vres and the potential for new forms of collaboration
DESCRIPTION
VREs and the Potential for New Forms of Collaboration. Annamaria Carusi and Marina Jirotka. Why VREs?. Longitudinal study of VREs, in particular JISC Oxford e-Social Science Project Ethical, legal, and institutional dynamics of e-sciences - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
VREs and the Potential for New Forms of Collaboration
Annamaria Carusi and Marina Jirotka
Why VREs?
Longitudinal study of VREs, in particular JISC Oxford e-Social Science Project Ethical, legal, and institutional dynamics of e-
sciences Embedded in larger context of virtual
organisations and virtual communities Focussing on the opportunities for collaboration
afforded by VREs
Collaborative work
Collaboration is a major area of research - CSCW, groupware, distributed systems
Work place studies, awareness, public vs private, presence, seamless movement between the real and digital environments
Collaboration and research activities / practices
Methodology
JISC VRE programme as case study Emerging vision of VREs from the research
community themselves Interviews Extensive document review Attendance of workshops Ethnographic field work Focus groups and workshops Analysis
Our focus
Potential for new collaborations in researchRelation between a mode of collaboration and typical
research activities Epistemic practices
Overlapping features across VREs Four features that participants are responding to
positively and that have the potential to re-shape research
Four features
Collaborations formed around new:
objects of research
mappings of objects of research
mappings of interactions
ways of producing, undertaking or performing
Objects of research
Niches of data
Previously excluded
Not part of the canon
Fragile or illegible texts
Canon shapes a discipline
Authoritative, standard-setting list or group of texts or documents
Challenging the canon Transformative moments in a discipline occur when the
canon is contested (eg feminism, post-colonialism)
History of Political Discourse VRE
Marginal texts (unauthorised editions or translations; pamphlets)
Excluded and marginalised texts and documents made available through digitalisation
Re-shapes a research area in a profound way
Accessibilty plus the set of relations created around them – in particular teaching relationships
Shaking up interpretive paradigms
Fragile or illegible texts
Previously geographically dispersed fragments brought together to partially re-construct the document; yet to embody in digital form some of the physical properties that are so important to deciphering their meaning (eg smell, touch)
Implications for collaboration Inter-disciplinary collaboration between researchers and
computer scientists (making visible and legible)
Questioning of ways of conducting interpretation in each discipline
Mappings of objects of research
Access to resources and mapping of the entities or processes that are being studied
Representational or organisational role
Silchester Roman Town
Connects on-site data gathering from the excavation site with collaborative research domains
With ‘picture’ the relevant part of the excavation site
Real spatial disposition of excavation site
Mapping a physical entity
Knowledge management as well as representational role
Organisation and disposition of the map on the screen are not neutral
Mapping and knowing
Mapping interactions
Meetings
Tools and technologies to facilitate meetings
Access Grid with enhancements
MeMeTiC
Screen Streamer (participants can share computer screens)
Compendium: concept mapping tool
Self-reflectiveness
Recording and replay: making ephemeral events persistent or durable
Operating on the events: organising and mapping them
Semantic web tool for search and find disparate content relating to events such as teaching events and conferences: IUGO
Collaborative processes plus ability to analyse and monitor
Self-reflectiveness is intertwined in the process of the interaction
Neutrality of the mode of mapping or formative with respect to the way in which the event is remembered or understood.
‘Doing’ research Producing, undertaking and performing Physical interactions with objects within real
environments in sciences and in the arts Performative processes
Multi-sensoryCo-presence with objects
CSAGE - Access Grid with ‘semi-immersive stereoscopic facilities to create an increased level of ‘presence’ within the AG environment’;
Facial reconstruction and performance
Co-defining in action
There is not a pre-defined capability sought; technology and performance are co-define
Feeling of embodied co-location and co-presence
Transfer from performance to other contexts
Facilitates a more naturalistic experience
Naturalism vs artifice