From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.
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... part of the technology for communities project,
started off by the authors of [ Digital Habitats], Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith. |
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Definition
A web based repository to methods and tools to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver content across a single or distributed environment. It may include distributed or centralized organizing and control mechanims, and is often integrated into a portal platform. More complex repositories are often referred to as content management systems (CMS). Features can be grouped as follows:
- uploading and downloading,
- administration,
- records management, and
- tagging/finding.
Uses in Communities of Practice
Most communities need to share documents and benefit from having an easily accessible repository where their documents are all in one logical place. A shared library is often the second tool adopted by a community, after an email distribution list. (DO WE HAVE DATA SOURCE ON THAT?) Almost all communities need to share documents and benefit from having an easily accessible repository where their documents are all in one place. Content Management Systems are usually organized according to taxonomies. Taxonomies usually involve a heirarchical decomposition of the knowledge domain, but can also be flat or faceted in nature.
Polarities
- Together/apart, Synch/Asynch: Mainly asynchronous.
- Participation/Reification: These tools are aimed at enabling access to stored artifacts.
- Individual/group: Mainly group oriented.
Features
- Upload files. Upload document to share with other members of the community Tools and other artifacts are critical for documenting and developing competence.
- Upload for another person, marked as "owned" by another. Does the name of the author or of the person uploading appear? If you want to be able to upload document for other people
- Access control. Control use of a file by specifying access rules explicitly or implicitly (i.e., by placing a file in a location containing similar objects). Members are more willing to share valuable information within a community than they are beyond community boundaries.
- Sort, organize, move, and delete files. Files can be moved, arranged, made accessible as needed, or deleted by people who are authorized to do so. The number of files shared by the community grows beyond an initial set, old files are obsolete, focus changes.
- Multiple versions are allowed, marked with date/time stamp and other meta-data. Files that are "the same" but also "different" are easy to track. A matter of volume and complexity -- and whether history is important or not.
- See how often downloaded or when used. System automatically tracks how often and how recently a file has been retrieved. Popularity can be a proxy for usefulness or an indicator of value.
- Metadata. Metadata associated with a file includes: file name, author, file type, key words, date, date changed, abstract, and other optional fields. Meta-data descriptors help the user find and understand what a file contains. Size and complexity of the community and its library.
- Annotations or discussions by authors and users are available, encouraged' Authors and others can easily jot down comments about use, relevance, connections, etc. Objects can never contain all of the contextual information needed for them to be used. Often it's the conversation around the file that matters the most.
- Link objects. Ability to create link one object to another to suggest relevance or other relationship, for instance, "See also" or "based on". As a community becomes more sophisticated, its files and their organization tend to become more extensive.
Etc.
Related tools
Tool use in combination
- Useful with tool X
- Useless with tool Y
- More exhaustive "straddling pages"
Resources
