Research Communities in Context: Trust, Independence, and Technology in Professional Communities

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Author(s): Dimitrina Dimitrova (York University, Canada)and Emmanuel Koku (Drexel University, USA)
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 26
Source title: Virtual Community Practices and Social Interactive Media: Technology Lifecycle and Workflow Analysis
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Demosthenes Akoumianakis (Advanced Technological Education Institution of Crete, Greece)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-340-1.ch018

Keywords: Information Science Reference / Media & Communications / Social Computing / Virtual Communities & Virtual Reality

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Abstract

This chapter examines a community of professionals, created by a government agency and charged with conducting country-wide, cross-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral research and innovation in the area of water. The analysis describes the structure of the community and places it in the context of existing project practices and institutional arrangements. Under challenging conditions, the professionals in the area recruit team members from their trusted long-term collaborators, work independently on projects, use standard communication technologies and prefer informal face-to-face contacts. Out of these practices emerge a sparsely connected community with permeable boundaries interspersed with foci of intense collaboration and exchange of ideas. In this community, professionals collaborate and exchange of ideas with the same colleagues. Both collaboration and exchanges of ideas tend to involve professionals from different disciplines and, to a lesser extent, from different sectors and locations.

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Research Communities in Context: Trust, Independence, and Technology in Professional Communities

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