2008-02-28: Community Characteristics and Participation

From Datafedwiki

In the past, communities have been thought of as generally stable groupings of people who have common interests or other commonalities. With the emergence of the Internet the formation of communities has become much more dynamic, particularly through the facilitation of social software such as Facebook, which can 'connect' people automatically through similarities in their profile.

In the science, social software has yet made a significant impact. Nevertheless, th These opportunities had a major impact on the dynamics of community formation, particularly the formation of virtual workgroups. It is now possible to form a temporary cluster of people interested or active in an area in a very short time, perform specific activities as a community and then to disband the particular cluster to move on to other activities and clusters.

Group learning is difficault..no The disjointed occurrence of these communities separated in time and location in cyberspace means that much of the group learning is taking place through knowledge transmission through those members that participate (experienced participants - connectors). However, new opportunities are available so that the resources for dynamic clusters are preserved for reuse in future activities (e.g. through wikis) - the organizational memory for the group. If those resources and recordings are exposed and harvestable, then the contributions of groups can be transmitted even though there is a space/time separation.

In the past, libraries have been the transmitters of knowledge over time. However, libraries are small in number and their impact is confined to their vicinity. Internet, on the other hand, allows the horizontal diffusion of information. Internet doesn't guarantee this - needs publish-find-bind service orientation of resources. Knowledge is service oriented.

Data Summit - Selling/connecting data systems together,
AIP AQ Scenario - participate in global event
HTAP, RPO, Exceptional Events, Network Assessment, Health Assessment - project/programs/prestige
GEOSS - participate in global event/prestige

Common characteristic of these forces is that:

time-sensitive/deadlines
Projects force wiki participation (positive benefits of wiki outweight the negative barrier forces).
dynamically changing group - communities are separate with only some overlap still able to see resources
Cluster formation around projects/ fade away as project is finished. Community of practice builds on the resources/collection of these projects.

[edit] Community of Practice

GEO: The GEO Communities of Practice (CoP) provide a framework through which governments and organizations work together on projects and objectives of mutual interest. Each Community is organized around a particular theme, such as agriculture or biodiversity, and includes both producers and users of Earth observations.