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Hypertext Phase One Phase Two Phase Three Appendices
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Naturalistic Inquiry into the Collaboratory: Copyright ã joanne twining, 1999
Phase Two of this study explores four functioning collaboratories and finds that the collaboratory has many manifestations within the CIRAL matrix for inclusion. The common elements of these information environments are computerized networks and the humans who participate in collaboratory activities. The primary differentiating factor is the type of instrument to which each collaboratory provides access. Instrument type and uses, in turn, determine the level and sophistication of communication modes built into each collaboratory. With implementation achieved, collaboratory research has turned to sociological and cultural aspects of the environment, specifically communication needs of collaboratory participants and the nature and culture of collaboratory work activity. Preliminary sociological studies are underway. From DOE's DCEE program, Bly (1997) identified six characteristics of collaboratory activity and six aspects of collaboratory work. EMSL researchers classify the collaboratory as a social environment and identified six psycho-social conditions of the collaboratory. This study confirms that the social environment of the collaboratory is instrumentally-determined, that is, the instrument to which access is provided determines the media and communication requirements of any particular collaboratory configuration. Media and communication modes, in turn, determine the social and cultural aspects of the environment. Whether and how the synthetic environment of the collaboratory is sustained will be determined by improvements in communication and media modes specific to each environment. Bly believes the answers to the problem of collaboratory communication will be revealed by understanding the cultural evolution of the collaboratory. It is clear that future collaboratory research must include the social and cultural aspects of the environment, and that Nardi and O'Day's (1999) key constituents of information ecologies offer a guide to that research. It is also clear there is no one "formula" for collaboratory configuration. Each collaboratory is a unique environment determined by its instrumentation, and so also is a unique information ecology. This study now turns to the people, practices and values of the collaboratory to probe for clues about the culture of the collaboratory and for skills that might be taught to prospective participants. Phase Three engages collaboratory pioneers identified during Phase One and Two in a permutation of the electronic Delphi to determine the "rules of the road" for the collaboratory and identify the skills Collaboratory Pioneers value in prospective participants. Phase Three, Chapter Nine ->Placed January 1999 -30- |
