From Shared Databases to Communities of Practice: A Taxonomy of Collaboratories

TitleFrom Shared Databases to Communities of Practice: A Taxonomy of Collaboratories
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsBos, Nathan, Ann Zimmerman, Judith Olson, Jude Yew, Jason Yerkie, Erik Dahl, and Gary Olson
JournalJournal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume12
Issue2
Pagination652-672
ISSN1083-6101
AbstractPromoting affiliation between scientists is relatively easy, but creating larger organizational structures is much more difficult, due to traditions of scientific independence, difficulties of sharing implicit knowledge, and formal organizational barriers. The Science of Collaboratories (SOC) project conducted a broad five-year review to take stock of the diverse ecosystem of projects that fit our definition of a collaboratory and to distill lessons learned in the process. This article describes one of the main products of that review, a seven-category taxonomy of collaboratory types. The types are: Distributed Research Centers, Shared Instruments, Community Data Systems, Open Community Contribution Systems, Virtual Communities of Practice, Virtual Learning Communities, and Community Infrastructure Projects. Each of the types is defined and illustrated with one example, and key technical and organizational issues are identified.
URLhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00343.x
DOI10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00343.x
Short TitleFrom Shared Databases to Communities of Practice