham provides several links to source material in his post. Check it out.