Transcript A Pragmatic Technology Analysis of Distributed Knowledge

Distributed Knowledge
Research Collaborative
July 17-18. 2003
Bertram C. Bruce
Library & Information Science
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Outline
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Welcome
History
What we learned
Implications
Distributed Knowledge Research
Collaborative
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History-1
• 1997-Alaina Kanfer brings together group
to discuss collaboration and technology
• -NSF Knowledge and Distributed
Intelligence (KDI)--Knowledge Networking;
Learning and Intelligent Systems; New
Computational Challenges
• 1998-proposal to KDI
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History-2
• 1999-DK project funded: Can Knowledge Be
Distributed? The Dynamics of Knowledge in
Interdisciplinary Alliances
• group disperses (Alaina -> Born; Geof -> UCSD; Jim
-> Wisconsin; Joe -> Emory; Chip -> GSLIS)
• 2000-DKRC established
• 2002-DK course
• 2003-DK/DKRC workshop
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History-outcomes
• workshops, presentations, commissions,
articles, books
• dissertations
• DK course, course units
• Inquiry Page
• DKRC website
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Distributed Knowledge course
addresses conflict:
• authentic and efficient knowledge creation
and sharing is embedded in interpersonal,
face-to-face contexts,
• technologies to support distributed
knowledge processes assume that
knowledge can be made mobile outside of
these specific contexts
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Inquiry Page
• Resource for inquiry
teaching philosophy
• Collaborative teaching
& learning community
• DK outreach project
• Site to study
distributed knowledge
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What we learned
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problems with the vision
appropriate technology wins
alternate realizations bloom
technology is an end, as well as a means
(pragmatic technology)
• challenges: DK is difficult to study
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How does embedded knowledge
become mobile?
Knowledge
Technology
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Community
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Study of the Alliance/NCSA
New ways of doing science in distributed
teams
• => Application Technologies
• Enabling Technologies
• Education, Outreach, & Training
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Application Technologies teams
• http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partn
ers/ApplicationTechnologies/
• cosmology, environmental hydrology,
molecular biology, chemical engineering,
nanomaterials, scientific
instrumentation
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Enabling Technologies teams
• http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partn
ers/EnablingTechnologies/
• parallel computing, distributed systems,
data and collaboration
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Alliance vision
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Problems with the vision
• EOT often shows the greatest impact
• But it doesn't use AT enough, and AT doesn't use
ET enough
• Successes often emerge from user community and
are fed back into the Alliance
• Large structure w/o clear lines of control leads to
politics, miscommunications, difficulty in planning,
failures to collaborate effectively
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Astronomy Digital Imaging
Library (ADIL)
• developed and maintained by the Radio
Astronomy Imaging Group
• "collect astronomical, research-quality
images and make them available to the
astronomical community and the general
public"
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Appropriate technology
• Addresses existing problems
– limited access to equipment
– need attribution for image work
• Reconfigurations
– Worldwide collaboration
– New modes of publishing
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Waterfall model
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Reverse the flow?
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Pragmatic technology
technology as the means for resolving a problematic
situation
-- Larry Hickman (1990), John Dewey's
Pragmatic Technology
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Alternate realizations
A
B
C
Idealization
D
E
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Challenges
• Challenges in the Practice and Study of
Distributed Interdisciplinary, Collaboration
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Implications
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technology studies
collaboration studies
evaluation
design
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Technology studies
• Adaptive structuration: substitution,
enlargement, reconfiguration (Giddens,
Poole, Contractor, …)
• Longitudinal studies
• User response, reception theory
• Ecological analysis (Bruce & Hogan, 1997;
Nardi & O'Day, 1999)
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Collaboration studies
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Social network analysis
Third space
Distributed argumentative activity
Distributed collective practice
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Evaluation
• Need to understand diverse realizations
• Innovation begins with the user
• Technology as a tool for its own recreation
• Situated evaluation (Bruce et al., 1993;
Twidale, 1993)
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Design
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Design inseparable from use
User-centered design
Participatory design (Bjerknes et al., 1987)
Equitable relations (Clark, 1993)
An idea about technology (Menand, 2001)
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DKRC assumptions
• need perspectives/methodologies of
multiple disciplines,
• some knowledge processes can be
distributed across disciplines, time,
institutions, & geography.
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DKRC purpose
• study how knowledge is produced, shared,
negotiated, and co-constructed within
distributed communities, and the ways in
which technologies affect these exchanges
• build knowledge base
• space for collaboration
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Goals for the workshop
• establish stronger ties
• share results of ongoing work
• discuss future collaborations--conferences,
listservs, website
• celebrate accomplishments
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