Toward Virtual Community Knowledge Evolution

• Published in: Journal of management information systems Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 11 - 35
• Main Authors: Bieber, Michael, Engelbart, Douglas, Furuta, Richard, Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, Noll, John, Preece, Jennifer, Stohr, Edward A., Turoff, Murray, Van De Walle, Bartel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.03.2002; M. E. Sharpe; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Communities; Community; Community structure; COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION CONCEPT MAPS CONEY WORDS AND PHRASES CEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES DECISION ANALYSIS DIGITAL LIBRARIES HYPERMEDIA HYPERTEXT KNOWLEDGE EVOLUTION PROCESS MODELING PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES VIRTUAL EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITIES WORKFLOW; Decision analysis; Digital libraries; Hyperlinks; Information storage and retrieval systems; Knowledge; Multimedia materials; Professional associations; Social evolution; Studies; Virtual communities; Virtual networks
• DOI: 10.1080/07421222.2002.11045707
• ISSN: 0742-1222

This paper puts forth a vision and an architecture for a community knowledge evolution system. We propose augmenting a multimedia document repository (digital library) with innovative knowledge evolution support, including computer-mediated communications, community process support, decision support, advanced hypermedia features, and conceptual knowledge structures. These tools, and the techniques developed around them, would enable members of a virtual community to learn from, contribute to, and collectively build upon the community's knowledge and improve many member tasks. The resulting Collaborative Knowledge Evolution Support System (CKESS) would provide an enhanced digital library infrastructure serving as an ever-evolving repository of the community's knowledge, which members would actively use in everyday tasks and regularly update.