As with any field of study, there are various points of view on the motivations, organizing principles and subsequent structure of knowledge communities.
The exchange remains open based on the perceived value (e.g., return on time investment) to knowledge community members.
At a minimum, members of knowledge communities typically include a mix of subject-matter experts, moderators, facilitators and the general public or a target population.
Public information within knowledge communities is sometimes covered by Creative Commons Licenses and is given credit to the creators.
To others, the exchange aspects reek of the over commodification of culture and, by pooling experts or like-minded persons, KCs and CoPs can often be less diverse than traditional communities.