“laboratories without walls” Collaboratories The online professional communities of learning.

The Plan  Review of this week’s readings  3 field trips to local collaboratories  Introduction to the Activity!  45 minutes to spend on the Activity!  Take a short break.  Regroup to share and compare.  Debrief.

Collabatories Finholt Scientific Collaborations at a Distance Teasley & Wolinsky Collaboratories are a form of Internet mediated science where scientists are connected to each other, to instruments, and to data independent of time and location

Collabatories Finholt Scientific Collaborations at a Distance Teasley & Wolinsky Collaboratories seek to address these issues:  convenient access to scarce instruments, specialized equipment and unique datasets  common work setting to support interaction among geographically distributed collaborators  resources and mechanisms to support large-scale projects or “big science” (Weinberg, 1961)  inclusion of non-elite scientists in collaborations

Collabatories Finholt Scientific Collaborations at a Distance Teasley & Wolinsky Issues faced in collaboratory settings:  technology access issues: platform, network, complexity  competition among collaboratory members and fear of being anticipated, or scooped, by others—also IP issues  fear of work load increase for sites hosting instruments (unfounded in some cases, EMSLC)  local participants may resent the invasion of remote participants  lead scientists may withdraw from collaboratory interactions, leaving the collaboratory without central leadership  measures to determine return of investment of time & resources

Collabatories Finholt Scientific Collaborations at a Distance Teasley & Wolinsky Technology challenges of distributed collaboration:  entry barriers to technology-based environments  construction of shared attention  knowing who is who in a shared interaction  turn-taking mechanisms  broadcast orientation versus joint work  DYSWIS

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  Deliberately designed environments (as opposed to organically evolved)  Both designed as meeting places for community learning  Ad-free, business-free  Tapped In  Educators  TeleCHI  Human-computer interaction professionals

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  Deliberately designed environments (as opposed to organically evolved)  Both designed as meeting places for community learning  Ad-free, business-free  Tapped In  Educators  TeleCHI  Human-computer interaction professionals

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  Tapped In  Work schedule (short day, home in evenings)  Seasonality (school year)  Tech knowledge low  Campus-type interface  Synchronous seminar-type events  “Greeters” to draw visitors  “Rooms” sponsored by other organizations  TeleCHI  Work schedule (longer hours, brief clear windows  Participation is event- oriented  Tech knowledge high  Events-focused interface  Events to promote interactions between graduate students and practitioners  Regular events to draw visitors Design factors

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  Previous exposure to tech  Access to new/developing tech  Time and rhythm of access to the venue  Breadth and depth of the community  Sustainability of interactions RAMP Model  Work Roles  Tech Artifacts  Metrics for success  Supporting changes in Process Member Characteristics to Consider

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  “All communities…must engage and involve members.”  “A community is a group of people who are willing and able to help one another. In this sense, community is more than a way a group of people defines itself: it is a capability that can be developed and improved over time.” On-line communities: helping them form and grow

Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks: Designing online venues for professional communities Bringelson & Carey  Invest in the means, not the ends  Focus relentlessly on the needs of members  Resist the temptation to control  Don’t assume the community will become self-sustaining (create support infrastructure)  Consider environmental factors  “More than one OLC manager observed that introverts and extroverts adapted very differently to the online tools”  Extend community-building beyond the discussion space  Seek out and support members who take on informal roles  Roles tend to remain constant within community, regardless of the individual filling them. What Works?

Measuring the success of an online community – Joseph Cothrel  Why are ROI calculations not done?  Concerns about attaching dollar values to human relationships  Fear that calculating ROI for community efforts is impossible  3 principles to measuring success:  Define business objectives/how will success be measured  Ongoing measurement and reporting on performance  Use measures to make fact-based decisions to improve community over time

Measuring the success of an online community – Joseph Cothrel  Community ROI  Incremental value: value created for a business by the presence of an online community; could be money, employee satisfaction, product development cycle times  Conversion rate: rate at which community results in desired action; e.g. buy a product  Community member: member-to-member interaction; affect decisions by referrals; provide targeted market

3 field trips to local collaboratories  Science, Physics, Aironomy Research Collaboratory (SPARC)  Bug Scope  The Collaboratory for Community Support

Activity Plan a Collaboratory in only 45 minutes! Each of these areas represents a bit of description of a group and their presumed practices. Please feel to invent the details that will assist you in answering the questions that follow. Research Groups:  Competitive Science Collaboratory  K-12: Kids are research scientists too!  SOCIAL POLICY: altruistic, socially minded, non-profit

Activity Tell us about your Collaboratory:  What sort of “laboratory without walls” will you form for your group of researchers?  How will you recruit people to participate?  How will you retain people, interest and funding?  How will you measure the success of your collaboratory?  How do you differentiate your collaboratory from a research data base?