Communities and Portals

Lan Zhang

School of Information

University of Texas at Austin

Corporate Portals

Corporate portals Are single-point Web browser interfaces used within organizations to promote the gathering, sharing, and dissemination of the information throughout the enterprise.

Offers organizational users the ability to access a wide variety of information sources directly from the desktop.

(Detlor, 2000)

The traditional approach

Data-driven

Ignores the information needs and practices of users

May have usability problemsPoor navigation

Inappropriate display of information

The potential of corporate portals

“By focusing on user information practice and the contexts in which information is utilized, system developers can provide richer and more robust corporate portals that function as infrastructures for the creation, sharing, and re-use of information throughout the firm.”

Elements

An enterprise taxonomy or classification of information categories

A search engine

Links to both internal and external Web sites and information sources.

Advanced features include Access to work group productivity tools, such as e-mail, calendar, etc.

Shared Information Work Space

A content spaceFacilitates information access and retrieval

A communication spaceNegotiates collective interpretations and shared meanings

A coordination spaceSupports cooperative work action

Theoretical basis

Emphasis on people, the usersInformation seeking vs. information retrieval

Taylor’s value-added model and Information use environment (IUE)

Environment settingsSets of people in these settingsProblems Problem resolutions

Information EcologyHow users operate in their information environment Focus on people and information behavior

Behavioral-Ecological framework

The information ecology of the organization

The information behaviors of users

The value-added processes within a portal

Information Ecology

Analyzing an organization’s information ecology

Organizational mission

Corporate portal goals

Information management plans

Information culture

Information politics

Physical setting

Information staff

Information handling

Information behaviors

Refer to the practices of individuals and groups as they go about obtaining and using information to resolve their work-related problem situations.Who are the users?Structure of the problem situations?How users seek and prefer information?

Value-added processes

Directly support the information behaviors of users

Fit or improve the organization’s information ecology

Incorporate functions and features which enhance the potential usefulness of information to users.

Communities

Internet Communitiesthe gathering of people, in an online "space" where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time.

Communities of Practice (CoPs)“A flexible group of professionals, informally bound by common interests, who interact through interdependent tasks guided by a common purpose thereby embodying a store of common knowledge.” (Jubert, 1999)

Major Community Themes

Development path

Membership

Activities

Organizational support

Value

Benefits

Individual benefitsImproved reputation

A better understanding of others

Increased level of trust

Familiar and supportive environment

Increased access to experts and valuable information sources

Benefits

Community benefitsIncreased idea creation

Increased quality of knowledge and advice, problem solving, and creating a common context

Benefits

Organizational benefitsSuccessfully executed projects

Increased new business, and product innovation

Time saving

Costs

Technology investment

Participation time for community members

Meeting and conference expenses

Content publishing expenses

Promotional expenses

Internet Communities

Computer mediated communication (CMC)

How agents interface to the network

How discourse occurs within community

How resources are discovered and accessed

A punctuated discourse model of CMC

TimesOrigination timeDiscovery timeResponse timeResponse discovery time

AwarenessExtensional awarenessIntensional awarenessResource awarenessChronological awareness

Chronological awareness tools

CHRONO

WebWatch

Katipo

URL-Minder

Motivations for participation in virtual communities

To gain positive self-image

Contribution as an investment in social power

Name recognition from peers

Criteria for successful virtual cooperative interactions

Establishment of resource awareness for initial encounterEstablishment of mutual awareness as a feedback loop for continual virtual cooperative interactionsCompatibility between the expected and the actual time cycles of virtual cooperative interactionsProperly situated expectations of fairness in terms of collective social exchangeAccumulation of positive feedback for reinforcements in virtual cooperative interactions.

Detlor, B. (2000). The corporate portal as information infrastructure: Towards a framework for portal design. International Journal of Information Management, 20(2), 91-101.

Jubert, A., “Developing an infrastructure for communities of practice: the Siemens experience,” Online Information 99 Proceedings, Hinksley Hill, Learned Information Europe, 1999, pp. 165 - 168.

Lee,  L.& Gaines, B. (1996) Knowledge Acquisition Processes in Internet Communities. Proceedings of the 10th Knowledge Acquisition Workshops, Banff, Canada November 9-14, 1996

McDonald, David & Ackerman, Mark. (2000) Expertise Recommender: A Flexible Recommendation System and Architecture. Proceedings of CSCW'00. ACM Press.

Millen, D., Fontaine, M., Muller, M. (2002) Understanding the Benefit and Costs of Communities of Practice. Communications of the ACM. 45(4), 69-73. ACM Press.