Expanding the Academic Research Community: Building Bridges into Society with the Internet

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Expanding the Academic Research Community: Building Bridges into Society with the Internet Aldo de Moor CommunitySense WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL Honors Lecture UAH, 29 August 2013

description

Academic research is under threat from issues like a lack of resources, fraud, and societal isolation. Such issues weaken the academic research process, from the framing of research questions to the evaluation of impact. After (re)defining this process, we examine how the academic research community could be expanded using the Internet. We examine two existing science-society collaborations that focus on data collection and analysis and then proceed with a scenario that covers expanding research stages like research question framing, dissemination, and impact assessment.

Transcript of Expanding the Academic Research Community: Building Bridges into Society with the Internet

Page 1: Expanding the Academic Research Community: Building Bridges into Society with the Internet

Expanding the Academic

Research Community:

Building Bridges into Society

with the Internet

Aldo de Moor

CommunitySense

WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL

Honors Lecture

UAH, 29 August 2013

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Outline

Research communities

Research 2.0

Collaboration systems

Applications

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Research communities nothing new

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What are communities?

Communities Strong, lasting interactions

Ties between members

“Sense of community”

Common space

Common space Physical/digital

Spectrum of communicative & collaborative functionalities

(“from face-to-face to Facebook”)

“Ecosystems” of people and technologies

Great diversity

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Communities connect

• Communities increasingly important as form of

collaboration and organization

• They break down barriers and connect– Cultures, ways of thinking and working

– Goals

– Organizations and departments

– Work and communication processes

– Information systems and tools

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Collaborative communities

Communities of interest, practice

Collaborative communities

Common goals

Effective/efficient communication

Executing/coordinating work

Community governance: roles and processes

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• Formulating goals and characteristics of a new community

• Aligning community with organizational goals and related

communities

• Creating, configuring, and maintaining "community spaces“

(physical and online)

• Creating (initial) content

• Defining and populating required roles

• Activating members

• Facilitating discussions

• Resolving conflicts

• Evaluating community activities

• Cancelling a (sub)communtiy

Community management not trivial

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Research communities on the Internet

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Collaboratories

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Outline

Research communities

Research 2.0

Collaboration systems

Applications

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(Academic) research: whither?

(Source: de Moor, A., forthcoming. Expanding the Academic Research Community: Building Bridges into Society with the

Internet. In Denison, T., Sarrica, M. & Stillman, L. (Eds.), Theories, Practices and Examples for Community and Social

Informatics, Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Publishing.

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Data analysis++: Galaxy Zoo

Online Community

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Data collection & analysis++:

PatientsLikeMe

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Building research bridges

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Community-based research

Participation level Researcher role Community role

Research on

communities

Total control No

Research for

communities

Outsider In name of

community

Research with

communities

Partners Partners

Research by

communities

Facilitating Leading

Source: Gurstein, M. (2011). Evolving Relationships: Universities, Researchers and

Communities. The Journal of Community Informatics, 7(3)

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Impact assessment

Discussions

Publish

Papers

Authoring:

Video stories

Publish

Video stories

Research communities 2.0

Vegetarians

community

Researchers

community

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Outline

Research communities

Research 2.0

Collaboration systems

Applications

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From the “central information systems”

of way back…

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To the “digital habitats” of today

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Social media = fragmented

conversations

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2010/12/40-interesting-and-mind-blowing-social-media-infographics.html

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Building collaborative communities

Research

processes

Information

systems

Social

media + physical

meetings

CONVERSATIONS

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Collaboration systems development

Participation

Look

Do

Interact

Collaborate

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Charting research “webs of

conversation”

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Outline

Research communities

Research 2.0

Collaboration systems

Applications

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Academic research 2.0

Students

Stakeholders

Interview-videos

Interview

Indexing

Literature

Review

Librarian

Relevant publications +

taxonomy

Indexed video fragments

Debate

Preparation

Discussion

leader

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Social innovation“With all stakeholders jointly find

sustainable solutions to societally relevant

problems”

Developer

network

Stakeholder

network

C1 C2

C4 C5

User network

C3

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The social innovation process

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Source: http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Social_Innovator_020310.pdf

Research

Communities

2.0

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Conclusions

• Research process in transition. Redefinition of

concepts: academic, fundamental, applied research

• Community-based research is a cornerstone

• Research communities 2.0: new forms of – collaboration

– stakeholder roles

– (use of) digital and physical technologies

• Developing socio-technical collaboration systems

does not happen “just like that”…