From Shared Databases to Communities of Practice: A Taxonomy ...

Promoting affiliation between scientists is relatively easy, but creating larger organizational structures is much more difficult, due to traditions of scientific independence, difficulties of sharing implicit knowledge, and formal organizational barriers.

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This article describes one of the main products of that review, a seven-category taxonomy of collaboratory types. The types are: Distributed Research Centers, Shared Instruments, Community Data Systems, Open Community Contribution Systems, Virtual Communities of Practice, Virtual Learning Communities, and Community Infrastructure Projects. Each of the types is defined and illustrated with one example, and key technical and organizational issues are identified.

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Second, scientists work independently. Scientists generally enjoy a high degree of independence, both in their day-to-day work practices as well as in the larger directions of their work. Scientific researchers have greater freedom to pursue high risk/high reward ideas than do individuals in many other professions. Most practicing scientists would strongly resist controls that many corporate employees accept as normal, such as having their work hours, technology choices, and travel schedules dictated by others. The culture of independence benefits science in many ways, but it also makes it more difficult to aggregate scientists' labors.

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Scientific collaborations must work harder than other organizations to maintain open communication channels, adopt common toolsets, and keep groups focused on common goals.

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our research has highlighted three types of barriers

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First, scientific knowledge is difficult to aggregate

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While information has become very easy to transmit and store over great distances, knowledge is still difficult to transfer (Szulanski, 1992)

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Second, scientists work independently

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Scientists generally enjoy a high degree of independence, both in their day-to-day work practices as well as in the larger directions of their work.

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Crossing boundaries between institutions is frequently a greater barrier than mere distance (Cummings & Kiesler, 2005).

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The third barrier is the difficulty of cross-institutional work

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Virtual Community of Practice

Definition

This collaboratory is a network of individuals who share a research area and communicate about it online. Virtual Communities may share news of professional interest, advice, techniques, or pointers to other resources online. Virtual Communities of Practice are different from Distributed Research Centers in that they are not focused on actually undertaking joint projects. The term "community of practice" is taken from Wenger and Lave (1998).

Example

Ocean.US is an electronic meeting place for researchers studying oceans, with a focus on U.S. coastal waters (Hesse, Sproull, Kiesler, & Walsh, 1993). The project runs an active set of bulletin boards/email listservs used to exchange professional information (e.g., job openings), along with some political and scientific issues. Ocean.US also provides online workspace for specific projects and develops online support for workshops and distance education in this field. The project began in 1979 as ScienceNet, providing subscription-based electronic discussions and other services before email and Web services were widely available. ScienceNet was shut down in the mid-1990s when the technology became ubiquitous and the project could no longer be supported with paid subscriptions. It was re-implemented as a set of web-based services, and renamed Ocean.US. The service is owned and run by a for-profit company, Omnet.

Technology Issues

As with Open Community Contributions Systems, the main technology issue is usability. Successful Communities of Practice tend to make good use of Internet-standard technologies such as listserv, bulletin boards, and accessible web technology. A key technology decision for these projects is whether to emphasize asynchronous technologies such as bulletin boards, or invest time and energy into synchronous events such as online symposia.

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Open Community Contribution System

Definition

An Open Community Contribution System is an open project that aggregates efforts of many geographically separate individuals toward a common research problem. It differs from a Community Data System in that contributions come in the form of work rather than data. It differs from a Distributed Research Center in that its participant base is more open, often including any member of the general public who wants to contribute.

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Virtual Community of Practice

Definition

This collaboratory is a network of individuals who share a research area and communicate about it online. Virtual Communities may share news of professional interest, advice, techniques, or pointers to other resources online. Virtual Communities of Practice are different from Distributed Research Centers in that they are not focused on actually undertaking joint projects. The term "community of practice" is taken from Wenger and Lave (1998).

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Virtual Learning Community

Definition

This type of project's main goal is to increase the knowledge of participants but not necessarily to conduct original research. This is usually formal education, i.e., provided by a degree-granting institution, but can also be in-service training or professional development.

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Distributed Research Center

Definition

This collaboratory functions like a university research center but at a distance. It is an attempt to aggregate scientific talent, effort, and resources beyond the level of individual researchers. These centers are unified by a topic area of interest and joint projects in that area. Most of the communication is human-to-human.

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