distributed knowledge research collaborative

Distributed Knowledge Research Collaborative

July 17-18. 2003

Bertram C. BruceLibrary & Information Science

U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Outline

• Welcome• History• What we learned• Implications• Distributed Knowledge Research

Collaborative

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History-1

• 1997-Alaina Kanfer brings together group to discuss collaboration and technology

• -NSF Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI)--Knowledge Networking; Learning and Intelligent Systems; New Computational Challenges

• 1998-proposal to KDI

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History-2

• 1999-DK project funded: Can Knowledge Be Distributed? The Dynamics of Knowledge in Interdisciplinary Alliances

• group disperses (Alaina -> Born; Geof -> UCSD; Jim -> Wisconsin; Joe -> Emory; Chip -> GSLIS)

• 2000-DKRC established• 2002-DK course• 2003-DK/DKRC workshop

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History-outcomes

• workshops, presentations, commissions, articles, books

• dissertations• DK course, course units• Inquiry Page• DKRC website

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Distributed Knowledge course

addresses conflict:• authentic and efficient knowledge

creation and sharing is embedded in interpersonal, face-to-face contexts,

• technologies to support distributed knowledge processes assume that knowledge can be made mobile outside of these specific contexts

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• Resource for inquiry teaching philosophy

• Collaborative teaching & learning community

• DK outreach project• Site to study

distributed knowledge

Inquiry Page

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What we learned

• problems with the vision• appropriate technology wins• alternate realizations bloom• technology is an end, as well as a

means (pragmatic technology)• challenges: DK is difficult to study

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How does embedded knowledge become mobile?

Knowledge

Technology Community

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Study of the Alliance/NCSA

New ways of doing science in distributed teams

• => Application Technologies• Enabling Technologies• Education, Outreach, & Training

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Application Technologies teams

• http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partners/ApplicationTechnologies/

• cosmology, environmental hydrology, molecular biology, chemical engineering, nanomaterials, scientific instrumentation

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Enabling Technologies teams

• http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partners/EnablingTechnologies/

• parallel computing, distributed systems, data and collaboration

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Alliance vision

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Problems with the vision

• EOT often shows the greatest impact• But it doesn't use AT enough, and AT doesn't

use ET enough• Successes often emerge from user community

and are fed back into the Alliance• Large structure w/o clear lines of control leads

to politics, miscommunications, difficulty in planning, failures to collaborate effectively

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Astronomy Digital Imaging Library (ADIL)

• developed and maintained by the Radio Astronomy Imaging Group

• "collect astronomical, research-quality images and make them available to the astronomical community and the general public"

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Appropriate technology

• Addresses existing problems– limited access to equipment– need attribution for image work

• Reconfigurations– Worldwide collaboration– New modes of publishing

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Waterfall model

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Reverse the flow?

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Pragmatic technology

technology as the means for resolving a problematic situation

-- Larry Hickman (1990), John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology

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Alternate realizations

Idealization

A

B

C

D

E

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Challenges

• Challenges in the Practice and Study of Distributed Interdisciplinary, Collaboration

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Implications

• technology studies• collaboration studies• evaluation• design

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Technology studies

• Adaptive structuration: substitution, enlargement, reconfiguration (Giddens, Poole, Contractor, …)

• Longitudinal studies• User response, reception theory• Ecological analysis (Bruce & Hogan,

1997; Nardi & O'Day, 1999)

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Collaboration studies

• Social network analysis• Third space• Distributed argumentative activity• Distributed collective practice

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Evaluation

• Need to understand diverse realizations• Innovation begins with the user• Technology as a tool for its own re-

creation• Situated evaluation (Bruce et al., 1993;

Twidale, 1993)

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Design

• Design inseparable from use• User-centered design• Participatory design (Bjerknes et al.,

1987)• Equitable relations (Clark, 1993)• An idea about technology (Menand,

2001)

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DKRC assumptions

• need perspectives/methodologies of multiple disciplines,

• some knowledge processes can be distributed across disciplines, time, institutions, & geography.

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DKRC purpose

• study how knowledge is produced, shared, negotiated, and co-constructed within distributed communities, and the ways in which technologies affect these exchanges

• build knowledge base• space for collaboration

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Goals for the workshop

• establish stronger ties• share results of ongoing work• discuss future collaborations--

conferences, listservs, website• celebrate accomplishments