Defining Online Collaborative Research
On WorkLiteracy.com, Michelle Martin states, “I believe that we have to start with making people conscious of the fact that they own the most precious resource in just about any organization today–the power of their ideas, social connections and thought processes.”
Folks who collaborate online are more likely to recognize these issues because they confront them withint he process of online collaboration. They confront the issues of:
- who owns the research being jointly created?
- how are decisions made to publish or not publish the joint research?
- since the work can easily be copied, is it acceptable to do so?
We are all researchers today
Online collaborative research is often only thought of within the context of the academic world - students and/or professors working together online. So many more of us are conducting online research with others. Whether professionally or personally, individuals are creating a great deal of research papers these days. Just as with academic research, we all gather data for analytical or argumentative purposes.
In a writing guide for its students, Purdue University explains the importance of knowing which kind of paper one is writing before beginning the research. I am certain we all know what kind of research we are doing, we just do not think about it in such terms. Researching a loved one’s recently diagnosed illness, the researcher is most likely not arguing any one point but rather analyzing the situation. A nonprofit staffer gathering data to support the development of a new program is undoubtedly arguing a particular stance. A financial advisor preparing a competitive analysis for a client is not providing a judgment call but rather providing the most complete information available.
Pros and cons of information availability in all aspects of our lives
Information overload is most often defined in relation to the extreme amount of email individuals receive and struggle to absorb. The 2nd source of information overload is the web. We all understand the availability of information to be a mixed bag. We appreciate that the information we need is most likely available to us but we are frustrated that it may not be readily available to us or easy to retrieve.
Considering knowledge workers are comfortable with the idea of searching for the information they need in their business lives, how can it not translate to their personal lives? If knowledge workers are experiencing information overload in their business lives, one must assume they are also experiencing information overload in their personal lives.
Definition
Online Collaborative Research. It is such a new phenomena, a definition does not exist. One of the benefits of the internet is that others will take the definition and adjust it as they see fit.
In today’s environment, online collaborative research is the online process of gathering, exchanging, and discussing knowledge.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I’m interested in pursuing a question related to this - can doing online collaborative research be a good teaching tool? My colleague Kay Connelly and I received a Computer Research Association/NSF grant to work for a year with 2 undergraduate women students on a multidisciplinary project to see if social networking can increase wii use by senior citizens (!!). We’re just getting started, and it occurred to me that this might be an excellent testbed for examining this. Any thoughts out there?
September 6th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Kalpana,
Are you referring to in person social networking or online social networking? And are you looking at social networking leading to wii use or wii use leading to social networking? My grandfather lives in an assisted care facility in Lima Ohio. One day I call him while I am visiting my parents in Lima and ask if he wants me to pick him up to have dinner at my parents. He tells me yes but to wait a bit to pick him up because he is bowling on the tv. I repeat “bowling on the tv”? My mother hears me and says “he means he is playing wii”. He did not want to miss his wii time. I would say for my grandfather the wii led to social networking. Just as the bingo and the cards do.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Online - The students are actually interested in designing a game that can be played online (i.e., with others) and also by themselves. So we’ll test the game with both kinds of volunteer groups (or same volunteer group with different features; I’ll let you know after we have our first research meeting
).